Politician: Armenia has no right to ignore France`s helping hand

ArmInfo.Today the acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan faces a rather difficult position. He is trying to demonstrate inside and outside Armenia a  situation that does not exist for a long time already. Namely, the  fact that Russia is the guarantor of ensuring the security of  Armenia. The leader of the Constructive Party of Armenia, candidate  for prime minister from the bloc Andrias Ghukasyan  expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"But there are facts clearly spelled out in the agreements between  Armenia and Russia, which cannot be hidden. First of all, I mean, the  clause clearly spelled out in the agreement on the transfer of a  joint Armenian-Russian military group on the territory of Armenia in  the event of an external military threat under control of the  military leadership of our country. The Azerbaijani military crossed  our border, but we see that nothing of this happened. There is not  even a reaction of the CSTO to Armenia's appeals for help, "he  stressed.

Such realities, according to the politician's assessments, indicate  that in the conditions of Russia's de facto leaving the security of  Armenia to its fate, in today's conditions nothing prevents Yerevan  from accepting the military assistance of France. Especially in  conditions when the latter offers this assistance almost openly. In  this light, he stressed that Pashinyan's recent visit to Paris took  place at the invitation of President Macron, which, according to  Ghukasyan, was due to Pashinyan's proposal to deploy OSCE MG  observers on the border with Azerbaijan.

At a meeting of the Security Council on May 27, acting Prime Minister  of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan presented his plan for overcoming the  situation on the border with Azerbaijan. The essence of the plan is  the immediate, parallel withdrawal of the armed forces of both sides  from the border to the places of permanent deployment. International  observers from the Russian Federation or other co-chairing countries  of the OSCE Minsk Group should be deployed along the border.  Pashinyan considers this plan the shortest path to de-escalation of  the border situation. France and the European Union have already  expressed support for Pashinyan's plan.

Thus, France, in his opinion, not only voiced support for Pashinyan's  plan, but also expressed its readiness to support Armenia in the  current situation of the Azerbaijani military invasion of the  country. And according to Ghukasyan, the Armenian prime minister  simply could not but to respond to a rather persistent invitation and  go to Paris. In the politician's opinion, in the current situation it  seems important for France and some other centers of power, to solve  the problem of the Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia. In particular, it  was important to demonstrate that Armenia is not alone, and there is  also the OSCE MG-an alternative to demarcation and delimitation of  the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan in a trilateral format  proposed by Moscow. 

On June 1 in Paris, acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Speaker of the French  National Assembly Richard Ferrand, Senate President Gerard Larcher,  Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. On June 2, Pashinyan went to Brussels,  where he met with his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo.

"Another issue is the readiness of the Armenian leadership, which is  deeply dependent on Moscow, to shake the hand outstretched to it and  thereby dramatically change the current situation on the border. I  personally do not see such readiness, unfortunately. Pashinyan  hesitates, and the fact that even his Foreign Ministry spoke against  his policy, speaks of the need for a change of power in our country.  Real, and not a declarative deepening of relations with France will  restore the security of Armenia. And French support will allow to  restore, rearm and reorganize our Armed Forces. This is a real  alternative, which we simply have no right to neglect in the current  situation, "summed up Ghukasyan.