According to the findings of the public opinion poll on National Security and Foreign Military Bases implemented by the Civilitas Foundation, for the overwhelming majority of Armenia’s population (81 per cent) it is not acceptable that another state or/and an international (intergovernmental) structure deal with ensuring Armenia’s national security. Of all those, who entrusted Armenia’s national security provision to a different state and/or international (intergovernmental) structure, the majority specified Russia. 55 percent of the population considers the presence of the other state’s or structure’s military base in Armenia acceptable.
According to the findings of the public poll, a significant part of Armenia’s population sees the reasons for joining the Customs Union (afterwards, the Eurasian Economic Union) based on “security” rather than driven by economic factors. Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies, Manvel Sargsyan, who was invited to this discussion, speaking about the presence of the Russian base in Armenia, raised the question about whether the presence of the military base strengthens or weakens Armenia. Later on, he mentioned, “Any foreign troop in the territory of the country weakens given country as you are not the one to accept decisions.”
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Armenian National Congress, Vladimir Karapetyan, announced that he does not think that there is someone in Armenia who believes that after Armenia’s independence, when Armenia was in military operations with Azerbaijan, in the post- earthquake situation, Turkey would slow down solving the issues in the way as it solves in the course of the history. Vladimir Karapetyan explains the then government decision by these circumstances. Manvel Sargsyan noted that everyone is thinking about when this kind of system was created, which results in the majority of the public to think that if not for the Russian troops, the Turks would encroach. Mr. Sargsyan considers this a secondary issue and notes that more essentially is whether Russia is willing to ensure our security or not. According to him, the problem became serious after Russia began arming Azerbaijan.
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
