Leaving Armenia with optimism

On Saturday 5 September I leave Yerevan for the last time.  I’ll be transforming back into a normal person after 3+ years of being driven around (thanks Edik and Aram) with a Union Jack on the car bonnet.  It’s been a privilege to represent Her Majesty’s Government in this young/old nation; to meet such a great range of interesting and committed people; and, I hope, to make a difference.   My great team in the Embassy and my wonderful colleagues at the British Council deserve enormous thanks for inspiring and supporting me.

What are my highlights?

– showing that being a Team Ambassador can work brilliantly.  Early on in our posting, one of our contacts said:’ Team Ambassador…hmmm,  only the British would have thought of that’.

‘I’ll take that as a compliment’, I said – and indeed, I hope we’ve managed to show that being innovative, even in so traditional a field as diplomacy, can really deliver advantages.

– loads of important visitors.  Along with Ministers, senior diplomats and parliamentarians, the Prince of Wales was able to come on a private visit.

His Royal Highness has spoken passionately about the importance of the ancient Christian communities in the wider Middle East and was able during this visit tosee some of Armenia’s most beautiful churches and priceless manuscripts.

– banging the drum for NATO-Armenia relations.  I’ve been so impressed by Armenia’s commitment to international peacekeeping – outdoing many NATO Allies.  And a real highlight was inviting the NATO Special Rep for Women, Peace and Security – Ambassador Marriet Schuurman – to Yerevan this year to celebrate the MOD’s first female officer cadet recruits.  This autumn we will be sending our first Armenian female officer cadet to Sandhurst, the UK’s elite officer training academy.  I have found Armenia a serious, committed partner on peacekeeping and defence reform – I hope we can do more.

– backing British business.  We had our first trade mission for many years, an expanding Armenian-British Business Chamber and two years of ‘GREAT British Autumn’ events, including putting ‘Shopping is GREAT’ on Yerevan’s double decker bus last autumn.  Our trade figures are up, the UK-based mining company, Lydian, has the go-ahead to invest over £300m in a new mine, business enquiries and active leads have increased. And did you know that my favourite new building, the Dilijan International School, was designed by a British architect?

– promoting Responsible Mining.  Mining can be done right – but doing it right starts with dialogue: talking to communities, talking to NGOs, talking to government and industry, and earning their trust.  Responsible Mining can transform mining into an industry which benefits rather than blights local communities.  I’m delighted the Prime Minister has agreed that Armenia will join the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).  But financial transparency itself is not enough – stakeholder collaboration and strictly monitored environmental and social standards have to be put at the heart of each operation.

– warming up the Lord Byron School in Gyumri.  This school – built by British donations from the public, business, diaspora and government after the 1988 earthquake – had suffered for years with a broken heating system.

With help from the Tekayan Trust and a whole bunch of generous donors in the UK and Armenia, we installed a new heating system in 2013 – and said thank you to the committed headmaster and teachers who have kept up the school’s excellent English teaching in very difficult circumstances.

– creativity is ‘Unlimited’.  I hope you saw the brilliant, moving, witty performance by Armenia’s first inclusive dance group – ‘Unlimited’ – made up of dancers with and without disabilities, supported by the British Council.  We all need reminding that sometimes the biggest barriers are the ones in our minds.

– promoting remembrance and reconciliation.  I was honoured to represent Great Britain at the centenary commemorations in Yerevan in April 2015, and to hear Israeli and Turkish scholars – and a Rwandan genocide survivor – talk about the importance of remembrance, and the extraordinary possibility, after such horrors, of reconciliation.  In Europe, the European Union is itself an example of the transformative power of reconciliation.  The EU has brought unimagined prosperity and democracy to the continent after 80m deaths in two devastating World Wars.  To celebrate this and commemorate the WW1 centenary, in November 2014 we held a joint service of remembrance with the German Embassy, and I paid my respects, with the German Ambassador, at the German WWII war graves in Yerevan.

We also recreated the famous ‘Christmas Truce’ football match from December 1914, when British and German soldiers exchanged gifts and played football (in Yerevan the Germans beat us 6-1, alas).  In the South Caucasus, we have spent many years bringing people from different sides of different closed borders together.   Person by person, I hope we are making a difference; closed borders must not mean closed minds.  I am convinced this is essential preparation for the moment when politicians of all sides are ready to face the difficult compromises needed for peace and reconciliation.

I’ve been lucky my children have been able to call Armenia home for over three years.  And I leave Armenia optimistic about its people – and therefore optimistic about the future of the country.  There are some real challenges ahead: navigating difficult,  unpredictable economic waters; reforming an ageing energy system; making decisions about constitutional reform and conducting a referendum whose result must have the confidence of the public; and most important, finding a way to unblock a peace deal on NK.

But Armenia’s story is a two thousand year old story of extraordinary resilience and survival.  I can’t wait to come back to see what happens next.