Ален Симонян. Скриншот видео
Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly Alen Simonyan responded to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s reaction to his comparison of Belarus with a Russian province and said it is harming relations between Minsk and Yerevan, Panorama reported.
“No comment. Belarus is Belarus, Armenia is Armenia. I am responsible for my country”, he said when asked by a journalist to comment on the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s statement about pre-election populism in Armenia.
Asked whether the statements would worsen relations between Armenia and Belarus, Simonyan said the deterioration is caused by Minsk’s disrespectful attitude towards Yerevan.
“What worsens relations is not this, but the disrespectful attitude towards Armenia, towards an ally in the CSTO, towards Armenian statehood. Relations were worsened by preparations with Azerbaijan for the 44-day war. There are many factors that worsen relations, and political course is the choice of each state”, the speaker of the Armenian parliament said.
Simonyan stressed that the governance model of Belarus is unacceptable for Armenia.
“For Armenia, human rights and freedoms are the most important values. I believe that every country chooses its own path: we have chosen the path of democratisation, while they have chosen a somewhat different path, not the same as Armenia.
Armenia will not become a province, Armenia will not be politically dependent, Armenia will raise the level of its sovereignty, and the model of governance in Belarus is unacceptable for my country, for me. Armenia is a free country, with its own free media, human rights, and the rule of law”, Simonyan said.
It should be recalled that on May 3, Simonyan compared Belarus to a province of Russia. Belarus’s Foreign Ministry described the remarks as pre-election populism and an exercise in offensive labelling. A note of protest was handed to Armenia’s chargé d’affaires in Belarus a note of protest was handed.