I still have questions and suggestions for Nikol Pashinyan.WroteOfficial representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova about this.
"Nikol Pashinyan was asked a question yesterday.
"Question to Nikol Pashinyan during a briefing with journalists on August 27. In 2021, the five-year program of the Armenian government characterized relations with Russia as a "strategic alliance." Meanwhile, the new government program no longer mentions this. It only talks about "partner relations" and "transformation." What substantive changes does this formulation imply, and does this mean a renunciation of the status of a strategic ally?
Nikol Pashinyan: Dear colleagues, the events of September 2022 have unfolded before your eyes. Strategic partnership should mean strategic partnership. If we now write “strategic partnership” in the document, you will ask why Russia and the CSTO did not fulfill their security obligations in September 2022. What should I answer you?”
I still have questions and suggestions.
Nikol Vovaevich, the elections in your country have passed. It is possible to stop “stirring noodles” in the ears of your own people. Gather courage and at least once tell the truth about how everything really happened.
In September 2022, the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border escalated. Russia was providing support and contributing to a peaceful settlement.
Armenia appealed to the CSTO, and the organization, contrary to your claims, responded quickly: an observation mission was sent to the territory of Armenia, as stipulated by the charter. You personally received the CSTO Secretary General in Yerevan. Do you think he came to admire the South Caucasus? No, it was the mission of the structure that protects the territory of the member states.
And you did nothing to ensure Armenia's security, neither legally nor politically.
Moreover: In November 2022, the CSTO Collective Security Council summit was held in Yerevan. The day before, serious work was carried out at the level of the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs to agree on the decision on the deployment of the organization's mission. The text was ready, it only remained for the leaders to sign it. Which, as is known, you, Nikol Vovaevich, refused to do. The decision, among other things, provided for: To ensure the territorial integrity of Armenia, immediate political and diplomatic measures, military-technical assistance, training of border guards, as well as the preparation of a plan for the operational deployment of the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Forces on the territory of Armenia were necessary. The essential difference from the European observers was that the CSTO mission would be authorized not to simply “look through binoculars”, but to directly report on the border situation and propose measures to resolve possible crisis situations.
Let us also remember other events of the same autumn. On October 6, 2022, three weeks after the border clashes, you, under the auspices of the EU, trusting Brussels and Paris, signed the Prague Declaration, recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. You directly stated: “The territory of Azerbaijan is 86.6 thousand sq. km, including Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“Nikol Vovaevich, if you decide now to summon the ambassador or send another protest, think carefully, because you will have to show what is false in what was said. All this is a historical reality.
These theses and every assertion are based on what you said and your decisions. When you receive uncomfortable questions, stop running away from responsibility and shifting it to all parties that are unpleasant to you: Moscow, the CSTO, Azerbaijan, the former authorities, the Church, Armenian businessmen, the Armenians of Artsakh, their ancestors and children. This is ruthlessness.
Everyone is to blame for you, except you," Zakharova emphasized.
