This photo is so telling… with the members of the Turkmenistan delegation carefully writing down everything, while the Armenian officials look like they don’t give a damn.
Artur Papyan
Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant
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I read this photo entirely differently. The Turkmen officials are putting on a show, just as it seems to be a regular aspect of public life in Turkmenistant. See, for example, this news report from a few years ago – https://youtu.be/GIYeGcjHuIs?t=1m30s.
Isn’t it rather unnatural to have your president speak to you via video-conference, and you are taking down notes with pen and paper? I speculate that the officials are just jotting down random things or doodling. I don’t take this to be a sign of attention, but of disorganisation, artificiality, or flattery.
I cannot say how attentive or diligent the Armenian officials generally are, but for a public protocol meeting like this, for the press, their behaviour seems much more natural to me. If they went to a private meeting with a senior or lower bureaucrat to discuss some public issue and then did not come with notes or did not take notes, I would be more worried.
Well, to be frank, me too… I was just being sarcastic!