Alen Simonyan: In Karabakh they opened Putin's picture, wrote ‘Thank you, Russia,’ but that changed in one day

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came to Yerevan, then went to Baku, and Azerbaijan attacked the borders of Armenia. What conclusions do you draw from this? Did the Russian side provoke the war? A reporter asked this question in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia to NA speaker Alen Simonyan. 

In response Simonyan said: "It's bad, very bad. What conclusions should I draw? Are you now waiting for the president of the NA to make accusations against the neighboring state? I will not make such a statement. I believe that the public of Armenia and the population of Nagorno-Karabakh know the reality very well, and the disappointment that happened in Nagorno-Karabakh. Do you remember? They were writing the letter Z, opening up [Russian president] Putin's picture, writing, 'Thank you, Russia.' All that changed in one day, and we saw that the Russian peacekeepers [in Nagorno-Karabakh] allowed—with inaction—and escorted the Armenian population out of Karabakh. I believe that there is no need to make specific, direct statements."

To the question why Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan constantly reminds about this. Alen Simonyan responded: "It is constantly difficult to hear that they want to create the impression that as if all this happened when just a year ago Armenia said that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. That is, they have found a point, they are constantly talking about it so that it becomes reality; but it will not become reality."

He added, however, that Russia is an allied country o Armenia.

"We [i.e. Armenia] are working in the direction that the ally will at least start fulfilling its obligations [towards Armenia] at some point," said the head of the Armenian legislature.