Epress.am News from Armenia
Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) doesn’t appear in the contract to extend Russia’s military base in Armenia, NKR isn’t a territory of the CSTO states, and more so, NKR is found in a state’s territory that bluntly states in its defense security doctrine that it’s Armenia’s enemy, said Heritage Party Vice Chair Ruben Hakobyan during a joint press conference today with Heritage Party parliamentary faction head Stepan Safaryan.
Hakobyan said that it’s utterly unclear how NKR can be protected with this agreement.
According to the party vice chair, the news about Russia’s sale of C-300 missile devices to Azerbaijan appeared simultaneously, which, according to Hakobyan, is considered a fact in Azerbaijan, while Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov almost didn’t deny the deal: “It should be noted that this is being sold by our military ally; the seller is also saying that he’s selling to [his] other military ally.”
Hakobyan also stressed that Azerbaijan is becoming invulnerable in its defense system and, according to him, “If military actions connected to Artsakh [NKR] take place tomorrow, it’s understandable that Armenia must participate, and naturally, those military arms must be used against Armenia.”
The Heritage Party vice chair doesn’t believe that the term’s extension stems from Armenia’s interests; however, he added that it’s too early to give a final assessment on the signed contract.
Safaryan, in turn, asked, why now and why 49 years? “We would’ve understood extending the contract of the military base if Russia had recognized Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence, if Azerbaijan had issued quite serious threats, we would’ve understood that it’s in that state that Russia is going to protect its military ally, Armenia, from the expected dangers.”
In Safaryan’s opinion, there will be people in Armenia who’ll be dissatisfied by the contract, which, according to him, some attempted to identify with anti-Russia hysteria.
On the C-300 sale, Safryan said that if it takes place, Russia “will oust [Armenia] from the arena of strategic partnership and from the domains of the Collective Security Treaty.”