Sassounian blasts Armenia's possible appointment of "incapable" U.S. envoy

PanARMENIAN.Net - Publisher of The California Courier Harut Sassounian has weighed in on Armenia's possible appointment of lawmaker Lilit Makunts as Yerevan's ambassador to Washington, D.C., maintaining that "the only hope" is to elect a different Prime Minister after the June vote, who will recall her from the position.

In an interview with MediaLab, Sassounian said he was hoping that acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan would rescind his decision to send Makunts to the U.S., but instead the head of government "is appointing the most inexperienced person to one of the most important positions."

"I regret this decision, but, unfortunately, this is not the only wrong decision that the Prime Minister has made. In the past three years, he has made hundreds, if not thousands of such mistakes. Running a country is not his job, and he can't make the right decisions," Sassounian said.

"It is very unfortunate, especially now, when we have a new government headed by [President Joe] Biden, which wants to develop good relations with Armenia, works with American-Armenians. Now is the right time to have an experienced, capable ambassador."

Sassounian said that Armenia's current ambassador to the United States, Varuzhan Nersesyan, has been working in the position for two years now, and that the Armenian community is pleased with his work. He has established an extensive network of contacts with the Members of Congress, the U.S. government, and he is capable of tackling issues, he added.

The publisher revealed that American Armenians are unhappy with the fact that Pashinyan is changing the ambassador, and that he is replacing "a capable ambassador with an incapable person." Sassounian raised the question of how a new ambassador is going to work with major Armenian-American organizations if they were against her appointment in the first place.

Makunts was named the Minister of Culture in Armenia back in 2018, and later was elected a member of parliament. She confirmed in January that her appointment as the Armenian Ambassador to the United States is on the table. While critics said the lawmaker does not have sufficient experience in diplomatic work for such an appointment, Makunts claimed back then that "in some cases" such experience does not play a "priority role."