Pashinyan and Sarkissian discussed  coronavirus pandemic, escalation  on  Armenian-Azerbaijani state border and Turkey`s militant rhetoric

ArmInfo Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with RA President Armen  Sarkissian, during which the parties discussed issues related to  Armenia's current policy agenda and development programs.

As the press service of the RA government told ArmInfo, Sarkissian  stated at the beginning of the meeting that Armenia, together with  other countries of the world, has been fighting a new type of  coronavirus pandemic for several years. <Mr. Prime Minister, I am  glad for our meeting. This is not a regular office meeting: it goes  in tune with the spirit of the time as it is being held in the open  air.

We are facing important problems. For several months now, Armenia has  joined the global campaign against the coronavirus. I am closely  following the statistics, and I am pleased to state that the curve is  going down. I hope it will continue to do so.

I share your view that in no case we should be encouraged, because a  large part of the population has not yet encountered the virus; if  they come in contact with it, the result will be the return of  COVID-19. It is the second wave for some countries, while others may  call it the third wave. I agree with you that we must strictly  observe the anti-epidemic rules; I mean personal hygiene, social  distancing and proper behavior.

Today's economic difficulties stem from the epidemic in general. The  situation is by far the same all over the world, but we should not  seek consolation in it. On the contrary, the global setback  indirectly affects the Armenian economy: it will have a strong impact  on some sectors, including hotel services, tourism, jobs, social  protection, etc. We are in dire economic straits in fact; we are  facing big problems.

I wish your government every success in your anti-crisis efforts. I  would like to reaffirm that as the President of the Republic, I am  prepared to make a personal contribution through my connections,  experience and advice.

The recent escalation in Tavush aggravated the problems. A few days  ago, I was in Tavush - in the border village of Chinari, I was very  much pleased to see the local population in high spirits. Everyone,  both adult and teen, was self-confident, full of energy and optimism.  I came back convinced that our people will continue to stand by our  soldiers and our army. So, Mr. Prime Minister, I express my support  to the government, to you personally, to our Ministry of Defense, to  our army, I will do everything in my power to be of service.

I do believe that these difficult days should be the beginning of  future achievements: today we should build a strong groundwork for  our future ascent. I hope that our country will be able to defy the  challenges. I wish fortitude and patience to all of us, to our  people. Everyone needs to be disciplined, hardworking and highly  dedicated in order to overcome all these challenges", the President  of Armenia said. 

Touching upon the situation with the coronavirus Pashinyan stressed: < Mr. President, thank you for the meeting. Let me say that we also had  an online meeting during this time; we discussed issues that were not  put on record for well-known considerations.

Yes, COVID-19 is a serious problem for our country. Looking back on  what happened I can say that in late April we noticed that while the  restrictions were apparently complied with in public venues, they did  not work behind the scenes - in the courtyards and at close quarters.  We failed to meet the target, and as a result, we lost 70,000 jobs in  April alone.

The tense regional situation was another setback. Notwithstanding the  UN Secretary General's appeal to observe a universal ceasefire amid  the pandemic, Azerbaijan's continued bellicose rhetoric made us  realize that our country could not stand idle in the face of a  possible escalation.

The government formulated the main task as follows: Health capacity  needs to be developed so that no citizen is left without proper  medical care. We actually solved the problem: strong capacity was  built up: we resorted to extra budget spending in order to get  additional equipment and supplies. As a result, we had the following:  50,000 jobs were restored in June, and in July, we had a slightly  higher number of jobs than in the same period last year. It was  obvious to me that if we had been guided solely by health  considerations, we would have faced a social collapse.

Unfortunately, today we have a fairly high COVID-19 death toll. Yes,  you are right. We are now experiencing a steady decline in the curve  of incidences, but the number of daily fatalities is still above zero  due to the preceding developments.

I regret that we have more than 800 deaths at this point of time. But  today the opposite process is going on, we are conserving the  hospitals; we say there is no guarantee that the figures will not  surge again due to our individual behavior.

Today we have a chance to boast a far better situation in the fall,  because we can see that many countries are forced to return to the  logic of tough restrictions after officially declaring that they had  overcome the epidemic.

Yes, you are right, we are facing serious economic problems, and we  are trying to find case-sensitive solutions. Our main task is to save  the jobs. This is the preliminary target, but it means boosting  exports, production and consumption.

