{"id":538755,"date":"2026-05-03T10:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T07:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=538755"},"modified":"2026-05-03T11:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T08:19:28","slug":"armenian-parliament-speaker-we-will-not-allow-ourselves-to-become-a-province-we-will-not-be-governed-like-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/armenian-parliament-speaker-we-will-not-allow-ourselves-to-become-a-province-we-will-not-be-governed-like-belarus","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Parliament Speaker: \u201cWe Will Not Allow Ourselves to Become a Province. We Will Not Be Governed Like Belarus\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan<\/b><\/strong> said that a political operation aimed at changing power is being carried out against the country and drew a parallel with Belarus as an example of what Armenia, in his view, does not want to become. He made the remarks on Armenian Public Television on May 2, News Armenia<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf in Ukraine they are trying to advance and pursue their interests through military means, then in the Republic of Armenia there is an attempt at a political operation, an attempt to seize power\u201d<\/em>, he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, Russia is using the openness of Armenian society against the country itself \u2014 by buying advertising online and influencing opposition media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we are democratic is now being used against us. They say: is your internet open? We will buy so much advertising in that internet with our rubles that everything will be ours. Are 90\u201395% of Armenian media opposition? We will buy part of those media [\u2026] and use them against you. [\u2026] We will not allow the Republic of Armenia to become a province. We will not be governed like Belarus\u201d<\/em>, Simonyan said.<\/p>\n

He later returned to this comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither you must be Armenia, to have balanced relations with Russia and others, or you must be a periphery, or Belarus\u201d<\/em>, he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking about relations with Russia, the speaker stressed that Armenia does not intend to declare war on it or act against it, but will not sacrifice its independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not sell our independence. We will not become a province. This cannot happen \u2014 it has no price\u201d<\/em>, he said.<\/p>\n

Simonyan also said that the current Armenian opposition is pro-Russian, as they themselves acknowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in terms of values, I consider myself European. I believe the Armenian people are a European people, sharing European values. And European values are freedom of speech, human rights, individual freedoms, and the right to life, which for me are fundamental truths\u201d<\/em>, he added.<\/p>\n

Next week, Armenia will host a summit of the European Political Community and the first Armenia\u2013EU summit, which are expected to be attended by Emmanuel Macron<\/b><\/strong> and Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/b><\/strong>, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan said that a political operation aimed at changing power is being carried out against the country and drew a parallel with Belarus as an example of what Armenia, in his view, does not want to become. He made the remarks on Armenian Public Television on May […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":538754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f70512e7f58.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Armenian Parliament Speaker: \u201cWe Will Not Allow Ourselves to Become a Province. We Will Not Be Governed Like Belarus\u201d"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143090],"tags":[143118,143122],"class_list":["post-538755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarus","tag-rossija"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}