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Armenian opposition politician speaks out against ruining current security architecture

The protesters are demanding that all members of parliament begin an impeachment procedure against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan

YEREVAN, April 9. /TASS/. The Armenian government is destroying the existing security architecture involving Russia and some other CIS members, Democratic Party Chairman Aram Sargsyan said at a rally in front of the parliament building.

"You are destroying our 30-year old security system, which is linked to Russia and some CIS countries. Who will you replace it with? Europeans will not come to replace them. This system will be replaced by Turkey, one of the important NATO members," said the politician, who is also one of the leaders of the Miasin movement.

The protesters are demanding that all members of parliament begin an impeachment procedure against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who they say has brought the country to ruin.

On April 5, Pashinyan held a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top EU diplomat Josep Borrell in Brussels. Von der Leyen said the EU will provide 270 million euros to Armenia over the next four years as grants. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Armenia not to let the West deceive itself and lead it down the wrong path. Russia regards the meeting "as another attempt by the collective West to drag the South Caucasus into geopolitical confrontation," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said Washington and Brussels "use ephemeral promises to push Armenia to withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, and remove the Russian military base and border guards."

There has been a slate of invectives against Moscow emanating from Yerevan in recent months, which were driven by the outcome of the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that was unfortunate for Armenia. Earlier, Pashinyan said in Munich that "Yerevan is not Moscow's ally on the issue of Ukraine," while Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said "Russian border guards should not serve at Yerevan's Zvartnots airport."