This summer has not seen any special political events except for the Armenian-Russian agreement prolonging the Russian military base’s presence in Armenia, Chairman of the People’s Party of Armenia Tigran Karapetyan told a press conference on August 28.

Happy about the agreement, Karapetyan is sure the Russian military presence “at this hard time is a guarantee for us not to be afraid of Turks and be able to respond strongly to Azerbaijan.”

“The Russian base’s presence in Armenia is more important that import of weapons,” Karapetyan said. He pointed out that the Armenian-Russian agreement thwarted the U.S. ambitions to introduce peacemakers into the region. “By its step Russia closed the southern gate and showed the U.S. it cannot introduce NATO into the region through Georgia. Russia also helped Iran,” Karapetyan said. 

As regards the Heritage Party’s statement that Armenia should, if necessary secede from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), he said that “this party is an American project and is interested in American priorities in the region being superior to Russian priorities. The fact is that the forces involved in American projects always do disservices,” Karapetyan said.