ArmInfo. In case a decision is made on Armenia joining the Allied State as "nominal Tatarstan" or "nominal Buryatia", no one is going to inquire about Armenia's opinion, Stepan Safaryan, Head of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), said in an interview with ArmInfo.
"All the talks about choosing between bad and worse are surprising. This opinion will turn into a real disaster for our society and people. We must not surrender our hard-won nationhood, sovereignty and freedom – albeit relative – to anyone," Mr Safaryan said.
According to him, the Armenian elite and society should focus on how they could prevent such developments. Therefore, discussions should be focused on the ways of retaining and strengthening Armenia's statehood, not on renouncing it. Mr Safaryan considers wrong the parallels between the Allied State and the EU drawn by Armenia's ex-president Robert Kocharyan. In this context, he notes that comparing an economic structure with a supranational Allied State is at least irrelevant. The recent action in support of the war in Ukraine, attended by several dozens and, later, many more people, is extremely detrimental to the Armenian state. The videos of the event on social media cause a surprise in Europe and in the entire civilized world, particularly in the context of a nation that survived a genocide and suffered the consequences of the Turkish-Azerbaijani fascism.
"And Azerbaijanis and Turks are sure to take advantage of this by drawing parallels between Armenian and Russian expansionism, to say nothing of even more unfavorable comparisons. By means of social networking bots they will cause the collective West to form an opinion of Armenians in the interests of Armenians' foes. Their specific goal is showing general approval of the war in Ukraine in Armenia's society, and they are achieving it step by step. Simultaneously, the agenda of destroying Armenia's statehood has been put into circulation in the media environment," Mr Safaryan said.