/TASS/. Armenia’s recognition that the initially taken course of rapprochement with Russia was wrong can lead to a significant revision of bilateral relations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference following the Antalya Diplomatic Forum.
“To say that since 1991 Armenia has taken the wrong course in everything in relations with Russia requires, to put it mildly, political courage,” Lavrov noted in connection with the corresponding statements of representatives of the current Armenian leadership.
“If this is the assessment of the entire Armenian leadership, and it is based on the opinion of the entire Armenian people, then this makes it necessary to reconsider a lot in Russian-Armenian relations,” he said.
“We cannot prohibit making any statements or announcements regarding our future ties, but ultimately everyone must rely on the opinion of their people,” Lavrov added.
Read also
Lavrov noted that Armenia has been led by promises of help from the West, which in reality is trying to force it to break relations with Russia and integration structures in the region.
“The Armenian leadership has decided to rely on non-regional countries that are courting Yerevan, that promise to help Yerevan in all its troubles, if only Armenia breaks off relations with Russia and those integration structures that have been created in our common region,” he noted.
“The West does not hide this fact. This is the main goal of the West in relations with the countries of Central Asia, and with Armenia, and with other states of the post-Soviet space,” he added.
However, the Armenian leadership has still not officially confirmed its final decision, the minister stated. Instead, according to him, politicians in Yerevan are only discussing whether it is worth suspending participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or even leaving the CSTO altogether, while they are still interested in the Eurasian Economic Union, since Armenia benefits from it one way or the other.
“This is not a very attractive picture. We would like our Armenian colleagues, our Armenian partners to decide for themselves how they want to continue to live and how they want to implement on a mutual basis those agreements that bind us in the most different integration structures,” Lavrov concluded.