12:55,

YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that the West is not telling Armenia to disrupt its ties with Russia or push Russia out.

Pashinyan made the remarks at a press conference when asked to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent remarks claiming that the West is signaling Armenia to push Russia out of its territory in exchange of ensuring security.

“We are not receiving any signals from the West on disrupting relations with Russia or pushing Russia out, we haven’t received such signals and I don’t think such signals would ever happen. Signals can be in relation to the development or course of bilateral relations, which pertains to Russia, among others. I mean that we are discussing our bilateral relations with our Russian partners very transparently. And I believe there is no unclarified point in these talks about our concerns which we have on Russia in the region and the situation in our relations,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan stated that it is Russia’s obligation to keep Lachin Corridor under control by the 2020 ceasefire agreement. The Armenian PM said that the illegal installation of a checkpoint by Azerbaijan on the corridor is a violation of that obligation.

“Russia had, and has to keep this corridor under its control. We’ve previously also talked both publicly and in a working level about the developments in Khtsaberd to Parukh. After all, the trilateral statement noted the existence of the line of contact and the obligations of the Russian peacekeeping forces deployed inside of the line of contact, and we have constantly encouraged, we haven’t created any problems, we’ve helped with whatever we could in order for these obligations to be fully fulfilled,” Pashinyan said.

“The most important factor of our relations are our relations itself, our mutual obligations. To what extent are these obligations being fulfilled? I don’t think the West is restraining someone and not allowing for these obligations to be fulfilled, in the most various sectors, in security, military-technical cooperation, or activities pertaining to peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh. There was a case when a farmer was shot dead in the presence of peacekeepers. And we think that Russia’s response was improper. Moreover, as far as I know, the peacekeepers themselves had convinced that farmer to start working there, telling him they would ensure his security, but he was killed half an hour later. What has the West got to do with it? 90% of our compatriots who are held captive today were taken captive after the deployment of the Russian peacekeepers in their area of responsibility. What’s the West got to do with it?”

Pashinyan noted that there is no agenda of pushing Russia out in the Armenia-EU or Armenia-USA agenda.

At the same time, Pashinyan said that he has started to discuss security issues with Western partners unlike in the past when they believed that security architecture was in place.

“When we see that this security system isn’t functioning the way it should under binding documents, due to objective and subjective reasons, we also discuss security agenda issues with Western and not only Western partners,” Pashinyan said.