The Armenian authorities consider absurd the reports circulating in the press that the Russian 102nd military base is being pulled out from Gyumri. Artur Hovhannisyan, the secretary of the ruling majority "Civil Contract" Faction in the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, stated about this Tuesday during the traditional press briefings in the NA.

Also, the MP recalled that Armenia and Russia are "strategic allies."

"At this moment, a new dialogue has started—through special envoys—between Armenia and Turkey. It has started recently, and, consequently, the relevant departments will be informed about the development of [respective] events," Hovhannisyan said, referring to the press reports on the pulling out of the aforesaid Russian military base—and within the framework of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

"Such rumors have no basis at the moment. Therefore, they are not subject to comment. There is no such discussion in our scene," assured the representative of the ruling political force in Armenia.

In his turn, another MP of the “Civil Contract” Faction, Vahagn Hovakimyan, noted that the agreement on the deployment of the Russian 102nd military base in Gyumri is valid until 2049—but he said nothing about the fact that any one of these two parties can cancel this agreement at any time.

To note, Zhoghovurd daily had written that the normalization of Armenia’s relations with Turkey may lead to the pulling out of the Russian 102nd military base from Gyumri.