Russian ambassador refutes Armenian speaker’s statements

Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin in an interview with 24News called Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan's accusations against Moscow an outright lie.

Kopyrkin recalled what role Russia and the country's president personally played in ending the 2020 war, what Russian peacekeepers did by virtue of their capabilities and actual mandate, Caliber.Az reports.

"I would not mention that it is our border guards who in moments of escalation take real steps that lead to de-escalation, as was the case in Nerkin Hand. I will not even mention our border monitoring posts, which at the personal request of the Prime Minister were placed along the border with Azerbaijan at Russian expense in order to contribute to the stabilization of the situation, which the Armenian side has never decided to legalize. And a lot of money was spent on this, despite the budgetary restrictions that Russia has," Kopyrkin said.

He emphasized that one of the highest officials says such things, throws such accusations, having been in the power team for quite a long time, knowing from the inside what is going on in the dialogue between Russia and Armenia and the problematic moments that may exist.

Simonyan, according to him, knows very well that Russia was the only country that made every possible effort to stop the massacre and prevent a catastrophe in all respects. While the situation was extremely grave and it was difficult, including Russia - to help solve this problem and prevent a catastrophe.

"I want to say something else. When such statements are allowed in public, I have a question - why is it done. It is an outright lie, and people are well aware that it is a lie. But it is thrown out to the general public, to the Armenian citizens," Kopyrkin noted.

The diplomat emphasized that he is not against criticism of Russian approaches. One can disagree, say that Armenia was counting on something, but Russia did not do what it should have done. But when we are talking about blatant lies, when there are outliers, the question arises - how does all this correlate with the real interests of ordinary people.

"You are talking about the position of Russia, which is the key economic donor, the main market, where hundreds of thousands of Armenians work and support their families. The country with the largest Armenian diaspora. In other words, ties between Armenia and Russia are a vital issue for many families in Armenia and in the Russian Federation as well. And when one of the leaders of the state engages in such rhetoric, I have a question - from whose interests he proceeds," the ambassador added.

The diplomat noted that in contacts with the Armenian colleagues the representatives of the Russian Federation offer to discuss all the problems in a confidential and substantive manner. Including the issues related to the CSTO activities. For example, what steps can be taken to make Armenia feel safer, taking into account the fact that only Russia has real resources in the sphere of security. But, according to him, there is no answer to these proposals. Instead, these kinds of statements are allowed.

Earlier, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan told Public TV that Russia, which was Armenia's "elder brother", did not protect it when the time came. He left us all alone, and left all alone at the least, if not it happened with its knowledge. Then Moscow once again deceived Yerevan and tried to drag it into the war already in the territory of Armenia in order to "save" it at the right time.

Meanwhile, Kopyrkin called the issue of the return of Karabakh Armenians important for Russia.

“The issue of the return of Karabakh Armenians is important for Russia, as evidenced by the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the region,” Kopyrkin said.

"We have always believed, and this has been publicly stated, that it is important that Armenians live in their historical homeland - in Karabakh (Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan - ed.). This is the reason for the presence of Russian peacekeepers there. To me, this is evidence that this issue is not going away. Those Karabakh Armenians who want to return have the right to do so. I understand that the Azerbaijani side does not reject this right," he added.

Pointing to the Russian border guards’ monitoring posts on the conditional border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ambassador Kopyrkin underlined that they have been deployed at the personal request of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

"I will not even mention those of our observation posts, which at the personal request of Prime Minister [Nikol Pashinyan] were placed along the border with Azerbaijan at Russian expense in order to contribute to the stabilization of the situation in 2020," he noted, adding that the Armenian side "never decided to legalize the deployment of Russian monitoring posts."