No Armenian Government Has Criticized the US as Hard as I Did: Pashinyan

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to a question about Armenian-American relations in an interview with "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" after sending a humanitarian mission to Syria.

“No Armenian government has been criticized by Washington as harshly regarding the humanitarian military mission to Syria, at least publicly, as the current government has,” said Pashinyan in response to a question from journalist Yuri Simonyan about how to rectify relations with the United States.

“On the contrary, no Armenian government has criticized the US as much as I have. For us, it is important to maintain our independence and sovereignty,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

According to him, Armenia cannot exist detached from regional and international relations.

“We are always open for discussions regarding the mission sent to Syria. We are ready to answer all their questions. We believe we made the right decision. On April 24, we marked another anniversary of the commemoration of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. If Armenian sappers clear a small area for the playground of children whose ancestors saved at least one Armenian’s life, and such people exist in Aleppo, then our mission is justified. If Armenian doctors save even one Syrian whose ancestors saved the life of one Armenian during the Genocide, then our mission has justified itself. And this has been realized; our doctors have performed more than 100 surgeries in Syria,” Pashinyan noted.

Speaking about issues related to strategic relations with the Russian Federation, Pashinyan stated:

“Nothing has changed in our relations with Russia. If anything has changed, it is only in a positive direction. As I promised, there are no dark corners in our relationships; our position in working discussions and communications does not differ from public statements, and this is a good opportunity to elevate our relations to a new level. Of course, Russia is our strategic partner and ally.

However, it is necessary to consider that we have our own internal political agenda that does not coincide with the internal political agendas of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, France, or the USA,” Pashinyan said.