BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 18. While President Ilham Aliyev is representing Azerbaijan at the World Economic Forum, Armenia again remains on the sidelines. The platform that gathers major business and political leaders, has not invited Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan to participate, which, apparently, greatly outrages the Armenian public.
It should not come as a surprise that Azerbaijan's position on the world stage is stronger than Armenia's.
Armenian political commentator Ambartsum Kabanyan recently spoke about Armenia's place on the global arena, blaming the problems on the country's currently terrible economic situation.
“Armenia needs to change something in order to survive. The World Economic Forum in Davos is a good platform for this,” he noted.
The invitation never came.
Kabanyan continues by saying that last year Pashinyan wasn't in Davos either.
"The government did not name the reasons why the visit was not carried out. And in the dry residue we have another stupidity of the government, which has isolated itself from the most important processes in the world, from one of the world's main economic and political get-togethers. And then we all wonder why Azerbaijan's position is more heard and accepted in the world,” he complains.
Meanwhile, President Ilham Aliyev has already arrived in Davos to participate in the forum and has already held and continues to hold important meetings with the heads of influential companies who are interested in continuing fruitful cooperation with Azerbaijan. Such meetings bring very significant results and further strengthen Azerbaijan's position.
Pashinyan not being on the list of invitees means that the world community considers Armenia having no regional, much less global significance, thus no need for any extra guests.
Armenia is a country, which for almost 30 years has only kept 20 percent of the territories of its neighbor Azerbaijan under occupation, led destructive policy, which hindered the development of the South Caucasus as a region, threatened transport and trade links through the region.
Furthermore, people in Armenia are aware of all this - they know exactly the reason for such attitude from the international community.
Even Armenian political analysts begin to realize that Azerbaijan has long established itself as a promising, reliable partner with which one want to do business with, to talk, and, most importantly, with which there is something to talk about. Today, amid the global crisis, Azerbaijan strengthens its position in the region and becomes an important partner for many. With the reconstruction process in the liberated territories going on, the country develops its critical transport and energy infrastructure. And, moreover, this is not just for the benefit of Azerbaijan itself. Other players in the region and beyond will make great use of it.
Thus, Azerbaijan’s participation in the Davos Forum is completely natural. Azerbaijan's experience in conflict resolution, unique experience in the reconstruction of post–conflict territories, expertise in the field of energy and transport, successful economic growth within the country - all this will certainly be of interest to the forum participants.