Azatutyun. Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan declined to attend a meeting of top defense officials of ex-Soviet states held in Russia on Friday, underscoring Yerevan’s deepening rift with Moscow.
A spokesman for Papikyan gave no reason for his decision. Nor did he say whether the Armenian Defense Ministry sent other officials to the annual session of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier in the day that military delegations of eight CIS countries, including Armenia, will attend the meeting in the Russian city of Tula. It said the participants include Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Azerbaijani counterpart Zakir Hasanov.
Papikyan similarly shunned in May this year a meeting in Belarus of a smaller number of ex-Soviet states making up the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Yerevan has repeatedly accused Russia and the Russian-led military alliance of not fulfilling their obligation to defend Armenia against Azerbaijani attacks.
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Russian-Armenian relations deteriorated further this month after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declared that the alliance with Russia cannot guarantee his country’s national security. Pashinian went on to send his wife to Ukraine with a batch of humanitarian aid and to press ahead with parliament ratification of the founding treaty of an international court that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.
Moscow condemned those “unfriendly” actions. It warned on Thursday the ratification of the Rome Statute expected next week would be an “extremely hostile” move on the part of Yerevan. Armenian opposition groups likewise said that it could have severe consequences for Armenia.
In another development bound to irk Moscow, Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian on Friday made a point of meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Ruslan Stefanchuk on the sidelines of an international conference of parliamentarians in Dublin. The Armenian parliament’s press office said they discussed prospects for closer ties between Ukrainian and Armenian lawmakers.
It also said Simonian briefed Stefanchuk on the grave humanitarian consequences of Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh which forced its ethnic Armenian residents to flee their homeland. Ukraine’s current and former governments have always backed Azerbaijani efforts to regain control of Karabakh.
