Foreign Relations of Armenia

[Tigranakert]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Common or not common, doesn't matter. "Serjik" or "Serge" is not the way to address a president. I think, as I mentioned above, this has a deeper cause, which lies in the current state of "culture" among Armenians.

[Mos]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Switzerland is becoming a much closer partner for us. (let's not forget their tough stance on Armenian Genocide also):

Serzh Sargsyan: Armenia, Switzerland have potential for boosting cooperation
May 3, 2011 - 18:25 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said that Armenia and Switzerland have great potential for boosting cooperation and expressed interest in full usage of the existing opportunities in economic cooperation.
Sargsyan told a joint press conference with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey that the countries can cooperate in xxxelry and watchmaking industry, as well as agriculture, tourism, culture, science and art.
Sargsyan also expressed gratitude for granting Armenia a status of honorary guest at the Geneva International Book and Press Fair, the RA presidential press service reported.

Armenian-Swiss inter-parliamentary relations discussed in Bern
May 3, 2011 - 17:35 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met in Bern with President of the National Council of Switzerland Jean-Rene Germanier to discuss development of the Armenian-Swiss inter-parliamentary relations.
Mr. Sargsyan expressed hope that the Armenian-Swiss parliamentary friendship groups will contribute to the development of bilateral relations, using methods of parliamentary diplomacy.
The parties attached importance to inter-parliamentary contacts at bilateral level and as part of international parliamentary forums through active collaboration of the two countries’ delegations.
Sargsyan also met with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey. After the meeting, the Presidents summarized its results at a joint press conference, the RA presidential press service reported.

Armenian President meets with Swiss official


May 03, 2011 | 18:09
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting with the President of the National Council of Switzerland Jean-Rene Germanier in the framework of his official visit to Swiss Confederation.

The sides discussed the issues related to development of Swiss-Armenian inter-parliamentary relations expressing hope that parliamentary friendship groups will continue contributing to development of ties between the states, presidential press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. They also stressed importance of inter-parliamentary contacts not only in bilateral format but within the framework of parliamentary assemblies of international agencies as well.

[Federate]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

It just shows the desperate state of our Armenian culture that even most of the "devoted", "patriotic" Armenians in here call our president Serzh Sargisyan, as "Serge". At the same time calling Ilham respectfully by his last name, Aliyev.

Calling Serge Sargsyan "Serge" is not disrespectful at all. On the contrary, when people refer to politicians by their first name, it is a sign of respect and of endearment in the sense that he is one with the people. Maybe in the West and many places it does not work that way but this makes sense to Armenians. We don't refer to Monte Melkonian as "Melkonian", everyone refers to him as Monte. Same with Andranik (do I need to say his last name?), Dro (do I need to say his last name?), Serob (does the average person even know his last name?) etc. The people who follow LTP similarly refer to him as "Levon" because they respect him and think it is endearing to call him that.

In a formal setting, you'd expect everyone to call him "պարոն Նախագահ" as Mos pointed out. Now calling someone like our president "Serjik" is MEANT to be disrespectful. The -ik suffix is to diminish the person's status. Aliyev is referred to as Aliyev because of the simple fact that we don't give two sh!ts about him.

[Tigranakert]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Calling Serge Sargsyan "Serge" is not disrespectful at all. On the contrary, when people refer to politicians by their first name, it is a sign of respect and of endearment in the sense that he is one with the people. Maybe in the West and many places it does not work that way but this makes sense to Armenians. We don't refer to Monte Melkonian as "Melkonian", everyone refers to him as Monte. Same with Andranik (do I need to say his last name?), Dro (do I need to say his last name?), Serob (does the average person even know his last name?) etc. The people who follow LTP similarly refer to him as "Levon" because they respect him and think it is endearing to call him that.

In a formal setting, you'd expect everyone to call him "պարոն Նախագահ" as Mos pointed out. Now calling someone like our president "Serjik" is MEANT to be disrespectful. The -ik suffix is to diminish the person's status. Aliyev is referred to as Aliyev because of the simple fact that we don't give two sh!ts about him.

I totally disagree, I don't see any sign of "respect" by calling a politician by his first name, meaning he is "one" with the people is totally bullxxxx. As I already mentioned, most Armenians lack the even the basic respect for our heroes, if it was in Turkey their pictures would hang all over the place, heck, most of the Armenians don't even know the stories of our heroes. Anyways Armenians have no respect for authority when it comes to other Armenians. As we just got independent, we still have a lot of things that needs to be changed after centuries of living under Turkish/Persian/Soviet control, and this is one of them.

