Ara, Who Have You Become That You Don't Greet the Russian President at the Airport: Serzh Sargsyan to Pashinyan

Russia has been our ally, is our ally today, and I am confident it will be our ally tomorrow. This was stated yesterday by Armenia's third president Serzh Sargsyan during a meeting with residents of the Aragatsotn region on the second day of the election campaign.

“As an ally, they have mainly fulfilled their obligations. But we must understand a very important thing: these allied relations are not one-sided. We cannot sit here and assume that we only have to ask from the Russians. And, let’s say, they must bring their soldiers here to sacrifice them, they must provide us with gas for free. In other words, they seem to owe us, right? Such a thing cannot be. There is no such thing even in human relationships. Friends are there to help one another, not for it to be the case that only one side assists. If only one is always helping, then it is not friendship anymore. If you show disrespect towards the President of the Russian Federation, will he treat you with respect?

Ara, who have you become that you don't greet the President of the Russian Federation at the airport? Who are you? Who are you, Ara, that you are showing disrespect to that person?” said the third president of Armenia.

It should be noted that the remarks refer to the visit on October 1, 2019. In Yerevan, Putin participated in the expanded meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which was also attended by leaders of other member states of the EAEU. All the leaders of the countries were greeted at the airport by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, while Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomed him at the presidential residence.