Kocharyan: It is necessary to restore strategic partnership with  Russia and include the Iranian component in it

ArmInfo. The symbol of defeat cannot lead to a dignified peace, believes the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. "We always talk about the need to establish  a dignified peace in the region. I do not believe that the symbol of  defeat can lead to a dignified peace. He is trying to save himself at  any cost,  and a person with that motivation cannot prioritize  thinking about the country. The individual who is doing this has  other motivations. He wants a paper about Nikol Pashinyan, and it has  nothing to do with peace," Kocharyan said in an interview with  several Armenian media outlets.

According to the politician, the footage from Albania that circulated  around the world showing the meeting between the Armenian prime  minister and the leaders of Turkey and Azerbaijan is a disgrace for  the country. "This was the behavior of a person who had lost his  dignity. He was hunched over at these meetings. It seems that a  relationship of a subordinate to a superior, or a slave to a master,  was established here. His body language conveyed everything  perfectly, and nothing positive should be expected for the country  from this person," the second president of Armenia noted.

The former president of the country stated that today Armenia is  currently unable to guarantee its own security in the region.  According to him, Armenia today positions itself in the international  arena as a burden for its partners and allies. "Nobody today can say  that Armenia can secure its own safety on its own.  Therefore, first  of all, you must be more organized internally, strengthen the  military and establish relationships with potential geopolitical  partners who can  help address these vulnerabilities," the politician  added, adding that he does not see such steps from the current  authorities.

According to Kocharyan, today's Armenian authorities are doing  everything to turn friends into enemies.  He is also sure that the  current authorities do not have a clearly developed foreign policy  that would serve the national interests of the country.  Kocharyan  noted that Armenia is surrounded by Russia from the north and Iran  from the south, and in the current reality, it is simply naive to  think that Europe can ensure its security. He believes that Armenia  is a tool in the hands of Europe to slightly annoy Russia. "There are  three countries that can play a role in this region - Russia, Turkey  and Iran. We need to see which of these three countries is strong in  both the military and economic sectors and is close to us in spirit  in the cultural sphere - and this is Russia," he noted.

Touching upon Turkey, he recalled that Armenian-Turkish relations are  burdened with serious historical issues. "Turkey's Ottoman  aspirations are resurfacing. We are seen as a foreign body in the  large political landscape that Turkey is clearly shaping today.  Turkey's ambitions in the region are growing day by day.  The only  country capable of containing these ambitions is Russia. Therefore,  we must have good relations with Russia  as a means to contain  Turkey. We need to build good relations with this country, without  yielding to any form of blackmail," he noted.  According to him, it  is necessary to restore strategic partnership with Russia and include  the Iranian factor.  "We need to add the Iranian component to  Armenian-Russian relations, turning them into a trilateral format,"  Kocharyan believes.  The second president of Armenia also did not  agree that Turkey sees threats in talks about Western Armenia. "I  believe, the notion of a so-called Western Azerbaijan poses a  significant threat. It seems to me that Pashinyan regards the "real  Armenia" within the context of Western Azerbaijan.  You believe that  someone in Armenia is encroaching on Mount Ararat. No one has  intentions  to seize Ararat, no one  in engaging in such grandiose  adventurism. Ararat is our symbol, part of our national identity. The  current government is destroying our ideas about our own symbols," he  noted.

According to Kocharyan, the process of international recognition of  the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire by Armenia was seen as  a  way to ensure its own security. "We approached this issue not just  emotionally, but also as a component of Armenia's security," the  former president of Armenia said.

Referring to talks about Armenia's potential accession to the Union  State, Kocharyan noted that during his presidency, there were never  any discussions with the presidents of Russia about Armenia's  inclusion in the Union State. "I have never had such conversations  with either Yeltsin or Putin. And Lukashenko has never spoken about  this," he noted.

He noted that the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has been  demonized by Western countries for a very long time. "The negative  attitude towards the President of Belarus was formed after his visit  to Shushi. Now this is being used to its full extent. During my  presidency, Belarus did not take actions that caused our discontent.  On the contrary, he always stood by us, I do not know what happened  since then," the politician added.

Additionally, he expressed the conviction that when joining the EU,  states lose sovereignty many times over which can be lost when  joining the Union State. "If sovereignty is a priority for Armenia,  then the further from the EU, the better. The EU is the biggest model  for losing sovereignty," he noted, adding that the EU has a number of  structures  endowed with punitive functions. Kocharyan once again  emphasized that the current Armenian authorities are promoting false  theses about Russia, using the entire propaganda machine for this  purpose  to generate anti-Russian sentiments and sow distrust towards  the Russian Federation. Touching upon the discontent with the CSTO  during the Azerbaijani aggression, Kocharyan noted that the issue of  the occupation of Armenian territories by Azerbaijan should have been  resolved not through the CSTO, but through Armenian-Russian  relations. "You ruin relations with a key CSTO member, and then you  complain that the CSTO did not help. We have taken the position of  the offended party, but Russia should have taken this position after  signing the document in Prague, because we have nullified its  mediation role, and then we are calling for it to be a mediator  again," he noted.