[Federate]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

I totally disagree, I don't see any sign of "respect" by calling a politician by his first name, meaning he is "one" with the people is totally bullxxxx. As I already mentioned, most Armenians lack the even the basic respect for our heroes, if it was in Turkey their pictures would hang all over the place, heck, most of the Armenians don't even know the stories of our heroes. Anyways Armenians have no respect for authority when it comes to other Armenians. As we just got independent, we still have a lot of things that needs to be changed after centuries of living under Turkish/Persian/Russian control, and this is one of them.

Disagree or agree, it's your own personal view/taste and it seems a little "Western" to me . Armenians don't mean disrespect when they call their politicians and heroes by their first names even if to you, it seems like it. I gave you examples, both historical and modern. There is no intent unless they're putting that ridiculous "-ix" suffix.

As for the rest of your comments, I agree there is a lack of knowledge of our heroes stories and history in general. I blame that on 70 years of Soviet anti-nationalist policies and the 20 years we've wasted not fixing it, though.

[Artsakh]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

A beautiful comment someone left on Hurriyet regarding cutting US aid to Armenia:

I invite Armenophobes posting here to put things into perspective. The US has never been anything other than a stranger to Armenia and it has been an active problem for Armenia due to its excessively Turkophile foreign policy since 1947. Private aid from Armenian Americans is more reliable and has been pouring in at around 300 million a year. The US will lose whatever leverage it has in the country; and its place will be taken by Russia, China and Iran. The next time Armenia deals with Iran, the US will not be able to threaten aid cut off. Worse yet, the lack of US involvement there means that future conflicts in Georgia will entail bribing the Laz to smuggle out Americans in contrast to August 2008. In less than 2 years, this decision will be severely regretted, but by then it will be too late.

[Federate]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

A beautiful comment someone left on Hurriyet regarding cutting US aid to Armenia:

I invite Armenophobes posting here to put things into perspective. The US has never been anything other than a stranger to Armenia and it has been an active problem for Armenia due to its excessively Turkophile foreign policy since 1947. Private aid from Armenian Americans is more reliable and has been pouring in at around 300 million a year. The US will lose whatever leverage it has in the country; and its place will be taken by Russia, China and Iran. The next time Armenia deals with Iran, the US will not be able to threaten aid cut off. Worse yet, the lack of US involvement there means that future conflicts in Georgia will entail bribing the Laz to smuggle out Americans in contrast to August 2008. In less than 2 years, this decision will be severely regretted, but by then it will be too late.

Indeed a great post, thanks Artsakh jan.

[Mos]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

A beautiful comment someone left on Hurriyet regarding cutting US aid to Armenia:

I invite Armenophobes posting here to put things into perspective. The US has never been anything other than a stranger to Armenia and it has been an active problem for Armenia due to its excessively Turkophile foreign policy since 1947. Private aid from Armenian Americans is more reliable and has been pouring in at around 300 million a year. The US will lose whatever leverage it has in the country; and its place will be taken by Russia, China and Iran. The next time Armenia deals with Iran, the US will not be able to threaten aid cut off. Worse yet, the lack of US involvement there means that future conflicts in Georgia will entail bribing the Laz to smuggle out Americans in contrast to August 2008. In less than 2 years, this decision will be severely regretted, but by then it will be too late.

It's because of the Armenian lobby that the US is not blatantly anti-Armenian, because face it Armenia stands in the way of its interests in the region. In my view, the anti-Armenian policies stem from their competition with Russia (we are with Russia) thus they will try to counter us. That being said, neither Turkey or Azerbaijan are moving closer to US either, and Georgia after elections will have a much more reasonable foreign policy. The US is losing its grip on the region as the post-independence pro-US fever is subsiding and people looking at the real players in the region (Russia and Iran). The Caucasus is firmly Russia's backyard, and the sooner idiot governments like that of Georgia understand that, the sooner there can be peace and stability.

We should use the US however, but we should not allow them to blackmail us into choosing our foreign policy. It's because of their good buddy Turkey's illegal blockade that we have to intensify economic relations with Iran. So really, it's their call not ours.