The United Nations’ General Assembly held its annual session Sept. 24-30, 2019 in New York City. The participants were heads of states and high-ranking officials of UN member countries, including Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Surprisingly, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev was absent -- a big mistake on his part!

ADDITIONAL AGENCIES
Foreign Affairs:

First of all I would like to warmly welcome minister Kotzias and his delegation. This is his first visit to Yerevan and we will use the opportunity to have substantial discussions aimed at expanding our bilateral relations in all possible areas. The interstate relations between Armenia and Greece are based on historical bonds of friendship between our nations and we share a lot of commonalities.

The role of Iran in a historical retrospective of the Karabakh issue is very significant. If we look back in the early 19th century, it is necessary to note the fact that the territory of historical Karabakh, which is approximately the area on which now carries out the actual state authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, was at that time in the area of confrontation between the two powers − Russia and Persia. In 1805 the Karabakh khanate along with the vast regions of Eastern Transcaucasia, previously belonged to Persia, passed to the Russian Empire. It was enshrined in the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmanchaisk 1828 treaties between Russia and Persia.

Just when you think you have broken the international name code, they switch the rules on you. Take Latin America. Most people’s names are a combination of the father’s and mother’s, with only the father’s name used in conversation. In the Spanish-speaking countries the father’s name comes first. Hence, Carlos Mendoza-Miller is called Mr. Mendoza. But in Portuguese-speaking Brazil it is the other way round, with the mother’s name first.

"This custom dates back to the Middle Ages, when people were so distrustful of one another that they weren’t above poisoning anyone they perceived as an enemy. As a safeguard, drinkers first poured a bit of wine into each other’s glass, acting as mutual tasters.

Smoking is not considered acceptable inside or at a table almost everywhere in the United States.

If discussing politics is like playing with matches, transgressions in the areas of religion and sex are like playing with live hand grenades. Still, neither area can be ignored. Religion is often an important part of a culture. For Westerners, who are usually Christian-oriented, a respectful conversation about some of the other great religions of the world can be both illuminating and ingratiating.

Taking off one’s hat as a greeting has a long and complex background. Hat removal in history is full of waves and flourishes and all sorts of wiggles and waggles and wriggles of the head gear.

So much of diplomatic life is essentially theatrical, symbolic of the power and prestige of the country it represents. Diplomatic parties and the events diplomats attend are choreographed as carefully as any ritual drama, and dress is an essential part of the mystery.

Black tie, green tails. It was a very proper black-tie affair in Australia’s capital of Canberra. In a sea of ebony dinner jackets and starchy white shirtfronts bobbed a small riot of color – namely, the U.S. ambassador clad in dazzling pea green sports coat and multihued plaid trousers. 

Clearly, mealtime is no time for a thanks-but-no-thanks response. Acceptance of what is on your plate in tantamount to acceptance of host, country, and company. So, no matter how tough things may be to swallow, swallow. Or, as one veteran globe-girdler puts it, "Travel with a cast-iron stomach and eat everything everywhere.”

One decade into the new millennium, we find ourselves immersed in an age of profound interdependence. The global economy and advancing technologies obscure borders and eclipse distances. Now more than ever, we must learn to live together, respecting our differences as we pursue our common goals.

Twenty years ago, Dwight Macdonald published a series of articles in Politics of the responsibilities of peoples, and specifically of intellectuals. I read them as an undergraduate, in the years just after the war, and had occasion to read them again a few months ago. They seem to me to have lost none of their power or persuasiveness, Macdonald is concerned with the question of war guilt. To what extent were the German or the Japanese people responsible for the atrocities committed by their governments?

Propaganda has grown in importance since the start of World War I, albeit fitfully, because, after that time, the motives to reach for it strengthened while the means to employ it multiplied.

LISTENING, RESPECTING AND UNDERSTANDING; all diplomats make it their task to try to grasp the culture, psychology and situation of their country of accreditation.

Diplomats can underestimate their potential impact in contributing to the self-confidence and success of civil society.

Privilege and privation make a strange cocktail, a cup it has been many diplomats’ experience to sip through a long career, though times have changed from the days in the 1940s.

It is protocol for the newly arrived ambassador to call on fellow ambassadors, which I have been doing, assessing the position of the embassies in South Africa and trying to enlist them all to our position.