Armen Rustamian, the new head of the pan-Armenian party’s worldwide Bureau, made a case for such a strategic move as he lambasted the Armenian government’s foreign and security policy which he claimed is dictated by Turkey and Azerbaijan.
“Instead of increasing the number of our friends, we are turning our friends into enemies,” he told a news conference. “We believe that we must first of all reinforce our allied, strategic relations with Russia, for which there is a legal framework. A military-political alliance with Iran should be immediately concluded with the logic that an attack on one country would mean an attack on the other as well.”
Rustamian pointed to Iran’s strong opposition to the Azerbaijani demands for an extraterritorial land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave that would pass through the sole Armenian region bordering the Islamic Republic.
“It’s no secret to anyone that on the question of the so-called Zangezur corridor Iran takes the clearest position which reflects our national interests much more than what our authorities do,” he said. “So we should enable Iran to also have legal-political grounds to fully fulfill its commitments in defense of our vital national interests.”
Iran has repeatedly warned Azerbaijan as well as Turkey against attempting to strip it of the common border or direct transport links with Armenia. The Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Mehdi Sobhani, stressed last month that “only Iran supports Armenia” in opposing the corridor.
Armenian leaders have welcomed Tehran’s stance. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has said that the two nations have common “natural interests” and that Yerevan remains committed to deepening Armenian-Iranian relations.
However, Pashinian’s government has stopped short of pursuing the kind of close military ties that are now sought by Dashnaktsutyun. It has been trying instead to reorient Armenia towards the West, deepening an unprecedented rift with Moscow. Pashinian admitted last week that Iran’s long-running tensions with the West have a “negative” impact on its cooperation with Armenia.
Rustamian met the press following the conclusion of Dashnaktsutyun’s congress held in the Armenian resort town of Tsaghkadzor. A statement adopted by its delegates and released on Monday likewise called, among other things, for a serious change in Armenian foreign policy.
The change advocated by Rustamian has not yet been officially backed by Armenia’s leading opposition group, the Hayastan bloc, of which Dashnaktsutyun is a key component. The bloc’s top leader, former President Robert Kocharian, has previously called for closer military ties with Iran. Speaking at a news conference last month, Kocharian said that Tehran’s stance is what has primarily deterred Azerbaijan so far from invading Armenia to open the corridor to Nakhichevan.
