Tigran Khzmalyan, CO-Chairman of the European Party of Armenia, claims that the clashes in Tegh village this spring, as well as earlier in Syunik and Jermuk, were caused by a joint Russian-Azerbaijani plan to punish Armenia. He told Aravot.am that the control of Armenia’s borders was handed over to Russia in 1995 with the consent of the First President, Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
“If the FSB (Federal Security Service) troops of Russia control the western and southern borders, then after 2020, separate parts of the eastern border became the responsibility zone of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. After the September 2022 attack by Azerbaijan and over 200 casualties of the Armenian army, already in November, the EU offered to send 40 observers to Syunik. According to Pashinyan’s testimony, the Russian troops refused to withdraw and give way to the EU observers in both areas. One was right near the village of Tegh.
Russian President Putin did not fulfill Pashinyan’s request and did not remove his troops from there, saying it is a “problematic area.” A new breakthrough attempt was being prepared there to cut off Syunik from Armenia and reach Nakhichevan, opening the “Zangezur Corridor.”
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That attempt was made right near the village of Tegh, where the Russians retreated at the agreed time, letting the Azeris inside. However, the Armenian resistance and the quick reaction of the West thwarted that project.”
According to Khzmalyan, it should be recorded that the Azeris could not advance where the Europeans stood. “Where there are EU observers, we have neither victim nor wounded. The only place where they came forward is Tegh.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
