by David Zenian
Egypt to the Arab and much of the Islamic world is what the United States is to the West, making the Armenian Embassy in Cairo one of the most important, sensitive, difficult and challenging diplomatic posts in the Armenian foreign service.
Cairo is the headquarters of not only the 22-member Arab League, but also the effective focal point for such regional alliances as the 50-member Organization of African Unity and the 46-member Organization of the Islamic Conference.
“There is no way for Armenia to set up diplomatic missions in all these countries, but from Cairo we can be in direct contact with most of them. Cairo is like a super-highway with a tremendous amount of diplomatic traffic,” Armenian Chargé d’Affaires Dr. Edward A. Nalbandian said in a recent interview.
Nalbandian is Armenia’s senior diplomat in Cairo, and given his background and credentials, he should know Egypt’s importance to Armenian diplomacy in the region.
A graduate of Moscow’s State Institute of International Relations and Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Science of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Nalbandian served in the USSR Embassy in Beirut from 1978 to 1983 and after a three-year stint at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, returned to the Middle East as chief of the Information Section of the Cairo Embassy of the USSR, and later Russian Federation, from 1986 to 1992.
“When the Armenian government asked me to take on this post, I said yes without much hesitation. I have been in the Foreign Service for many years, and this was my chance to serve my country,” the 38-year-old career diplomat said.
In the less than a year and a half since assuming his duties in January, 1993, Nalbandian has built the Armenian Embassy into a jewel of a diplomatic mission.
Spread over two floors of a modern apartment building, the Embassy boasts a modest reference library, a cultural center, and an information office along with the other political departments of a diplomatic mission.
With Nalbandian at the helm, the Embassy has attracted a group of about a dozen young Egyptian-Armenian professionals who volunteer endless hours every week to help the three-man staff produce a newsletter, cultural events, lectures, film showings and major public functions.
One such event in November last year was the Aram Khatchaturian Festival under the patronage of the Armenian Embassy, the Cairo Opera House, the National Cultural Center and the Friends of Armenian Culture in Cairo.
Co-sponsored by the AGBU, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra performance, conducted by Emin Khatchaturian and featuring pianist Svetlana Navasardian and violinist Ruben Aharonian, was attended by more than 1,200 people.
“We have not seen such an Armenian function in this city. Everything from the choice of music, to the program booklet to the guest list ... it was just perfect,” recalled one of those who was present at the performance.
“It was planned as a cultural event but it also made a political statement. In effect, it told the diplomatic community in Cairo that Armenia had an active and dynamic embassy here. The evening gave the embassy recognition, sort of an act de presence,” Nalbandian said.
If the Khatchaturian Festival was a major success, the weekly film showings at the Embassy’s cultural section are also a hit. Videotapes of such works as the Gayané Ballet, the Anoush Opera and a string of Armenian films are shown on a large TV screen to a small but loyal group of enthusiasts who come to the Embassy every week.
“We have a very strong core group, but I would like to see more people involved. I’d also like to see more Armenians from Egypt visiting Armenia,” Nalbandian said with a smile.
According to most recent statistics covering the first 12 months of business, the Embassy has granted only four visas to Armenians. “Heightened awareness and involvement in the Embassy’s work will increase reciprocal visits,” Nalbandian said.
A tour of the Embassy reinforces Nalbandian’s hopes. The reception area, the video room, the library and every other corner of the premises are meticulously maintained. The reference library is professional and includes not only books and periodicals, but also up to date, neatly filed and indexed news reports about the situation in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
Visitors can browse through files full of unclassified information and several shelves of books on Armenia, including literate works and a number of newspapers and periodicals.
Thanks to his diplomatic contacts, Nalbandian has secured access to several primary news sources and other reports which are essential for the smooth operation of a foreign mission.
“Our weekly Press Release was recently chosen by the diplomatic community in Cairo as number two among similar publications. First place went to a publication put out by the American Embassy in Cairo.” It is not just an information tool, but a forum introducing Armenia to the diplomatic community and the media,” Nalbandian said.
“Given the unreliability of the local postal service, and the cost of faxing 10 pages to 160 addresses, volunteers from the Armenian community have taken it upon themselves to hand deliver most of the copies to such key places as the Egyptian Presidency, the Foreign Ministry, and 78 foreign embassies in Cairo.
“I just cannot thank our volunteers enough,” Nalbandian said.
But there is more to the work of the Armenian embassy in Cairo than meets the eye. Thanks to the “excellent relations between Cairo and Yerevan”, the Egyptian Ministry of Industry and Mineral Wealth and the Armenian Ministry of Light Industry have signed a key protocol of intentions opening up vast avenues of cooperation between the two countries.
Among other clauses, the protocol includes the first steps by the two countries granting each other the status of most favored nation, reciprocal trade offices in Yerevan and Cairo, direct flights between the two capitals, and the establishment of Chambers of Industry and Commerce.
As a tangible sign of the ever-improving relations, Egypt became the first Arab country to open a full-scale Embassy in Yerevan and extend a helping hand to Armenia.
In the first year of diplomatic relations, Egypt has already sponsored several separate training sessions for young diplomats and other civil servants from Armenia. “The first group included eight trainees from the Armenian Foreign Ministry who spent five months here attending classes and seminars on diplomacy. The second group of five joined a seven-week all expenses paid special training course and a new group of four is coming soon to train at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism,” Nalbandian said.
“Egypt is very important for Armenia. We have the best of relations. We are very sensitive to Egyptian policy toward Armenia because we are convinced that any step taken by Egypt today will be followed by a large number of Arab and Islamic states tomorrow.”
Nalbandian did not elaborate, but analysts linked the absence of an all out and openly pro-Azerbaijan policy by Arab and Islamic states to Egypt’s moderating influence and even-handed policy on the thorny issues surrounding the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
“If Egypt throws its political weight behind Azerbaijan for religious considerations, the rest of the Arab and Islamic world will not only condemn the so-called Armenian aggression but also impose sanctions. Such action will shut down air traffic over Iran and thus put an end to the lucrative business between Armenia and several Arab Gulf states,” an analyst said.
It was thanks to his Egyptian contacts that Nalbandian was able to travel to an Islamic conference in Pakistan to present a letter from Armenian President Levon Ter Petrossian . “It was a very useful visit,” Nalbandian reported.
Sources familiar with the trip say Nalbandian flew to Pakistan with the official Egyptian delegation, but was given a cold shoulder by both the local authorities and the organizers of the Islamic Conference until he gathered a few journalists around him in the hotel lobby and told “his side of the story” which was published in the next morning’s newspapers.
“A few hours after the newspapers hit the streets with the Nalbandian story, the Conference organizers granted him an audience, and President Ter Petrossian’s letter reached its proper destination,” one source privy to events in Pakistan said.
