Ashotian: No one can drive a wedge between peoples of Armenia and Russia

“No one can drive a wedge in relations between the Armenian and Russian peoples,” the deputy chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotian told reporters following the government session today, when speaking about the statement of Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volynkin.

In an interview with Russian-language Armenian paper ‘Noyev Kovcheg” based in Moscow, Ivan Volynkin said Russia needs to more actively make its presence felt in Armenia’s information field. “Yet it is evidently necessary to use other methods as well to neutralize those Armenia-based NGOs that want to drive a wedge in Armenian-Russian relations,” the ambassador noted.

“In Armenia the role of NGO is becoming more and more important, with most of them taking a pro-government and pro-Armenian position. But there are also organizations that follow the principle of “who pays the piper calls the tune”, Ashotian said.
“I don’t know any Armenia-based NGO which has violated requirements of the law,” he noted.

When commenting on the statement of the U.S. Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick to the effect that Armenia should withdraw from territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh and transfer them to Azerbaijan, Ashotian said: “The main goal of Armenia’s authorities and opposition is to prevent the Karabakh problem from becoming a new center of a global geopolitical confrontation. Karabakh is not a shooting ground. Karabakh struggled and continues to struggle for its right, and the exercise of this right does not depend on superpowers and political interests of the given period of time”.