Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9709249
During a Q&A at the World Youth Festival in Sirius, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, Margarita Simonyan criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He has suspended Yerevan’s participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which is considered Russia’s equivalent to NATO.
Simonyan is the editor-in-chief of the Kremlin mouthpiece RT. As an ally of Vladimir Putin and a regular guest on state television, she pushes the Russian leader’s rhetoric about his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Armenia’s youth must understand that Pashinyan is a traitor to the Armenian people and is leading Armenia to complete destruction if he remains in power,” said Simonyan on Monday, to applause from the audience.
Simonyan, who is of Armenian descent and has described herself as both Russian and Armenian, said that, if voters continued to support Pashinyan, “there will be no Armenia in five years—just as there is no longer any Karabakh in the form in which the Armenians needed it,” Simonyan said. “Armenia will not exist at all, you will see.”
Honestly, I think there’s an outside chance that this could also be an attempt to woo Erdogan, because not only does that guy LOVE denying that the Armenian genocide was a thing, but he also wants to create a resurgent Ottoman Empire, and that very much includes snarfing up territory of his neighbors.
More directly: Putin and Erdogan are already buddies. The plan might be to grant Erdogan a portion of the conquered land.
Edit: this could also just be as simple as a revenge ploy for Armenia leaving CSTO (Russia’s wish.com NATO). Which was due to the fact that Russia refused to assist Armenia when they invoked the mutual defense clause. Which is a darkly hilarious circular argument, to be quite honest.
I think this is more about signaling to Azerbaijan that Russia will support them military in a campaign against Armenia. Don’t get me wrong, Turkey loves denying the Armenian Genocide, but Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in hot wars as recent as last year and Azerbaijan has very close ties to Russia.