Speaker cautions against extremes in relations with West and Russia

Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan on Tuesday said Armenia would try to normalize its relations with Russia and at the same time maintain good ties with the West. 

“We are neither pro-Western nor pro-Russian,” he told reporters. “We are pro-Armenian and we are advancing Armenia’s agenda.”

“You can’t go from one extreme to the other. The problem, the issues and questions that we have with our Russian partners are still on the agenda: nevertheless, where is the CSTO’s border, why did the CSTO keep distance even on a political level, and many other questions,” Simonyan said, referring to the military bloc’s failure to respond to member-state Armenia’s request for intervention amid the Azeri invasion, which led to Yerevan officially freezing its membership to the bloc indefinitely. 

The CSTO failed to respond to the series of unprovoked Azeri attacks and invasions into Armenia after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Parts of several Armenian regions have been under Azeri occupation since.  

Simonyan highlighted diversification in security. He said one ought to advance his own country’s interests instead of being either pro-Western or pro-Russian alone. 

“Pro-Russians will come and say, no, only Russia, while pro-Europeans will say no, only Europe, but meanwhile Armenia must advance its interest between those heavy two, three or four poles. Can you name a single country in the world that is pursuing just one political line? Such countries cease to exist. Politically such countries turn into provinces and cease to exist. Armenia has fine and good relations with France, with the U.S., and will try to normalize its relations with Russia. But this doesn’t mean that either Russia or the U.S., or anyone else, must try to bring their puppets to power here or take over the Armenian economy,” Simonyan said.

In this context, he highlighted the balancing of relations and avoiding any extremes.