ArmInfo.No one is holding any high expectations about Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan`s participation in the Summit for Democracy, Chairman of the Constructive Party of Armenia Andrias Ghukasyan told ArmInfo.
"The opposition forces are already rebuking Pashinyan for participating in the Summit, arguing that it could make Moscow angry. This fact enables Pashinyan to explain to the U.S. why his speech at the Summit was actually about nothing. Our statesmen think that they could deceive someone by resorting to such primitive cunning. I do not think that anyone could expect Pashinyan to say anything new about democracy. So the reason behind the decision to invite Armenia to the Summit was the USA`s desire to distance Armenia from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia," Ghukasyan said.
The U.S. invited 110 states and territories to the online Summit for Democracy held on December 9 and 10. From the South Caucasus Armenia and Georgia were the only invitees.
"The major task of the Summit is separating democratic states from nondemocratic ones. In other words, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and Iran - four of the six states involved in the 3+3 format - are nondemcratic states. Georgia is a democratic state, while Armenia has been given this chance because, a basically democratic state, Armenia, for some reason, is seeking relations with authoritarian regimes," he said. According to Ghukasyan, the U.S. and the European Union are applying a set of guidelines in their policy toward the region. Among the guidelines is, for instance, the current debate of the measures at the U.S. Congress that would ban a number aid packages to Azerbaijan and increase aid packages to Armenia - because, in contrast to Azerbaijan, Armenia is a democratic state.
According to Ghukasyan, the current U.S.-Turkey relations are far from being an alliance. Turkey is just one of over the 30 NATO member-states. And as a NATO member disagreeing with NATO policy, Turkey was the only one that did not vote for sanctions against Russia. And its confrontation with another NATO member, Greece, has caused a number of NATO member-states to support one of the parties in its confrontation with the other.