'We are not Russia's ally' in war against Ukraine, emphasizes Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan

In an interview that was released on Sunday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia emphasised that his nation was not Russia’s friend in the conflict with Ukraine, but that none of the countries was the target of any of their military cooperation initiatives. Pashinyan expressed his optimism that Azerbaijan, Armenia’s neighbour and longtime competitor, will stick to the terms of a lasting peace agreement, even in light of remarks made by the president of that country about boundary demarcation. Over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two significant wars in the last thirty years. The area has long been acknowledged as being a part of Azerbaijan, and in September, Azeri forces took complete control of it. In recent months, Pashinyan has stated that Armenia could no longer depend on Russia to meet its defence requirements since his nation was unable to obtain the necessary assistance from Moscow. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph in Britain, Pashinyan stated that he had stated that Moscow could not have Ukraine as an ally from the beginning of Russia’s invasion of that country in February 2022. “I said, in the Ukraine situation, we are not Russia’s ally. And that’s the reality,” Pashinyan told the daily. “But I want to also tell you that with the U.S. or France or other partners, our security cooperation is not targeted against our other security sector partner.” He said Armenia was approaching the notion of relationships on its security alliances “by utmost transparently speaking with our partners about their shared agendas”. And Armenia, he said, had no intention of considering membership of NATO – as Ukraine has reaffirmed and Russia has denounced as unacceptable. Nato membership “is not a question we have discussed or are discussing”. He repeated that Armenia was considering whether to stay in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation. On the prospects for a long-term peace deal with Azerbaijan, Pashinyan said “the basic architecture” of an agreement had been reached last year “and at the end of last year, it seemed to us that we were very close, finally, to a final text of agreement”. But Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, re-elected in a landslide last week, raised questions in a January interview by saying his troops would not pull back from border areas. He also dismissed the use of Soviet-era maps in talks as he said territorial concessions had been made to Armenia last century.