Arpine Hovhannisyan: Armenian delegation’s silence in PACE was justified

A number of critical remarks were voiced in Armenia in connection with the refusal of the Armenian delegation to the PACE to address questions to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who made a speech on June 24 at the plenary summer session of the PACE in Strasbourg. In this connection the member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE Ms. Arpine Hovhannisyan analyzed the reasons for that decision on her Facebook page:

“I will try to explain it clearly. The membership of the delegation to PACE also presupposes diplomatic work and diplomatic approaches.

You have the right to ask a question within a few seconds, while the person who answers has limitless time to voice ‘counterarguments’ without waiting for an answer so it is necessary to calculate the factor of efficiency or harm of such a question – regardless of the propriety and quality of the question.

A question cannot and should not be an end in itself. And if it is an end in itself, it is doomed to fail, regardless of its propriety and quality. The Armenian delegation’s silence was well-calculated and, as the situation showed, justified.

The silence was unexpected for Aliyev and resulted in his extremely unbalanced reaction and conduct in response to questions by our European colleagues, which in turn created a very negative impression in the PACE lobby, discrediting, from the very beginning, Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

A silence can be stronger than thousands of words. The Armenian delegation’s silence was well-calculated, justified and efficient. Such a silence should be appreciated.

Silence would also be quite the thing for our Armenian opponents, at least in this case,” Arpine Hovhannisyan wrote.