YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 19, ARMENPRESS. The Munich Security Conference was an opportunity to present Armenia’s main foreign policy priorities, talk about the regional threats, present-reaffirm the stances of the Armenian side on a number of issues at quite a famous platform, Tigran Abrahamyan – adviser to the President of Artsakh, told Armenpress, commenting on the speech of the Armenian President at Munich and the main emphasis highlighted by him at the conference.

“In particular, after the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the EU the transition of the relations to a qualitatively new level signaled a launch of a new process. For many years and also before the signing of the agreement many were skeptical about this process, believing that the level of relations between Armenia and Russia, as well as Armenia’s presence at the Eurasian Economic Union can seriously hinder launching quite an ambitious process with the European Union”, he said.

Secondly, Azerbaijan prepares for elections, which, according to Tigran Abrahamyan, supposed toughening of state propaganda policy, especially when the Azerbaijani President makes territorial claims towards the territories of the Republic of Armenia. According to him, this was a good chance to deliver these processes, their possible risks and consequences to the international audience and to make these a subject of discussion in general.

“Yes, President Serzh Sargsyan in his speech stated that the Azerbaijani President made that statement in the context of pre-election campaign, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t contain serious threats, especially when it’s not the first case that Azerbaijani President makes claims towards Armenia’s territory in his statements. The statements from Azerbaijan will gradually strengthen before the presidential election, the number of such statements will drastically increase, maybe, we will see the affects of these statements in the frontline, but no matter that these statements are being made in the pre-election context, the level of danger from Azerbaijan expected from this doesn’t decrease”, Tigran Abrahamyan said, adding that in such statements the Azerbaijani President demonstrates honesty, openly speaks about his country’s real intentions, which, of course, we know, but this should be a clear message to the international community.

“It’s not accidental that the Armenian President considered it important to talk about the consequences of not commenting on these statements since it was due to the silence of the international community, the inability to clearly assess the situation and why not, also being indifferent which led Azerbaijan to launch military operations in April 2016 at several directions of the frontline.

The silence of international community can lead to a new tension since in most cases Azerbaijan by such statements also touches the sentiments of the international community and especially the mediator countries. We should learn lessons from Azerbaijan’s political behavior and prevent on time the ideas and plans going to its adventure”, Tigran Abrahamyan said.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan delivered speech at the Munich Security Conference during the panel discussion titled “Inside or Outside: Countries between Russia and Europe”.

Anna Gziryan