Armenia’s parliamentary opposition described PM Nikol Pashinyan’s foreign policy as a failure and pointed to today’s statement by the foreign ministry that it has no plans to discuss recognizing the independence of the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

The opposition Hayastan and With Honor factions support closer ties with Russia and accuse Pashinyan of weakening relations with Moscow.

With Honor MP Hayk Mamijanyan said the government’s reluctance to discuss the matter yet again proves its foreign policy blunders.

Mamijanyan, at a press conference today, said that Armenia should have recognized the independence of Artsakh during the 2020 Karabakh war as an expression of solidarity based on the rights of Armenians there to self-determination.

The MP pointed to Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as an example to be followed.

"Putting aside relations with our strategic ally, there is also the issue of international law in terms of the realization of nations' self-determination,” Mamijanyan said.

Hayastan faction MP Artur Khachatryan said the February 22 agreement signed in Moscow by Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev to deepen political, economic and military relations is further evidence that the Pashinyan government’s foreign policy is inept and has left Armenia “on its own”.

"We lost old friends and didn’t make new ones. We failed in our relations with Russia Our relations with the EU are no better than they were. The authorities often talk about €2.6 billion, but I’d urge you to read Charles Michel's statement that it’s a budget that can be available to Armenia over five years. Most of it will be in the form of debt," Khachatryan said. (Charles Michel is the European Council President).

Khachatryan agreed that Armenia should have recognized the independence of Artsakh, arguing that other countries would have followed suit.