In the “Pressing” program Satik Seyranyan the guest Eduard Sharmazanov, member of the Executive Body of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), former vice-chairman of the RA National Assembly (NA) is

The main theses of the interview are below.

Today it became known that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will arrive in Armenia on May 26. “Armenpress” was informed about this by the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noting that the meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan and Marco Rubio will take place, after which the ministers will make statements to the press. Signing of bilateral documents is planned.

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to any country cannot be mere support. The US is the world’s #1 superpower, I don’t know what agenda it came with, but the visit coincides with the campaign, and CP will try to present the visit as support for Pashinyan. Vance also supported Orbán, after which Orbán suffered a crushing defeat. Taros to Nikol Pashinyan. Any new government cannot ignore the US factor, but we must be guided by the interests of Armenia. For that, on June 7, we have to go to the elections, reject Pashinyan, the government formed after that will cooperate with Rubio, Trump, and others.

To remind: In a speech in Budapest, US Vice President JD Vance praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, saying he was “doing a good job because he really is” and “a very, very important partner in the fight for peace.” According to Vance, “most European political capitals have not been as helpful to the cause of peace between Russia and Ukraine as Viktor Orbán.”

• Today, the most shocking news in Armenia is 48 hours old. JD Vance came, he was forgotten, a summit was held in Armenia with the participation of several dozen EU leaders, and that was also forgotten. Especially now that the campaign has entered a very heated phase, will Marco Rubio come in or someone else will not make an impact?

• No matter how much Nikol Pashinyan says during the campaign that he has excellent relations with Putin and that he is an “authority” in the EAEU, the statements coming from the north speak of something else. I am not guided by Pashinyan’s toasts, but by facts. Pashinyan used to say: I will cut off my hands, I will not give a centimeter of land from Tavush, he said: there is no question of enclaves, now they say: we will give them. Now he is saying things that are not within the scope of his intelligence or capabilities, in general, they are not issues for any leader of Armenia to solve.

• The Republic of Armenia became a member of the EAEU with the efforts of the RPA and the Third President Serzh Sargsyan himself. We negotiated it. For the Russian economy, whether Armenia will be a member of the EAEU or not is not so important as it is for Armenia. 70% of Armenia’s products are sold in the EAEU territory. Becoming a member of the EAEU was a historic decision, at one time it was hindered by both Aliyev, Lukashenko and the head of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev. One thing is obvious, it is a fact that Armenia’s membership in EAEU was in our interests. I don’t think that at this stage they will take revolutionary steps and remove Armenia from EAEU, but that in Armenian-Russian relations Dawns are not peaceful, obviously. He says that he has spoken with Putin 200 times. : Don’t talk, my friend, if the situation is going to get worse after every time you talk… Now that they don’t let you take the flowers, “Jermuk” has been banned, whose problem is it not Pashinyan’s? Or that they say that the opposition is doing it to not let them go, to take them to Russia. They don’t have the sense of a penny… if they believe the words of the opposition in Russia and EAEU more than Pashinyan, pack your wallet and go, what business do you have with that post?:

• It is funny that the RA Foreign Minister says to the deputy head of the Security Council of the atomic state, Dmitry Medvedev, who was also the prime minister and president of that country, that he does not know the situation. If Medvedev does not know the current state of Armenian-Russian relations, who does? If everything is fine, you don’t have a problem, why do they say something different from Russia, why do our goods stay at the border, why do you call our opposition figures “Kremlin agents”?

• We don’t need to be taught lessons from Russia. We have been fighting since 2018, we know everything very well. Artsakh renegade, what is the Armenian-Russian relationship, so that he does not deny it? I didn’t say, “Он не предатель”, did I? RPA is an independent party, we should not be directed anywhere:

• As a former RA official, I call on Russian officials not to resort to sanctions and drastic measures. Because Pashinyan cooked the borsch, but the ordinary citizen who will suffer from it will suffer. Nikol Pashinyan eats the budget like his own pocket, he has no problem buying bread, filling the car with gas, paying utilities, paying off loans. The ordinary citizen will suffer, and besides, it can consolidate the West around Pashinyan. 

