Armenian politician on possible Russian-US exploitation of Gabala radar station: "Baku will rise, but Yerevan will go down"
If an agreement is reached on joint Russian-American exploitation of the Gabala radar station, Azerbaijan will climb another stage in the eyes of the USA, and Armenia will go down, deputy chair of the Armenian National Movement Party Aram Manukyan said at a news conference in Yerevan.
As a REGNUM correspondent informs, according to Manukyan, if the United States does not give up the idea of deploying its missile defense in Czechia and Poland, it will affect Russia negatively. "Taking into consideration that Moscow is Armenia?s major strategic partner, it will have the same effect for Armenia," he said.
As Manukyan noted, as for other neighbors, Georgia and Turkey, their alliance with Baku in projects isolating Armenia today is the main foreign policy challenge in Yerevan.
Moreover, according to Manukyan, if Turkey and Azerbaijan?s actions against Armenia are understandable, it is evident in Georgia that Armenia is not treated as a friendly nation.
This, according to him, is stipulated by a recent statement by Robert Kocharyan that Armenia?s joining NATO will be a step backwards for its sovereignty. The international community believes that negative attitude of one of South Caucasian countries towards joining European institutions hampers tehprocess of uniting the whole region with Europe.
Manukyan also believes that such pro-Russian direction of Armenia?s foreign policy is not justified. Russia "caused damage" to Armenia, and withdrawal of Russian military bases for the territory of Samtskhe-Javakheti, mostly populated by Armenians and the base was practically the only working place for them. At the same time, he noted that Moscow even paid to Tbilisi for deploying its forces in the Georgian territory. "Why is Russia not paying to Armenia for its military base in Gyumri?" asked Aram Manukyan.
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