PM Pashinyan: Turkey Needs to Change Its Aggressive Policy Towards Armenia

YEREVAN — Turkey needs to give up its aggressive policy towards Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with Russian news agency Interfax in response to a question about to what extend the current process of establishing economic ties in the region depends on the political factor, including the normalization of relations with Turkey.

Pashinyan recalled that the Armenian-Turkish border was unilaterally closed by Turkey back in 1993, and Armenia has always advocated the unconditional normalization of relations with Turkey, but this was rejected by Turkey itself.

“Armenia has always advocated the normalization of relations with Turkey without preconditions, but this was rejected by Turkey itself. Such a hostile policy of Ankara gained new scope during the 44-day aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh. In particular, Turkey provided Azerbaijan with direct military-political and military-technical support, having also transferred foreign armed terrorist fighters to the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Pashinyan said.

“In this context, in order to establish a lasting peace and restore the economic image of the region, Turkey needs to change this aggressive policy towards Armenia,” Pashinyan said.
On the subject of Armenian-Russian relations Pashinyan stated that it does not depend on the outcome of future parliamentary elections.

“The Armenian-Russian strategic allied relations are quite rich and extensive. They are based on the historical proximity of our friendly peoples. The nature of these relations does not depend on the outcome of future early elections,” PM Pashinyan said.

Asked whether Armenia plans to continue purchasing Russian weapons, he said: “Armenia is focused on broad and long-term military-technical cooperation with the Russian Federation, which follows from the long-term strategic interests of the two states.”

“Taking into account that, in accordance with interstate bilateral agreements, two Armenian-Russian groupings have been created on the territory of the Republic of Armenia – the United Group of Forces and the United Regional Air Defense System in the Caucasian region of collective security, and, in addition, both countries are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, it is clear that Armenia is extremely interested in supplies from Russia in order to have a modern and compatible weapons and ammunition,” the Prime Minister noted.

“For the same reasons, we are also interested in the delivery of weapons and ammunition to Armenia in the same configuration as for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, “he added.