Ter-Petrosian’s spokesman, Arman Musinian, said he discussed with Sergei Kopyrkin Russian-Armenian relations as well as “issues related to Armenia's internal situation and regional security.” Musinian gave no other details of their conversation.
The Russian Embassy in Yerevan issued no statement on the meeting held at Ter-Petrosian’s private residence.
Ter-Petrosian stood for close ties between Armenia and Russian during and after his 1991-1998 presidency. Like other opposition figures, some of the 80-year-old ex-president’s associates have criticized as reckless Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s ongoing efforts to reorient the South Caucasus country towards the West which have raised serious tensions in Russian-Armenian relations.
Pashinian says that he is “diversifying” Armenian foreign and security policy in response to Moscow’s failure to honor its security commitments to Yerevan. As part of that policy change, he has frozen Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization and effectively pledged to seek its eventual accession to the European Union.
Ter-Petrosian, who rarely makes public appearances, received another foreign ambassador, Iran’s Mehdi Sobhani, on February 13. According to Musinian, he “expressed his admiration” for Sobhani’s statements made at a February 6 news conference in Yerevan.
The Iranian envoy said, in particular, that the extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave demanded by Baku would be bad for both Armenia and Iran. “Only Iran supports Armenia, opposing the so-called ‘Zangezur corridor,’” he told journalists.
Iran reacted angrily after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Yerevan last August of “sabotaging” a Russian-brokered 2020 agreement that commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan. It warned Russia against contributing to any “geopolitical changes” in the region.
Commenting on Sobhani’s statement, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman insisted on February 14 that Moscow and Tehran have similar positions on the thorny issue.