Vardan Voskanyan: Foreign Ministry ‘decapitated’ for first time since Armenia gained independence

Panorama, Armenia

“Many issues in Azerbaijan are basically resolved not only or not by Aliyev’s will, but also as a result of Erdogan’s intervention,” Armenian expert on Iran Vardan Voskanyan, an MP candidate of the I’m Honored bloc, told a news conference on Saturday.

The expert said in this context, Erdogan's visit to Baku on 15 June and a provocative visit to Shushi also have a certain impact on the interests of other players in the region.

"Obviously, the visit to Shushi was exclusively provocative in nature, to the detriment of Armenia, Artsakh, Iran and Russia, because the meeting between Erdogan and the dictator of Baku in the occupied Artsakh town of Shushi targets not only the Armenian side, but also other players," Voskanyan said.

He also addressed talks about the signing of a new agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan, the content of which is not yet clear. “According to the discussions on the Azerbaijani social media platform, the agreement may include a section on the military component, which, naturally, cannot but worry Armenia, as well as its ally Russia and friendly Iran. it remains to be seen what process we are dealing with,” he said.

The expert underlined Armenia’s Foreign Ministry is “non-functional” amid all these developments.

“Not only the foreign minister, but also the deputy foreign ministers have resigned and the Foreign Ministry of Armenia is decapitated for the first time since Armenia gained independence. And this happened due to the "efforts" of the regime, which still considers itself authorities in Armenia,” he said.

Vardan Voskanyan stated that as a result of the steps of the “criminal regime”, all state institutions in Armenia, including those that ensure various components of Armenia's security, have been “destroyed”.

“Now a paradoxical situation has arisen in which the regime is engaged in various populist activities aimed at pleasing the crowd, while the healthy opposition of Armenia, including the I’m Honored bloc, has undertaken the responsibility of presenting the security issues of Armenia to our population in an accessible way and elaborating the resulting steps,” the expert said.