This is a criminal offense and anti-constitutional. A criminal case should be filed based on his statement,” so responded political scientist Ara Papian, in the interview with Aravot.am, referring to the quite scandalous statement made by Director General of the Institute for Strategic Development of the Russian Federation, Andranik Nikoghosyan, according to which, “Armenia should hold a referendum and by the absolute majority of votes, they will be incorporated into Russia if Russia does not object. In this case, Armenia’s borders will actually become borders of nuclear superpowers.”
As said by Ara Papian, “I assume that Nikoghosyan is a citizen of Armenia. If not, then he has no right to speak at all. I do not know who he is, he always wonders, they photogram him, they show him and say that he is a leader of an organization, he was awarded some medals, some photos with Putin, Russian flags … something. It is constantly criticized: grant eaters and they understand the Western organizations. What a less grant-eater is this one?” Ara Papian expressed a concern that apart from parliamentarian Edmon Marukyan, the RA legislative and executive body members did not initiate any serious step against Nikoghosyan. “Tomorrow, if I announce that let Armenia be incorporated to Turkey or the US, there would be a noise, wouldn’t it? Then why do they accept the incorporation to Russia accordingly? The attitude towards Russia is somewhat different. What we do not forgive Turkey, for no reasons we forgive Russia. It is not clear, on what basis should it be so? There is no objective attitude.”
To our observation that there is a perception among the public that we will not exist without Russia, Ara Papian responded, “Why should we not exist because the Turks would attract us? Now, this Nikoghosian suggests us to join Russia, we already lose Armenia. What is the difference of whom we lose, the Turks or Russians? If they are talking about joining Karabakh to Russia, then we lose Karabakh. For me, there is no difference of whether Karabakh is in the staff of Russia or Azerbaijan. It is furthermore worse to be in the staff of Russia, it is better to be in the staff of Azerbaijan because, in this case, we would not be an enemy with Azerbaijan, and in this case, we gain an enemy and lose Karabakh at the same time. Today, they do not evaluate all of it objectively.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
