Aram Karapetyan: Putin did nothing to avert the scandal (video)
Chairman of the New Times Party (NZhK), an ardent advocate of the Customs Union, knew that Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev would not behave property during the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council held in Astana on May 29. “I expected that something would happen during the meeting. I understand that his [Nazarbayev’s] relations with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. However, I think that Alyev made a stupid statement from the political point of view. It [Aliyev’s letter] implies more strain and tension on borders. Serzh Sargsyan was right when he said, “And who said that Armenia is going to join the Customs Union together with Karabakh?” said Aram Karapetyan. In reply to a journalist’s observation that members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) earlier stated that Armenia would join the CU with Karabakh, the NZhK chairman said, “The HHK was cheating people. Did you suppose them to say that we are joining the Union without Karabakh? In Astana, they gave us a good lesson that politics is not confined to Nzhdehism or good ideas uttered in one’s country. I am for joining the Union with Diyarbakir and Sarighamish. So far, we have joined all organizations without Karabakh and everyone knows that Karabakh is not within Armenia.” Aram Karapetyan is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had received a copy of Alyev’s letter before the Astana summit. “Putin clearly understood that there would be a scandal and could have averted it. But he did nothing. One the one hand, he patted Azerbaijan saying he should have read the letter. On the other hand, he made it clear that writing the letter was a stupid idea,” said Mr Karapetyan.
