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The original was posted on /r/armenia by /u/ar_david_hh on 2024-10-02 23:05:34+00:00.
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PM Pashinyan about Armenia’s foreign policy
QUESTION: Lately we strengthened relations with the West, upgraded the strategic relations with Georgia, maintained great relations with Iran, and established serious military-political ties with India, but major issues remain with Russia which is why your critics accuse you of having a non-complementary one-sided foreign policy “not beneficial for Armenia”. What’s your response?
PASHINYAN: Indeed our foreign policy is not “complementary”; we have adopted a “balanced” foreign policy. There is a separate layer of regional dimension, and we observe our regional-level issues in global AND regional contexts. When we made the decision to participate in the regional 3+3 meetings, we were criticized [by pro-West factions] for it, but today I can confidently say that we made the right decision to take part in regional discussions; this is part of our foreign policy’s regional dimension. Our relations with Iran are “natural” and not a result of “political decisions”. The same is true about our strategic relations with Georgia, and our policies are also aimed at normalizing relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan.
For too many years, our politicians placed the full burden of protection on our soldiers, including the burden of foreign policy. Everything was dumped on our soldiers’ shoulders. This is unacceptable. For too many years, the “complementary” foreign policy was viewed as the “guarantee” for protection.
In reality, there is only one guarantee for security: peace and normal relations with neighbors. There can be no other security guarantees. There are no external guarantees. Do you still believe external guarantees exist after all we have gone through? We must guarantee our own security not only with the help of our military but also with our policies, our economy, our mindset, and our ability not to fall for manipulations and provocations.
I believe we have placed Armenia on the right foreign policy track. We do not actively reject any relations in any direction [Russia], but in certain directions [West] our relations develop more actively. //
Armenia’s foreign minister again accuses Russia of failing to take action against Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia; says Armenian society prefers European Union
WARSAW FORUM HOST: Russia used to hold its hand over Armenia in this conflict, but stood by when the Azerbaijani offenses came last year. Has this pushed Armenians away from Russia possibly towards Europe?
FM MIRZOYAN: It’s not a secret anymore that there is a huge frustration in Armenian society regarding Russia, Russia’s assistance and alliance with Russia because for decades people of Armenia thought that if something like this happened Russia would help us, would protect us. The people of Armenia saw that this is not the case, we don’t get assistance, moreover, you know that after the war of 2020, Russian peacekeepers were sent to Nagorno-Karabakh to ensure the security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, and we saw that during this forced displacement the peacekeeping mission did not work, did not justify itself.
Moreover, we are a formal member of the CSTO with Russia and other countries, and when we had attacks on our internationally recognized borders we saw that again neither Russia nor our formal allies from CSTO did not react, at least their reaction was not fitting with our expectations. So of course this created a huge frustration. Now people in Armenia are considering some other options.
And on the topic connected with democracy: we truly believe in democracy and understandably this brings us closer to the EU, to the US, so in the context of the values of the society, we have been close to the EU, to the Western countries. In the context of security, psychologically the people of Armenia were connecting themselves to Russia. Now this second component is crushed and people don’t see any other reason not to fully tie themselves with the EU. //
Armenia’s non-parliamentary pro-West parties have already gathered 28,000 signatures to ask the parliament to consider organizing a non-binding referendum to encourage the Government’s pro-EU direction
They have gathered 55% of the 50,000 signatures in two weeks. The deadline is November 14.
The organizers are facing technical issues with the collection of signatures: մարդիկ ունեն միայն հին նմուշի նույնականացված քարտերով ստորագրելու հնարավորություն, այն էլ, երբ կա ընթերցող սարք:
The organizers are satisfied with the level of interest and hope the interest will only increase so they can hit the target in October.
REVOLUTION IS UNDERWAY (again)
The pro-Russian forces, led by Archibishop Bagrat Galstanyan, have resumed the street protests to oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
On Wednesday as many as 2,000-200,000 people gathered in Republic Square. The crowd moved to the public television headquarters where Bagrat demanded airtime. He was granted uninterrupted airtime followed by an interview. He vented about the Pashinyan administration and spoke about the need to remove them.
U.S. military intelligence official visits Armenia
NatSec Armen Grigoryan hosted Patrick Prior, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s Chief of Europe and Eurasia Regional Center.
Grigoryan lauded the partnership that has been formed as a result of the close bilateral cooperation between Armenia and the United States.
Grigoryan presented the reforms aimed at the modernization of Armenia’s security system.
The sides discussed regional security and the extra-regional security environment.
Azerbaijan lacks political will to sign the peace treaty with Armenia: foreign minister of Armenia
FM MIRZOYAN (in Warsaw): There is almost a final draft of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan, but it has not been signed as Azerbaijan puts forward new preconditions every time. We see that they do not want to sign the treaty. Azerbaijan claims that much remains to be agreed upon, but there is no single document in the world that would include all issues. We can sign the document and continue working on the remaining issues. Over the past two-three years, a huge work has been done despite all the challenges, escalations, and attacks on the territory of Armenia, Armenia is in a constructive mood during the negotiations.
“We continue to review alleged violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses in Nagorno-Karabakh”: deputy foreign minister of U.S.
Dafna Rand, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, during the Warsaw forum.
DAFNA: [Talks about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and war crimes.] We will continue to work within the OSCE and through other international efforts to address international law concerns arising elsewhere in the region. We continue to review alleged violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses in Nagorno-Karabakh.
We all have a stake in ensuring the protection of the most vulnerable during conflicts. We stand with Ukraine and all those across the OSCE working for a just and lasting end to conflicts consistent with the UN Charter and to ensure that those who have violated international law are held to account. //
In response, Azerbaijan accused the U.S. of “pro-Armenian bias”.
Qatar Airways cancels all flights to Armenia an…
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