BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 3
By Jani Babayeva – Trend:
The Armenian leadership must recognize the UN Security Council’s resolutions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and sit down at the negotiating table instead of continuing to drive its citizens to the slaughter, counting on someone else's help, Member of the Russian State Duma, head of the Russia-Azerbaijan Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group Dmitry Savelyev told Trend.
Savelyev was commenting on the appeal of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to begin consultations to determine the type and amount of assistance that the Russian Federation can render to Armenia.
Savelyev stressed that Russia is a generous country that readily supports the countries that are in good-neighborly and partner relations with it.
“Thus, we supply the Russian gas to Armenia on favorable terms, by twofold cheaper than to the European countries,” member of the State Duma said.
“More than half a million Armenian citizens got the opportunity to visit Russia to find a job, assisting their families living in Armenia,” a member of the State Duma said. “The number of individual money transfers from Russia to Armenia amounted to over $1 billion in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Armenia became the third country in terms of the number of test systems and reagents received from Russia for laboratory diagnosis of coronavirus.”
“In response to this, the Armenian government has been recently strengthening the relations with the West while with Russia creating more and more prerequisites for the emergence of tension,” a member of the State Duma said.
“I will name just a few situations in which the Armenian leadership behaved unfriendly towards Russia, namely, the rallies in front of the Russian military base in Gyumri with aggressive banners "Russian army - get out of Armenia!", the initiation of criminal cases against subsidiaries of Russian companies - Gazprom Armenia and the South Caucasus Railway, the participation of the Armenian Armed Forces in joint military exercises with the NATO, being a member of the CSTO, and the recent restriction of the broadcasting of Russian TV channels in Armenia,” member of the State Duma said.
“The erection of a monument to the Nazi - accomplice of the fascists Garegin Nzhdeh in the center of Yerevan became a slap for those who gained a victory over Nazi Germany in a terrible war, including the Armenian soldiers who fought against the Nazis in the ranks of the Soviet army," member of the State Duma said.
Savelyev added that the hypocrisy of Armenian politicians was once again confirmed in the appeal of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the Armenian side asks to determine the type and amount of the Russian assistance to ensure Armenia’s security.
"In fact, this appeal is nothing more than another attempt to drag Russia into the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as the hostilities are not held on the territory of Armenia, Azerbaijan does not intend to seize the Armenian lands,” a member of the State Duma said. “Neither Russia nor the CSTO has any grounds to render military aid to Armenia.”
“In my opinion, Armenian politicians must understand the obvious thing,” Savelyev added. “Hostility and friendship cannot coexist in interstate relations at the same time. There are enough more pressing problems in Armenia than participation in military adventures. People are suffering from growing economic problems. Food prices are growing. The country ranked fourth in the world on the number of fatal cases from coronavirus in terms of 100,000 inhabitants.”
“The Armenian leadership should recognize the UN Security Council’s resolutions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and sit down at the negotiating table instead of continuing to drive its citizens to the slaughter, counting on someone else's help,” Savelyev said.