On September 6, the Eurasia Daily (EADaily) Transcaucasian editorial office of the Russian news agency published an article with the title “Pashinyan prepares for any counterattack before the “stormy autumn” in Armenia.” Analyzing Pashinyan’s actions during the last 20-25 days, the editors come to the conclusion that the prime minister has taken a number of steps which, as the publication implies, are strongly anti-Russian. The journalist did not like that Pashinyan, in his opinion, “instructed two pro-Western non-governmental organizations related to the American billionaire George Soros to allocate enough money from the government fund impressive financial resources for observing the elections of the local self-government bodies of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh”. And the day before, on September 5, the Prime Minister, according to the columnist, “again surprised everyone by having a meeting with the leadership of the “Sasna Trees” party, which is on the political sidelines. The latter is an extremely anti-Russian political association…”

For the umpteenth time, all the pro-Russian websites and newspapers accuse Armenia, and the public organizations financed by Soros allegedly have a strong anti-Russian orientation. Let us remind the uninformed that the Soros Foundation, the official name of which is Open Society Foundations (OSF), is a network of charitable organizations and grant programs founded by the American philanthropist George Soros.

The following website published a detailed list of non-governmental organizations financed by Soros in RA. Those who wish to get acquainted with the direction of the activities financed by George Soros can be convinced that the main goal of these organizations is the development and strengthening of human rights and freedoms in our country, the fight against corruption, the holding of free and transparent elections of local and state level bodies, and the maintenance of equality of law before everyone. In other words, the strengthening of democracy in Armenia. Not a single word does it say that the purpose of the fund is to finance anti-Russian sentiments in Armenia, anti-Russian propaganda or to sow inter-ethnic discord between the Armenian and Russian peoples.

Then the same agency claims that “his (Soros-KK) funds have been repeatedly accused of organizing a change of power in a number of states and interfering in their internal affairs. The latest country where the Soros Foundation has suspended its work is Turkey, after President Erdogan accused the billionaire of financing protests against his government in 2013. And the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia announced that “Soros’ organizations are a threat to the constitutional order of the Russian Federation and the security of the state.” Moreover, according to clever-news.ru, the Soros Foundation intended to implement a plan “according to which: true Russian values ​​had to be replaced by “liberal” values.” In this regard, the fund is illegal in Russia. As for Erdogan, he has significantly limited the rights and freedoms of the Turkish people in recent years. A vivid example of this was the forced re-election of the mayor of Istanbul, because the elected mayor did not represent Erdogan’s interests. But what does Soros have to do with this?

It is quite obvious that all this propaganda of the Russian media is aimed at creating the impression in the Armenian public that the change of power that took place was financed by the Soros Foundation. The people of Armenia know very well that the “velvet revolution” of 2018 has absolutely nothing to do with Soros money. By the way, Nikol Pashinyan later published the list of people who really sponsored that revolution. But there is not even a trace of Soros in that list. Yes, the revolution was aimed at overthrowing the totalitarian corrupt regime that had seized power and ruled the country. And secondly, after the events of March 1, our people already had some experience of holding protest actions without force: it was “Mashtots Park”, “Electric Yerevan”, “100 AMD” and others. Maybe it was all organized with Soros’s money… If someone makes such a statement in Yerevan, they will make him an object of laughter.

Unlike Russia, Armenia is a small country, and the activities of the corrupt former ruling elite were in front of everyone’s eyes. That revolution was purely an internal affair of our people. Neither the USA, nor Europe, nor Russia have anything to do with it. Everyone knows that very well. So why make a fuss that it’s all the fault of Soros, who finances it all?

Coming to power, the new leadership immediately announced that Armenia’s partnership and strategic relations with Russia are unchanged and will be strengthened more intensively. We fully fulfill our partnership obligations not only to Russia, but also to other EAEU and CSTO countries. We are trying to move the vertical relations with Russia that existed before the revolution to the horizontal plane, preserving the interests of Russia and Armenia. There are many opponents of this concept in both Russia and Armenia, but we consistently work in that direction, and on both sides the number of politicians and experts who understand the perspective and profitability of this path in terms of the interests of both Russia and Armenia is gradually increasing.

But does Soros have something to do with all this?

Karapet Kalenchyan