Azerbaijan can buy weapons from Italy and Armenia can’t buy weapons from France? Pashinyan rebukes accusations

YEREVAN, AUGUST 31, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is attempting to accuse Armenia of rearmaments to cover up its own rearmaments, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said.

“We are being accused, for example, for having military-technical cooperation with France, and India. There is the following trend in Azerbaijan, they say that extra-regional countries are arming Armenia, referring to France. But it is obvious, and public, that Azerbaijan, for example, is buying weapons from Italy. It’s a country next to France, why can Azerbaijan acquire weapons from Italy, and Armenia can’t acquire weapons from France? Azerbaijan is acquiring weapons, for example, from Pakistan. Why can Azerbaijan acquire weapons from Pakistan and Armenia can’t acquire weapons from India? They say the EU, the West is arming Armenia. But Azerbaijan is acquiring weapons from Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria. At least three EU member countries have military-technical cooperation with Azerbaijan. And Azerbaijan is acquiring huge volumes of weapons from Israel,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said Armenia is well aware of these processes through intelligence gathering and doesn’t always publicly announce it. 

PM Pashinyan said that some independent experts claim that the Azeri accusations, particularly in terms of the constitution and the weapons supplies, are actually meant to serve as a smokescreen for the Azeri actions itself: to accuse Armenia of having territorial claims in its constitution to cover up their own territorial claims in their constitution, and to accuse Armenia of rearmaments to cover up their own rearmament issue.

He said it’s not fair to accuse Armenia in conditions of constant threats it is getting. Furthermore, Pashinyan said he offered to develop mutual arms control mechanisms. “We are saying, you have concerns? So do we, let’s form a mutual arms control and reduction mechanisms. This proposal was made publicly and is still in force,” Pashinyan said.

“I have numerously said that every country has the right to have a strong and combat ready army. International law and the UN Charter find the right to have a military and the right to self-defense an inalienable right. Any country has the right to defense itself, and this right cannot be disputed because international law also contains a well-known obligation for states, the obligation to protect its citizens,” Pashinyan said, adding that the ongoing reforms in the Armenian military have exclusively this goal.