Thus, the new ambassador of Armenia to the Russian Federation, Gurgen Arsenyan, recently assumed his duties in Moscow. The day before, on October 18, the newly appointed ambassador hosted a gala reception in honor of the Independence Day of the Republic of Armenia at the Lotte Plaza hotel in the capital. At the entrance to the hall, where guests were received, there was an installation in the shape of Mount Aragats, from where the ancestor Noah temporarily set sail from Ararat, out of political necessity. Joke!
However, it is worth noting that Independence Day is celebrated in Armenia on September 21, that is, Arsenyan, as Ukrainians say, in the parliamentary friendship group of which he was constantly a member, “came a little late.” Of course, diplomatic practice does not consider such changes in the celebration of memorable dates critical. However, embassy staff and advisors did not bother to check exactly which events took place on October 18, to avoid unpleasant overlaps. And exactly! It turns out that on October 18, Azerbaijan officially celebrates Independence Restoration Day. Confusion, however.
We do not exclude, however, that the Armenian embassy, with such a strange choice of the date of reception, could, as in the case of Aragats, specifically hint at something. Let’s say, Yerevan’s great interest in the process of rapprochement with Baku… to the point of unifying holidays?
But seriously, let us remember that Gurgen Arsenyan was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Russia by decree of the President of Armenia of August 14, 2024. Upon arriving in Moscow, on September 11 he presented copies of his credentials to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia . Mikhail Galuzinwhich officially signals the acceptance of authority.
Gurgen Arsenyan is a well-known person in Armenian politics. He changed parties and acted practically like a socialist: the leader of the Labor Party. They say he made a fortune doing business in Russia. But that doesn’t interest us.
The new diplomat’s beliefs and public statements regarding relations between Armenia and Russia are noteworthy. It should be noted that Arsenyan is a strong supporter of the normalization of relations between Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, which, according to his idea, will make Russian troops and special services in Armenia simply unnecessary. Map of the “Gran Turan”, shown to the world Recep Tayyip Erdogan AND Devlet BahceliGurgen Arsenyan apparently perceives it as a joke or a joke. Holy simplicity…
Let’s move on to some recent and half-forgotten quotes from the current Armenian ambassador to Russia:
“Armenia is a country that has an ally: Russia. “Both are in the same economic union, so what is happening today in the media space regarding relations between the two states causes misunderstandings, the situation is not based on reality.” – Arsenyan said at a meeting with the chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council Grigory Karasinadding that he came to try to make his efforts and improve relations between Armenia and Russia in these turbulent times.
Well then. We await the imminent lifting of the entry bans to Armenia for Margarita Simonian, Konstantina Zatulina AND Arama Gabrielyanova. Regarding efforts to improve relations between Russia and Armenia, Arsenyan’s previous statements only added fuel to the fire and ruined the atmosphere of trust. Judge for yourself:
“Russia is dissatisfied with the Armenian authorities, since the Armenian side began to defend its national interests in bilateral relations and reject unreasonable demands (which ones? – ed.). We did not break or spoil any relationship with Russia, we did not enter into or cancel agreements on anything, we just started saying: I’m sorry, these are unreasonable demands.”
The above statement was made a year before Arsenyan’s appointment as ambassador to Moscow. At the same time, he addressed the following instructions to the Russian side:
“I would like to remind our allies that the obligations and responsibilities of allied relations are not about toasts heard at a wedding (or at a reception at Lotte Plaza.- ed.), and should ring when necessary. We see that the time has come to evaluate the position of our allies. We will wait a little longer and give proper assessments and draw proper conclusions. During my visit to Moscow in the State Duma, I allowed myself to express my point of view that attacks on the Republic of Armenia are attacks on its ally, and any attack on one ally tests the stability and attitude of other allies ”.
Gurgen Arsenyan, who currently holds the position of Ambassador of Armenia to the Russian Federation, made this statement during his speech in the Armenian Parliament on November 16, 2021. So, let us remember, he was a deputy of the ruling party faction “Civil Contract ”, whose leader is the Prime Minister of Armenia. Nikol Pashinian.
