Yerevan accuses Russian media of waging “hybrid war” against Armenia
- 25 September, 17:33
Arayik Harutyunyan, Chief of Staff to the Armenian Prime Minister has accused the Russian media of waging a “hybrid war” against his country.
Commenting on his Facebook page on Sunday, Harutunyan wrote: "It seems that with the hybrid war unleashed by the Russian media against Armenia, the promises were like in a famous fairy tale: the one who tells the biggest lie will get half of the palace/Kremlin.”
Harutunyan was referring to Russian media reports about alleged storming of the government building by protesters in Yerevan on 20 September. According to these reports, protesters "found American paratroopers" in the building.
Harutyunyan denied the storming of the government building on that day, stressing that "not a single American paratrooper was there".
"How did it happen that the worst propagandists of Russian TV channels are Armenians: Margarita Simonyan, Tigran Keosayan, Aram Gabrielyanov, Semyon Baghdasarov, Roman Babayan, Sergey Kurginyan, Andranik Migranyan, etc.," Harutyunyan added.
The strategic partnership between Armenia and Russia has reached the lowest point amid Russia’s inaction in Nagorno-Karabakh hostilities in recent weeks. Yerevan has blamed Moscow for failing to protect Armenia amid Azerbaijan’s “anti-terror” operation launched in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 that ended with Baku’s lightning victory the next day. The hostilities were followed by an emergency meeting between Baku and Nagorno-Karabakh officials on September 21.
Russia’s failure to help its ally has outraged many people in Armenia. Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, with clear reference to Russia, that the security systems and allies on which his country has relied for many years "demonstrated our vulnerability".
