LOYALTY REASSURANCE: ARMENIA SAYS COMMITTED TO ALLIED RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA DESPITE RECENT COMPLAINTS
ANALYSIS | 09.04.15 | 10:32
By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent
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The invitation to Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian to pay an official
visit to Moscow was considered by many experts as an expression of
concern of Russia over the estimations of Armenian-Russian relations
heard from Yerevan.
During the visit on April 7-8 Minister Nalbandian provided new
assurances about Armenia’s loyalty to friendship with Russia and to
the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. President Serzh Sargsyan did
the same from Yerevan in an interview with Russia 24 TV. But Sargsyan
also made an important point. “With efforts of all sides, respect for
each other, including for the sovereignty of each other, the Eurasian
Economic Union will be beneficial to all,” he said on Monday.
This is not the first attempt by the Armenian president in the past
few months to remind Russia about the interests of Armenia. A few
weeks earlier he spoke about the inadmissibility of Russian arms sales
to Azerbaijan, saying that if the Armenian soldier on the border with
Azerbaijan realizes that he is being shot from weapons of Russian make,
then it affects the relations between the two countries.
Problems with the sovereignty were exposed after the tragic incident
in Gyumri on January 12 when soldier of the Russian military base in
Armenia Valery Permyakov allegedly massacred a seven-member Armenian
family. The Russian side still refuses to hand Permyakov over to
Armenian justice and he is likely to be tried by a Russian court.
Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, who visited Armenia
last week, said that the trial of the soldier will be held in the
territory of Armenia, but at the Russian base. This triggered a new
wave of accusations against Russia, which, in fact, disregards the
Constitution and sovereignty of Armenia, and suspicions that Moscow
is hiding something.
A scandal threatens another major area of Armenian-Russian relations
– natural gas supplies. The interim parliamentary commission on
gas issues established more than a year ago this week read out
its conclusions. The chairman of the committee, ruling Republican
Party of Armenia representative Vardan Ayvazyan said that nothing
“criminal” was found in the actions of the Russian Gazprom company,
the text of the conclusion, as well as the heated debate testified
to the opposite. In Armenia, there is even talk about the probability
of revising gas contracts with Russia.
Against this background, the personal relations of the presidents
of Armenia and Russia look more than strange. Sargsyan has long not
met in person with Putin – he does not attend meetings of Eurasian
Economic Union leaders, he does not make traditional visits to Moscow.
The issue of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in Yerevan
for the event marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide
has not been yet solved completely.
“In the near future there will be a visit of Russian President
Vladimir Putin to Armenia to participate in events connected with
the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,” Armenian Foreign
Minister Nalbandian said at a joint press conference with his Russian
counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.
“We also touched on the preparation of this visit. Our presidents
will have an opportunity to meet again in May already during the
events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory [in the Great
Patriotic War] in Moscow,” he added.
Remarkably, no exact dates of the visits of Putin and Sargsyan have
been indicated yet. Some analysts do not exclude that Putin will
come to Armenia not on April 24, but on a different day. Accordingly,
it is not known whether Sargsyan will go to Moscow on May 8 for the
Summit of the Eurasian Union and whether he will attend the May 9
Victory Day parade in the Red Square in Moscow. In his interview with
Russia 24 Sargsyan ambiguously said that “of course we will attend
the Victory Day events.”