The Armenian and Turkish governments said last week that they will try to normalize relations between the two neighboring states and will name special envoys for that purpose.
Ankara went on to choose Serdar Kilic, a career diplomat who served as Turkey’s ambassador to the United States from 2014-2021, for that role. For its part, the Armenian side named Ruben Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the parliament and senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
Rubinian was appointed as a deputy foreign minister following the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. He resigned from that post eight months later after being elected to Armenia’s former parliament.
Rubinian headed the parliament committee on foreign relations until snap general elections held in June this year. In August, he became one of the current National Assembly’s three vice-speakers.
Pashinian has not yet explained his decision to handpick a young loyalist, rather than a professional diplomat, to lead the planned talks with the Turks. The move has been construed by some as a sign of his distrust in the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
Pashinian has replaced two foreign ministers, both of them career diplomats, over the past year. One of them, Ara Ayvazian, signaled serious policy disagreements with the prime minister when he resigned in May. All of Ayvazian’s four deputies also tendered their resignations.
Lawmakers representing the main opposition Hayastan alliance on Monday expressed concern over Pashinian’s choice of the special envoy. They questioned Rubinian’s competence and ability to properly negotiate with his far more experienced Turkish opposite number.
Some Armenian pundits shared the opposition concerns on Tuesday.
“I don’t think that Rubinian is the most brilliant candidate [for the role,]” said Armen Baghdasarian, a veteran political commentator. “Moreover, I believe he can botch any initiative.”
“He is not a diplomat,” warned Ruben Safrastian, a leading expert on Turkey at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. “It will be difficult for him to negotiate with an experienced diplomat like Serdar Kilic.”
Armen Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker from the ruling party, dismissed these concerns.
“You don’t become a parliament speaker, chairman of the parliament committee on foreign relations and a deputy foreign minister at such a young age for no reason,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “This means the guy has that capacity and potential.”
Rubinian refused on Monday to answer questions about his new mission.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that the Armenian and Turkish negotiators will hold their first meeting soon. But he gave no concrete dates.
Cavusoglu also reiterated that Turkey will continue to coordinate its policy towards Armenia with Azerbaijan.
Ankara has for decades refused to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan and kept the Turkish-Armenian border closed out of solidarity with Azerbaijan. It provided decisive military support to Baku during last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
In recent months Turkish leaders have made statements making the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Armenia agreeing to open a land corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. They have also cited Baku’s demands for a formal Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Armenian opposition figures and other government critics say that Ankara is continuing to set unacceptable preconditions for Yerevan. They claim that Pashinian may be ready to accept them.
Baghdasarian echoed those claims. “I also don’t think that Pashinian can clearly define the current agenda of Turkish-Armenian relations because he seems ready to cede practically everything,” he said.