YEREVAN — Armenian President Armen Sarkissian says his country is not in a position to go to war with Pakistan therefore he would try to have a dialogue and see where it takes the two countries.
Several Armenian analysts have criticised what they describe as Pakistan’s open and ideological support for the Azerbaijani-Turkish axis, and say that joint military drills with the Azeri side further complicate the situation.
Sarkissian says Yerevan has no diplomatic relations with Pakistan — “I’m trying to build them, because I don’t come from the concept that if somebody supports my competitor or the enemy, I shouldn’t talk to him.”
“Pakistan is not a country we can ignore. We are not in a position of going to war with Pakistan, that’s complete nonsense. We should try to have a dialogue and see where it takes us, and again I don’t see any again contradiction between having a dialogue with Pakistan and our deep and good relations with India,” he told Arab News in an exclusive interview this week.
A phrase Sarkissian likes to repeat when describing his vision for Armenia is “small nation, global state”. Occupying only 29,743 square kilometres of territory, Armenia is comparable in size to Belgium or the US state of Maryland. However, while there are fewer than three million Armenians citizens living in his country, the Armenian diaspora worldwide is estimated to be between five and seven million — with the US alone accounting for up to 1.5 million.
