Personal Presidential Problems in the Caucasus?

Patronizing and bullying may be as abundant as air in the South Caucasus, but does it apply to presidents? Some analysts believe that Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s and Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s alleged mutual bullying might have sparked the 2008 war. According to unofficial reports, Saakashvili made fun of Putin’s short height by calling the Russian leader Liliputin. Putin, reportedly, called the Georgian leader Sabakashvili – “sabaka” means “dog” in Russian.

Now, according to  a report by Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times), which cites “well-informed sources,” Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s presidents might have had a tussle. At a meeting of ex-Soviet countries, a diplomat from each state received an award, as determined by unanimous consensus. Ceremonial decorum, thought Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan and voted yes for Azerbaijan’s candidate. But when it was Armenia’s turn, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said no. Then, according to the source, Sargsyan expressed his disappointment, to which Aliyev responded with his own disappointment about Armenia’s candidate. The two got up and assumed a fighting pose. Russian president Medvedev intervened by saying, “Gentlemen, please!” It stopped, but Aliyev had the last word, “Mark my words, I ain’t finished with you.”

Unsurprisingly, Armenian president’s spokesperson, speaking to Mediamax, categorically denied the report. Notably, very few Azerbaijani news sources, unlike their Armenian counterparts, reported the alleged incident. Was it a matter of damage control by self-censored media or a distrust of Armenian sources?

Indeed, the alleged incident is not consistent with at least another, and more official, report of Aliyev’s and Sargsyan’s relationship. They supposedly  have good rapport and, reportedly, even converse with each other in both Azeri and Armenian. But given the passionate personality of many men in the Caucasus, the report of the stand-off merits some discussion, especially in light of the purported personality cause of the 2008 Georgian-Russian war.

One Armenia-based website, Blog Liberal, documents the spread of the news of the alleged stand-off:

… [Haykakan Zhamanak's] report spread at the speed of light in all famous and not so famous Armenian sites, one being 1in.am which cited “our known sources in Moscow” [instead of citing Haykakan Zhamanak as the source]. According to journalistic ethics, especially when presenting such [sensational] news, it is a must to note the source, whether it’s a website, a newspaper, TV, or a person.  As you can see, there is no citing on any site.

I tried looking up Russian periodicals and Azerbaijani sites, and found no report [on the alleged incident.] And,  here, at the end of the day, Armenian media outlets announced that the incident [report] was, in reality, an absurdity… … I advise Armenian sites to not become victim to the obsession of obtaining high rating at any price, employ logic, and spend the time to verify this or that information.

Unlike Blog Liberal, others don’t completely believe in the Armenian presidential spokesperson’s words that the report was absurdity.

Armenian-American lawyer Haik Grigorian thinks that Armenia’s president should have taken action after the alleged incident. He writes, in part, in Armenian:

…… The Armenian president’s mistake is that he lowered himself to [Aliyev's] level. Instead, he could have stood up and announced — after Aliyev’s stupid step [of voting against Armenia's candidate], that Azerbaijan’s leader doesn’t have essential ethics and that [Armenia] was not impressed by Azerbaijan’s candidate either yet it respected the decorum and process.

A comment in Armenia-based newspaper Chorord Ishkhanutiun (Fourth [Branch of] Government) takes on Aliyev, as well as on Sargsyan:

Of course, Aliyev is a pathological idiot, and if indeed such an incident happened in Moscow, then this is a rare case when the Armenian people should unite in chanting, “Go, Armenia!” On the other hand, given the conflicting parties’ physical characteristics [Aliyev is much taller than Sargsyan - Ed.], Serzh Sargsyan should next time take with him to Moscow [Chief of Police] Vova Gasparyan, [so] that [the latter] plant doping control on Aliyev……

If the Karabakh negotiations are indeed at this level, then we should set aside internal disagreements and elect president [former world arm wrestling champion and Armenia's richest man] Gagik Tsarukyan.

Jokes aside, personalities of politicians matter, and things haven’t been too smooth between Sargsyan and Aliyev. Consider the following that the former said of the latter:

One can’t poison one’s own people every day…… Do you know what pronouncements the president of Azerbaijan made on the Armenian people? [Aliyev said that  “something is missing” in the brains of "these people."] Is it normal to hear such things from a person, let alone a head of state?

And when asked about Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that the liberation of Western Armenia (modern eastern Turkey) is up to the new generations, Aliyev responded: “As a matter of fact, I did not expect anything else from Sargsyan because I have repeatedly met with him.”

If you asked the people of Azerbaijan and Armenia about their own presidents, you wouldn’t hear the nicest things. But during military conflicts, citizens tend to unite around their leader. Sargysan and Aliyev know this. Hopefully, they also know that any personal problems between the two do not merit another war.