“If earlier, the presidents of France were visiting only Armenia, today it is a regional visit, so commented the political analyst Stepan Safaryan to the question of Aravot.am of how he will interpret the fact that French President Francois Hollande’s visit first was repented as a visit at the invitation of the President of Armenia, but it turned out that Hollande is visiting Armenia in the framework of regional visit. He emphasized that this fact is associated with Russia’s aggressive policy and noted, “The West and the U.S. were concerned about Russia’s rigid policy.
This is the reason why the United States has lately touching upon the Karabakh issue. Europe and the United States are concerned that Russia wants to evict everyone in the region. Hence, the fact that the French president is now making a regional visit to the South Caucasus, thus the goal of the Europe is to show their interests in the region.” Today, at the joint conference of the presidents of France and Armenia, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, to the question of the French journalist why Armenia defended RF on the issue of the Crimea, gave an evasive answer, describing why Armenia decided to join the Customs Union. To our question of why Serzh Sargsyan acted so, Mr. Grigoryan responded, “It is very hard to explain what it is associated with that we are moving to the Customs Union after three years of active work with Europe. In that case, you shouldn’t have worked with Europe, you should have gone to the Customs Union from the beginning. It’s hard to explain what is left to us in the field of cooperation with Europe. I’m also surprised at the position of Armenia on the issue of the Crimea. We could at least stay neutral. What self-determination was there in the Crimea that we hastily moved on and supported Russia in the UN and the Council of Europe? It’s hard to explain the French that the Crimea has self-determined. They know that Russia has introduced an army, after which separatist processes started. I do not rule out the possibility that it is associated with it that Serzh Sargsyan had not given tough response or a position to that question.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