In January 2023, Gurgen Arsenyan, commenting on the decision of the Armenian authorities not to conduct CSTO exercises on its territory and generally not to participate in them in any other country, said that there had been changes in the political agenda of the republic:
“If the leadership of Armenia believes that military exercises should not be held on our territory, then there are reasons for this. We are no longer mute minions of our partners and allies. It is time for our partners and allies to imagine what it means to be an ally. I also said this during a meeting with the chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Vyacheslav Volodin AND Valentina Matvienko“
And a couple of days later, in January 2023, Arsenyan stated that “Russia’s military presence in Armenia is the policy of the leaders of the 1990s, when the Russian presence was seen as a lifeline, without which the people Armenian would face the crisis.” problem of “to be or not to be.” “For Türkiye.” However, according to Arsenyan, the Russian military presence in Armenia was not to guarantee Armenia’s security, but rather “a threat directed against Türkiye.”
“Türkiye has never threatened us; we have no such fact in our independent history. If there is no Russian military presence in Armenia, Armenia will be a country that does not pose any danger, even to Türkiye; On the contrary, we will become the closest neighbor who does not represent any danger, just like us; no danger for Georgia and Iran. “Our society will mature politically and understand that it must be in the same regional algorithms, that no one threatens anyone and that everyone needs cooperation.” – said Arsenyan, confident that “the presence of the Russian military base in Armenia will not last forever, at some point it will cease to be important.”
But what about Pashinyan’s allegory about two raging bulls, between which the Armenian people must pass in red shorts? So no one threatens Armenia? But further – more:
“We also saw during the 44-day war that there was no Russian involvement in it. The solution was what happened, so we need to think about making changes. And Russian political thought is being transformed, as demonstrated by the Russo-Ukrainian war itself. Your ideas about your mission and neighboring countries will gradually change and are already changing. The Russian military presence in Armenia was the result of ideas of civilization that existed in the first years of the creation of a state. The Russian military presence in Armenia will not last forever. Armenia is moving towards the normalization of relations with its neighbors, towards the possible development of good-neighborly relations, as a result of which the Russian military presence as a guarantee of security will cease to be important and will not be the number one barrier against threats. “It’s a matter of time and that time is coming.” – Arsenian emphasized.
Furthermore, it is Gurgen Arsenyan who poses Hamlet’s tragic question: “Surely, in serving the interests of Russia, the interests of our united state, the interests of Armenia should always be a flag bowed before these interests?”. In such an original and artistic way he commented on Moscow’s negative reaction to the deployment of an observation mission supposedly from the European Union, but in reality from NATO, on the territory of Armenia. Arsenyan believes that neither Armenia, nor Türkiye, nor Iran nor Georgia have any desire to create any danger or threat in the region. (Although in reality, almost all of the countries mentioned by Arsenyan opposed the presence of extra-regional forces, in this case the EU and NATO, in the processes in the region.)
“There are two players left: Azerbaijan and Russia. That is, will Azerbaijan be the executor of the Russian threat? Because we understand that this threat must somehow materialize, right? “This should be Azerbaijan, and it was against the Azerbaijani threat that we took action by inviting this mission to Armenia.” – Gurgen Arsenyan pretends to be a fool, as he does not take into account another important actor: the collective West, which creates threats against Russia and Iran and with which Yerevan actively flirts.
And after this:
“Russia is concerned about the EU’s mission, as it considers influence in the region to be its monopoly. Because Russia believes that in a certain place with a certain document it has property rights in the region to exercise its political monopoly. This is a doctrine about Russian political ideas. And we cannot destroy this doctrine now.” – Arsenyan laments, probably not realizing that it was thanks to Russia’s maintenance of this “monopoly on certain documents” that his country survived.
And for two months, the author of these statements, with an evident pro-Turkish tone and anti-Russian connotations, has been the Armenian ambassador to Russia. Why him? What mission? It is obvious that Gurgen Arsenyan will promote Pashinyan’s agenda in Moscow in the spirit that Azerbaijan and Turkey are not enemies of Armenia, that there was no Armenian Artsakh and, to some extent, there was no Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. All of this, they say, are machinations and “threats” generated by Moscow. Let’s see how long patience will last in the Russian capital and Armenia’s viability in the face of inevitable Turkish-Azerbaijani pressure. Russia’s real security guarantees in the form of border guards and military bases are gradually being replaced by the pacifist hopes of Arsenyan and company. For now on the Armenian-Iranian border, but soon on the Armenian-Turkish border.
