Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia did the right thing by voting against the UN resolution on Ukraine's territorial integrity, which does not recognize the results of the referendum in Crimea, said head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D) faction Armen Rustamyan at a briefing today. The Member of Parliament believes that Armenia couldn't not have been in favor of the free will to unite two segments of a nation.
Rustamyan said that the Russian-Georgian War was also initially perceived as aggression, but this perception later changed.
Asked whether he isn't concerned about Ukraine's Armenians, Rustamyan said: "We are concerned about the Armenians in all countries." According to him, the Armenians living in Ukraine must accept the decisions made by the people, and they must be law-abiding citizens.
Head of the Heritage Party faction Ruben Hakobyan, commenting on the resolution vote, said his faction has not yet discussed the matter, but, in his personal opinion, Armenia was guided by the interests of the state.
"I know that you might be surprised. It could've also abstained, but there's no significant difference between 'against' and 'abstain'. I don't think Armenia's vote was made under pressure. I'm not an inquisitor, but it would be incomprehensible if [Armenia] voted in favor," he said, as reported by Yerkir.am [AM].
Ukraine, Europe, and the US, according to Hakobyan, clearly see what is happening in Artsakh. "The same Ukraine recognized Kosovo's independence, but, when it comes to Artsakh, Ukraine is guided by double standards. So why in this case should Armenia be guided by universal human interests?
"There is the question of Artsakh. All those states that voted in favor of Ukraine's territorial integrity, turn a blind eye to the Artsakh question. I'm not interested in which states voted for or against, I am interested in why those universal human values are not applied in connection with Artsakh," he said.
Recall, the UN resolution was supported by 100 countries, while only 11 countries voted against. In addition to Armenia, these countries are Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.