The speakers were the two oppositionist political parties of the National Assembly and representatives of parties not from the National Assembly. Representative of the ARF Bureau on Political Issues and the HyeDat Yerevan branch Kiro Manoyan was also present at the meeting, as well as representatives from the Armenian Republican Party, “Rule of Law”, Armenian and Iranian embassies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The latter (as well as the others) had not accepted the inviation, claiming that the topic was “too delicate”.
It really is delicate if we take into consideration the fact that Armenia currently faces a problem-if the U.S. declares war on Iran, what will happen to Armenia? First, let’s talk about the first part of the issue-the conditions. The U.S. continues to worry about Iran’s nuclear weapons and the fact that Iran is uniting the Muslim world to be based on its ideology and go against the West. Will the U.S. treat Iran the same way it did Iraq three years ago? According to leader of the Armenian Christian-Democratic Union Khosrov Harutyunyan, since there is only one and a half years left until the U.S. presidential elections, this issue will be taken out of U.S. politics. Besides that, he thinks that neither the U.S. nor Iran want to go to war. Harutyunyan is of the opinion that the “best solution” is for the world to recognize the new cosmopolitan role that Iran plays. Specialist of the Armenian Center for National Strategic Research Stepan Safaryan, however, is not too optimistic about this. He is certain that the U.S. will take a decisive step. He recalls the announcement that George Bush made, when he said that the U.S. must strengthen its power all over the world. But leader of the Armenian Democratic Party Aram G. Sargsyan says that “we shouldn’t pay attention to what Bush says, because Bush is just saying whatever he wants to say.” On the other hand, the world has already seen what Bush is capable of doing. In Safaryan’s opinion, Armenia can find itself in the center of the stage if a war starts between the U.S. and Iran and claims that “this issue will not be solved even with the allocation of peacekeeping forces in the region.”
So, what is Armenia to do-should it forget about its strategic ally? Let’s recall the announcement made by U.S. Ambassador John Evans a couple of days ago, when he called on all countries to not have relations with Iran in the energy field, otherwise…According to Kiro Manoyan, in this case, “the issue not only concerns the U.S., but also Russia.” He believes that we Armenians must “withstand the pressure of our strategic ally.”
“Why does Armenia have to be under the control of someone else? We can have our own interests,” said representative of the Armenian National Movement (ANM) Yerjanik Abgaryan and added:
“There are some industrial fields in Iran which may be of importance for Armenia, particularaly the energy field. We need a lot of help in that field.”
Abgaryan contradicted himself by saying:
“Iran doesn’t need us, but we need Iran.”
Hrant Khachatryan, leader of the Constitutional Rights Union took this into consideration and said that to this day, he has not understood why Armenians claim that Armenia has to be independent and neutral.
“If the West expands strategically, as well as spreads its ideology and expands its economy, then this will threaten the security of the region.”
Armenian-Iranian relations must be strengthened.“Iran must play a large role in Armenia,” says Kh. Harutyunyan. During an interview, Harutyunayan said that by cooperating with countries within the region, Iran can also implement its projects aimed towards establishing peace. Iran can especially implement its power-generating projects. Europe needs that power and that power can then be transferred to Armenia.
“Why shouldn’t we do all we can to make that happen? If we help strengthen Armenian-Iranian relations, then if anything happens to Armenia in the future, Iran will protect us because it will have some capital here. Why not take advantage of that opportunity?” says the leader of the Armenian Christian-Democratic Union. However, he does emphasize the fact that this doesn’t refer to allocating Iran’s military bases in Armenia because that will threaten other countries, especially Russia. Harutyunyan also uses the “balanced cooperation” expression.
“One of our priorities must be to have large countries in the region, but in a way that they compete against each other,” says Kh. Harutyunyan.