After the formation of the new government, there were several statements made from Russia, many comments, evaluations, and there were worries about the not-so-smooth relations between Armenia and Russia. Aravot asked Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan about the current state of Armenian-Russian relations. Has the difficult stage in Armenian-Russian relations been conquered?
“Your question is very interesting in that what took place in Armenia was being compared to events that took place in other countries in the past. It was predictable that questions would rise as far as how much Armenia plans to reexamine the structure of its foreign policy. The most trustworthy and the most convincing in all of this was the natural, certain message that the revolution that took place in Armenia was a strictly inner political, strictly Armenian issue and that was how it would remain. I bring up the example often that when hundreds of thousands of our compatriots would voice their opinions, they are being led by the Armenian tricolor and nothing else,” Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stated.
“A model was formed in our country- a political, political-economic one, which has democracy and the advancement of democracy at its base. This revolution had to do with the fact that the people wanted a more obvious, stronger, and clearer democratic system in our country. It is this model that we wanted since 1991. This is the logic of our institutional development, and this was an inner political issue. But we also needed to convince everyone that Armenia is not saying anything about its foreign policy but doing something else entirely. When we expressed our goals for the government plan, that was what we were referring to. But, perhaps, we also needed time so that our colleagues would understand that,” Mnatsakanyan added.
Emma Gabrielyan
