Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan on Wednesday again questioned the wisdom of having Russian border guards in Armenia while saying that the Armenian government is not considering demanding their withdrawal.
“They’re saying now, ‘What about the border with Turkey, who is going to protect it and so on?’” he told reporters. “I very much doubt that if Turkey decides to invade Armenia the Russian border guards will be able or willing to protect it.”
Simonyan, who is a key member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team, already said in late February that he is “not sure they will defend the borders of our country” in case of a foreign aggression. In a clear reference to not only the border guards but also Russian troops stationed in Armenia, he claimed that they “did everything to make those borders much more vulnerable.”
The border guards have for decades been stationed along Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran as well as at Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport. During and after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, they were also deployed, along with Russian army units, to some sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
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On March 12, Pashinian announced that his government has given Moscow until August 1 to withdraw the border guards from Zvartnots. Armenia, he said, has the capacity to “carry out border controls at the airport without the help of the Russian side.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the move, saying that Yerevan risks inflicting “irreparable damage” on Russian-Armenian relations and jeopardizing Armenia’s security and economic development. Earlier in March, a senior Russian lawmaker said he “would not recommend that the Armenian authorities even think about” demanding the withdrawal of all Russian border guards and military forces.
Pashinian has signaled no such plans so far. Still, he has frozen his country’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization and not ruled out a bid to join the European Union.
Simonyan indicated on Wednesday that Yerevan is in no rush to officially apply for EU membership.
“We need to do many things in Armenia so that we don’t wait [for EU membership] for years, as our neighbors do,” said the speaker. “Many standards would have to be changed in Armenia.”
Simonyan was the first Armenian official to publicly float the idea of seeking EU membership on February 29. He claimed that Armenia has “much better democracy indicators” than some EU member states.
