Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenian Genocide of 1915 happened because Russia had to exit the region.

He said this in an interview with AFP, the transcript of which is posted on Prime Minister’s website. Talking about the prospect of leaving CSTO one day, Nikol Pashinyan said:

“No organization in the world is eternal, and every country makes decisions in accordance with its interests. The issue here is that we had and we still have an issue in terms of the effectivenes of the CSTO and the implementation of its commitments. We have discussed this issue transparently with our partners.

The question is not whether Armenia leaves or will leave the CSTO or not. The question is whether the CSTO is leaving or exiting Armenia. There are many experts in Armenia, independent expers, who regularly send me reports stating that these processes demonstrate that the CSTO is exiting Armenia.

Moreover, there are many experts whose assessment is that Russia is exiting the region. This may seem like a science fiction, but unfortunately, our people have seen this in hostory. After all, a consequence of what was the 1915 genocide of the Armenians, when Russia essentially had to exit the conflicting region under its domestic burden? And the Armenians, that had made a clear geopolitical choice, were left to face Turkey.

And naturally, this analysis has intensified because of an event that recently happened in Russia, an even that we all know very well. True, it lasted one and a half days, but dozens of analytical statements were sent to me during the one and a half days, saying that this is the 1915 scenario.

1915, 1917, 1918 – years of instability in Russia, Russia having to withdraw from the region and the genocide carried against the Armenian people. But now the problem is that in 1915 the Armenian people did not have a state, a statehood that would have the obligation of safeguarding its own people. Now the Armenians have a state, and the policy of the state must be built in accordance with this logic, because the likelihood that one day we will see Iran or Turkey leaving this region is zero, there is no such likelihood, but the likelihood that any geopolitical center which is currently present here, we may wake up one morning and find they have left, that likelihood is greater than zero, not necessarily with the intention of doing harm, not necessarily with the reluctance to carry out their obligations towards anyone, including Armenia”.