Of course, you are aware that we have implemented more than 20  anti-crisis measures, within the framework of which we have already  invested more than 100 billion drams in various social and economic  programs through the banking system and the state budget. This  process will be continued for individual sectors to make sure that  economic competitiveness and the jobs are saved in order to quickly  recover from the economic crisis.

Now let us see what happened in Tavush. We witnessed a flagrant act  of aggression by Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of  Armenia. But it is important to state that the military rhetoric that  the leadership of Azerbaijan has been developing for years, creating  the myth that the Azerbaijani army had superiority over the Armenian  armed forces, collapsed in a flash twinkling following a local  incident. To my mind, this has led to a completely new geopolitical  and military-political situation in the region.

By and large, this comes to strengthen Armenia's long-standing  position, which has been adhered to by all Armenian authorities and  governments, namely that the Karabakh conflict has no military  solution: it can be resolved exclusively through peaceful means. This  is a reality that must be reckoned with.  Armenia's Armed Forces  stand ready to defend the territorial integrity of our country, its  borders, and the reforms carried out in the sphere of security and  defense over the past two years in pursuit of my government's  priorities have yielded the desired result. And I am pleased to  stress that no time was wasted in this respect.

Unfortunately, this year was full of hardships, serious challenges  and incidents. The explosion in Beirut, the developments currently  underway in Lebanon have a direct impact on Armenia, and here, of  course, we have a topic to discuss,> said Pashinyan. 

President Armen Sarkissian  in turn mentioned: <I am glad to state  that our assessments are concurrent. I agree that even if we do not  have new infections or deaths tomorrow, we must be very careful; in  no case can we declare our country a country free of coronavirus.

Countries are not closed to themselves, we are not a closed system,  should even a single person coming from abroad be infected, and this  process will start again. I hope that even if there is a second wave,  we will be able to overcome it, since we already have the necessary  experience.

There are economic sectors that will suffer far greater losses in  this process; they will need to be backed by the state and the  government.

I am glad that the government is thoughtful about it and is taking  steps in that direction. However, I think that these steps should  continue, because it will take a long time to overcome the current  situation, which has not only an economic dimension, but a social  component as well. There are problems with jobs, which in turn can  trigger demographic problems.  People who used to work outside  Armenia for many years now are deprived of that opportunity. Many  people, who had a job yesterday, the day before, do not have it  today. Therefore, we must mobilize all our potential to solve these  problems.

I share your view that Azerbaijan's offensive has no human or moral  explanation. At a time when the world is fighting against the common  evil, Azerbaijan undertakes a military adventure. As an experienced  person who follows the developments in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and  Europe, I am concerned about several factors. First of all, the moral  border that they violated by going on an adventure amid the global  pandemic.  Second, Azerbaijan is trying to give the impression that  Armenia poses threats to international infrastructure in its  territory. This is complete nonsense. This infrastructure has existed  for over 20 years, and Armenia has never shown any intention to  destroy it.

Their propaganda seeks to present Armenia as an aggressor in order to  justify their own aggression in the future. I am proud to state that  our armed forces lived up to the task set before them.  In the early  1990s, when I served as ambassador to many European countries,  including NATO, many diplomats and military experts told me that our  efforts were doomed to failure, since we are a small country, we do  not have a powerful army, while Azerbaijan has a huge army and is  being backed by the neighboring country. A few years later the same  people told me that Armenia has the most powerful army in the South  Caucasus.  

I want to remind you again, the recent events have shown that Armenia  has the most powerful army in the South Caucasus, which cannot be  defeated. The army is not only weapons, discipline and readiness;  the Armenian army boasts a high spirit that no one has in the region.  I am happy that those people's suspicions about the Armenian army  were dispelled.

My next concern is about the official statements made an Azerbaijani  official that Azerbaijan may strike the Metsamor NPP. This is  inadmissible by all international norms. I have been a member and  chairman of the World Energy Security Commission, which considered  such statements to be calls for nuclear terrorism. I think those who  make such calls should understand very well that this will be a great  tragedy for everyone, not only for Armenia. The international  community should intervene to prevent such irresponsible statements  from recurring again.

Turkey's bellicose rhetoric is unacceptable, too. The Turks should  remember that their state was behind the Armenian Genocide 105 years  ago. Any such statement calls for a return to the 105-year-old  history, which is inadmissible not only for our people, but for all  mankind, in general.  In conclusion, I would like to take this  opportunity to say that in all these directions the President, the  Presidency of the Republic of Armenia, my international relations and  contacts are prepared to support the Armenian government on the way  to handling the crisis>, Sarkissian concluded.