VIDEO: I Will Never Visit Belarus While Lukashenko is President, Says Pashinyan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he does not plan to visit Belarus as long as Alexander Lukashenko is the president of the country. He made this announcement during a session of the National Assembly.

Responding to opposition accusations that he is not fulfilling the government program, which discussed work planned within the CSTO framework, Pashinyan explained that the program created in 2021 stated that Armenia aims to implement CSTO mechanisms for the benefit of the country.

“One of the CSTO co-chairpersons has announced that he participated in preparations for the 44-day war, encouraged and wished for Azerbaijan's victory. After that, should I meet with the president of Belarus in the CSTO format to discuss issues? I declare that I will never visit Belarus again, as long as Alexander Lukashenko is the president there. The position regarding the CSTO may change if Belarus decides to withdraw from the CSTO or if the president of that country expresses words of apology and explanation that the people of Armenia would find acceptable,” stated Pashinyan.

He emphasized that from now on, no official representative of Armenia will be visiting Belarus.

It is worth noting that during his visit to Azerbaijan on May 16, the president of Belarus stated that before the 2020 war (addressing Ilham Aliyev, he mentioned “before your liberating war”), he and Aliyev discussed and concluded that it was possible to win the war. He added that it is now a difficult time when those regions must be revived.

Afterward, Pashinyan announced that two member countries of the CSTO participated in the preparations for the war against Armenians, but he did not specify which countries.