Armenia’s consul general to the second largest Russian city of St. Petersburg has denied recognizing the “reunification” of Crimea with Russia after a local report quoted him as saying that.
Earlier this week, the official website of Russia’s Pskov Oblast published a report, suggesting that during his March 24 meeting with Pskov Governor Andrey Turchak Armenia’s Consul General to St. Petersburg Hrair Karapetian “congratulated the Russian official and all Russians on the reunification of Crimea with Russia.”
Karapetian rushed to deny the report, saying that his meeting with Turchak was of a ‘fact-finding nature’ and that during it they mostly discussed community issues, as well as issues connected with the development of economic ties between the Pskov Oblast and Armenia.
The Armenian diplomat underscored that he did not make any such statements during the meeting, suggesting that the reporter who covered the event “may have confused something”.
“Taking the opportunity, I said that, of course, our official position is – and both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other sources declared about that – that the right of peoples to self-determination, which was accepted in relevant UN documents, must be respected. I also cited the example of Nagorno-Karabakh as a self-determined territory and our conversation was limited to that,” Karapetian explained.
“Probably the regional correspondent, who was listening to our conversation, concluded for himself that this could be presented as a greeting or congratulation regarding the recognition of Crimea [as part of Russia], and that way the wrong wording appeared. I corrected that, turning to the corresponding news service, the problem was corrected,” Armenia’s consul general to St. Petersburg told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am).
In their telephone conversation on March 19, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were quoted as stating that the referendum in Crimea “constitutes another case of exercise of peoples’ right to self-determination via free expression of will.”
Ukraine construed that statement as Armenia’s recognition of Russia’s annexation of what official Kyiv and the broader international community still consider to be Ukrainian territory. Last week Ukraine officially recalled its ambassador from Armenia, warning of serious damage to bilateral ties.
Earlier, United States Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern voiced Washington’s disappointment with the Armenian government’s decision to effectively recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea strongly condemned by the West.
Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) on Tuesday, German Ambassador to Armenia Reiner Morell, however, allowed for this to be a simple statement of Yerevan’s approach towards the right of peoples to self-determination in general. He said the German Embassy in Yerevan had got that understanding from its communication with the Armenian government.