YEREVAN. – Political technologist Karen Kocharyan is surprised that well-known Armenian political figures note that there is no similarity between Crimea and Nagorno-Karabakh.

“When was Crimea Ukraine’s? Just as the Russians presented Crimea to Ukraine for fifty years, they had presented Karabakh to Azerbaijan in the same way. We got Karabakh back twenty-five years ago, and the Russians did this fifty years later.

“It’s incomprehensible for me when they say there is no similarity. It’s the same process,” the political technologist stated at a press conference on Friday.

In addition, Kocharyan likened Armenia’s diplomacy to the trapeze flights that are done in circuses.

“We [i.e., Armenia] jump from Russia to Europe, from Europe to Russia. There is such a flight in circus, but these flights are done very crudely,” he noted.     

To the reporters’ query as to whether Karabakh would enter into Russia, Karen Kocharyan responded: “I still have not heard anything official about this.” 

As reported earlier, the Armenian and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin had a telephonic conversation on Wednesday. They touched upon the situation created after the referendum in Crimea, and noted this as another example of the exercising of the people’s right to self-determination through free expression of will. They also underscored the importance of following international norms and principles, and first and foremost, the UN Charter.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am