Roman Baghdasaryan Biography Blogger

On the conditions of the world between Armenia Azerbaijan, European integration, as well as the attitude of ordinary Armenians to Turkey and Russia, TRT in Russian talked with a famous journalist and blogger from Yerevan Roman Baghdasaryan, Roman Baghdasaryan Roman Baghdasaryan, a famous Yerevan journalist. In his blog, he stands for peace between Baku and Yerevan and tries to find points of reconciliation between two peoples.

TRT in Russian talked with Baghdasaryan about the European integration of Armenia, the possible exit of the country from the CSTO, a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and the attitude of ordinary people to all this. He also did not rule out the beginning of the war at the end of the week, if Yerevan does not compromise. What did he mean? If we return to negotiations with Azerbaijan and at the same time say that we will not give four Azerbaijani villages, then the only thing that this can lead to is a dead end.

And the dead end always ends deplorable and bloody. As they say: if diplomats are silent, guns begin to work. As for these four villages, they are the territory of a neighboring state, not Armenia. And this is what the Prime Minister voiced. As for the territory of Armenia, including the Tavush region, we are not going to give, transfer or hand over a single centimeter of our land to anyone.

If there is talk about demarcation and delimitation, then Armenia is ready to be honest for its part and fulfill this condition. But we are talking about the excels of Azerbaijan, which were in our hands in the X. However, unfortunately, Baku continues to control the heights at which the 31st settlement of sovereign Armenia is located. The Azerbaijani side does not allow farmers to carry out agricultural work and actually paralyzed life in these territories with their actions.

I believe that the process should go on both sides. That is, the Azerbaijani side must also remove its troops earlier than the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shakhin Mustafaev called the accusations of "occupation" unfounded, since the borders have not yet been determined-approx. As Nikol Pashinyan noted, the Azerbaijani side has already stated that she did not occupy specifically.

Accordingly, if the Azerbaijani troops leave these heights, then theoretically this issue is removed. In practice, I do not know how it will be. How can this process go? The same is considered in the government of Armenia. Together with the Azerbaijani side, they work for hours, days, months. They work out every detail, consult, including with public services. So this is the opinion not only to the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikola Pashinyan.

How do you evaluate work on a peace treaty, is it possible to sign it? And, of course, primarily for Armenia, which is 35 years old, where instead of the world is one grief, pain and tears. But all statements should be implemented in practice, turn into any specific steps that will prove to the population that the Azerbaijani side wants to sign a peace treaty. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan wants this, but his one desire is not enough.

We want peace. But it is necessary that the sincerity of the statements of the parties is confirmed in practice. I do not want to be an optimist, so as not to be disappointed again. In the medium -term and long term, the Armenian government and most of the country's people are aimed at concluding peace with Azerbaijan. But Baku continues to purchase weapons in a massive order.

And for some reason it seems to me that he could again attack Armenia, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev previously stated that his country has no plans to attack Armenia-approx. I hope that my pessimism will disappear after any specific actions. But the last 35 years we have been living in this pessimistic atmosphere. How do you evaluate the interaction of Yerevan and Ankara?

Almost 80 million people live in the country. Türkiye is a serious, strong, powerful player. Someone likes it or not, but this is an absolute fact. It is impossible not to reckon with Ankara. In Armenia, in my observation, many politicians quite soberly evaluate that they need to work and cooperate with Turkey. There are more than thousand in the country. A lot of Armenian tourists with Russian citizenship fly in Istanbul and rest at local resorts.

Technical moments remained. Today, negotiations are ongoing about the restoration of the Ani bridge. The border was supposed to open last summer, but this did not happen. Then a reason was found due to the installation of the monument in Yerevan, and the Turkish side refused to open the border for people from third countries. We hope for progress in this matter after the Antalya diplomatic forum.

As for Russia, it is not a neutral side. Moscow helped Azerbaijan in the war. Moreover, the Kremlin sent people of Armenian nationality to make a panic. These were representatives of the Dashnaktsutyun party, the Union of Armenians of Russia. We had such traitors - Armenians who helped Azerbaijani troops.They ran with false passports and told people to leave and would not fight.

And Moscow is as interested in destabilizing the situation in Yerevan to overthrow democratic power and lead the country to authoritarianism. This attitude does not apply to Russians. Armenians are very hospitable people and treats everyone friendly. Armenians are wise and never translate rejection and hatred of the political system of Russia into ordinary citizens.

Although, of course, we perfectly understand that there are many Russian agents in Yerevan, including Russian special services. As well as discipline, strength, sport, taxes and on their own reserves. Of course, we have a lot of allies. They all are very good and respectful about the authorities of Armenia. But, as the Prime Minister of Armenia says, it is very important to normalize relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, because these countries are with us in the neighborhood.

We live nearby, we have common boundaries. If we open the roads, then we must go to each other and agree in any situation. There are issues that people who live in Washington or in other countries of the world cannot solve us. Many steps have already been taken in this direction: statements, grants, consultations and the work of individual EU commissions in Armenia.

The status of an EU candidate is very good. As for the liberalization of the visa regime, this is also a plus for the Armenian population. The world is much more. You can trade with European countries, work even more together, fight for their markets, not limited only to Russian. If we expand the trade with the EU for some name, we will become independent of the threats of the Russian Foreign Ministry and people who from time to time find beetles in any products that were never found before.

However, we know that even Türkiye has long been a candidate for joining the EU. Therefore, the status of a candidate is not yet an EU, but already part of Europe, which makes the population and authorities more disciplined. Therefore, I think this is the right path. There is Tajikistan, who is blackmailed by the fact that if he comes out, then people from Afghanistan will attack him.

As well as Kyrgyzstan, which depends on Russian funding. I will not lie that for the economy of Armenia, membership in the organization plays a huge role. But over the past five years, we have changed a lot. For example, last year, negotiations with Bahrain, Kuwait and Tunisia successfully ended. And this is very important. The more we trade with other countries, the less we will depend on one market.

There are a lot of bots in social networks. A huge number of paid people around the clock are accused of Pashinyan, his supporters, bloggers. He is supported by the government, I am also his supporter. And I personally feel how much money they pay to pour me with dirt. Unfortunately, some part of the people naively believes this lie. But his rating is very high, people believe him.

Yes, they can be annoyed by some things, the population is tired of the war in Ukraine, from coronavirus, from daytime war and terrible events in Karabakh. But it cannot be said that citizens are against the prime minister. The opposition pours a lot of money to hit his reputation and discredit before the next parliamentary elections. But Pashinyan’s press conferences gain many views on different resources.

This means that his words are important and listen to him. TRT Russian.