• If Pashinyan is re-elected and this situation exists with the EAEU market, we will face an economic collapse in the fall and winter. We will have many hard days ahead of us. Bread, transport, everything will become more expensive with the price of gas. If people can’t export their products to the Eurasian market, where will you sell Armenian brandy in Paris and apricots in Ankara?:

• For the West, Armenia is cannon fodder, anti-Russia. What Georgia did not do, they do here. You remember, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze announced that problems started in the country after it refused to open a “second front” against Russia on the instructions of the West. Georgia kept its national interest, they passed to Armenia, but what will be left of Armenia after that, they are not interested. They don’t even hide it. Their goal is to make Armenia an anti-Russian springboard. You must not antagonize relations with any state, including a member state of the UN Security Council, with which you have allied and historical relations. Relations with Turkey cannot be worsened. Our task is to keep the existing, and this is possible only if the KP is not re-elected on June 7.

• Through Nikol Pashinyan, the West and Turkey are trying to remove the role of Russia from Armenia and make Armenia a part of the Turkish world. This will become a reality in the case of Pashinyan’s reproduction. We don’t have much choice here. They will have to choose whether to become Russia’s ally or Turkey’s servant. He is deceiving, folks. No one is waiting for you in the European Union. Ski Ukraine and Turkey are not expected, who has been an associate member since 1999, how can they expect you? Turkey needs buffer states in the Caucasus between it and Russia. Do we want that? I don’t understand this hysterical anti-Russianness. 

• Who killed our children in Artsakh? It wasn’t the Turkish soldiers? Nikol, that in 2022 On October 6, he recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, did he ask the Armenian people or the allies? Macron and Charles Michel are the toastmasters to hand over Artsakh, Erdogan was the patron:

• Visa liberalization was planned for 2017. With the CEPA signed by the government of Serzh Sargsyan, which was ratified by the EU member parliaments, and which they did not even implement. They can’t do it, will they liberalize visas? Yesterday he said that visas will be free in 2 years, and in 2021 he said that the prisoners will return in 2 months. Did they return?…

• Why shouldn’t Aliyev support Pashinyan if he does what he says? Pashinyan even blamed the genocide on Turkey, placing the blame on the superpowers. Read the April 24 message, it was a disgrace. It was an impression that that text was written by Erdogan. Aliyev found a gift, he should help his gift.

• Nikol is campaigning against CSTO, the problem is not CSTO. If the problem was the CSTO, Nikol would not have gone to receive the highest award from Tokaev, the head of the CSTO member country. I have not seen that there was anything anti-Azerbaijani in the CSTO, and Kazakhstan did not get involved. Why did he go, he got a reward from Kazakhstan… Because the problem is not the CSTO for him, but Russia. That person came to get Russia out of here. Artsakh should have surrendered in that grand opera. Remember that it was Pashinyan who said that the Russian military presence in Armenia is a threat:

• How is it that you criticize Lukashenko for supporting Azerbaijan, by the way, maybe it’s fair, but why don’t you criticize Zelensky? Zelensky supported Aliyev ten times more. In those days, the streets of Kyiv were covered with Azerbaijani flags. Unlike CP members, it doesn’t matter to me who violates the interest of my state.

• As early as April 4, during the RPA congress, we said that the elections are rigged, because the elections are not only on the voting day, but also the pre-election and post-election period. First of all, Pashinyan is blackmailing the Armenian people with war, many people, including clergymen, are arrested on fabricated charges, the leader of the most locomotive force of the opposition, the main opposition force, Samvel Karapetyan, cannot leave the house and campaign normally. How many people should a person have in their home? If we were in power, now the European institutions would eat us. We were told: do you see how the administrative resource is being misused? Dear people, I know you can’t not go, they will fire you, but go on June 7, make a choice of your own free will. Of course, elections are already rigged. But there are at least 3-4 forces that have real chances to pass the Parliament, the people should vote for one of them.:

• The people of Moldova did not vote for Maya Sandu. he was elected by outside votes. The people of Armenia will vote only in Armenia. Go and vote for the force that did not hand over Artsakh, that did not bow to the demands of Aliyev and Erdogan.

Details in the video.

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