News - Parliament speaker: Russia government deceived Armenia, Armenian people

I am not familiar with the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and I am not preparing to comment in any way on behalf of our Foreign Ministry. Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, told this to reporters in the NA Monday—and referring to the fact that the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has sent a note of protest to Armenia after the visit of an Armenian delegation to Bucha, Ukraine, considering it an "unfriendly step." "As for ‘unfriendly actions,’ let them look at their own actions after 2020. Armenia has always behaved as a loyal partner. With the naivety of a child, it believed and hoped until the last moment that Russia would not leave Armenia alone, would not deceive Armenia and the Armenian people. The Russian government has deceived Armenia and the Armenian people. (…). They have deceived us, left us alone. I watched with slight surprise and envy how thousands of rockets went in the direction of Israel, how the navy approached the borders of Israel and started shooting the rockets falling on Israel. Planes took off from Cyprus and started helping Israel as an ally. I don't know in 44 days [of war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020], let alone if it was worth letting that war happen, if Russia in 2020 was so weak that they let them come in and slaughter our children. Was there not a single [Russian navy] ship in the Caspian Sea to come a little closer to Azerbaijan? Was there or wasn't there? Not to mention the fact that throughout the war, like naive children, we hoped that we could somehow stop something, we tried all possible options. And even for a very long time after the war, contrary to what was announced, that it is the territory of Azerbaijan, we continued to do everything to stop that process. And Russia has left Armenia no choice but to try to defend itself on its own. Now, presenting this attempt to protect oneself as an unneighborly attitude is not fair. So, we had to go, be eradicated? That was the plan," said Alen Simonyan. To the question as to what will follow the aforesaid note of protest of the Russian MFA, the Armenian parliament speaker responded: "I do not know." When asked why Russia left Armenia all alone, Simonyan answered: "Because preparations were going on for the war in Ukraine. And after shooting down a [Russian military] plane in Syria, a big deal was made with Turkey, the ultimate goal of which was to have the opportunity to bypass possible sanctions in this region. Or it was a price that Armenians had to pay because Armenians had chosen the option of being independent, sovereign[ and for that Armenians had to be punished. Armenians must be punished that they don't have a choice, that the president here would call and say, ‘Well, I'm being elected,’ they would congratulate him, and he would become the legitimate president here (…). There was both a deal and a punishment. The goal was to hit two birds with one stone. That is, to make a deal, to get that hub which Azerbaijan and Turkey are now, whereas the price in Armenia was that the government in Armenia will change and a pro-Russian government will come and say: the previous ones—which would have been us at that time—are guilty, ‘today Armenia should be a member of the Russia-Belarus Union because we cannot be safe without the Russians.’ Without the Russians, we cannot exist. Our fault is that we say no, we are a state and we should be sovereign."