Pashinyan closed the Artsakh page in Prague – Lavrov confirms

In March 2018, the law “On the State Protocol” was adopted in Armenia. The first paragraph of Article 4 categorizes high-ranking delegations’ visits to the Republic of Armenia as state, official, working, private, personal guest, or travel visits. The law describes in detail everything related to the visits of officials to Armenia, from financing arrangements to protocol procedures.

One notable aspect of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s current visit to Armenia was the absence of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at the airport to receive him. Why did Mirzoyan not accompany Lavrov at the protocol event to lay flowers at the Mother Armenia monument?

Of course, the protocol does not require Mirzoyan to greet Lavrov at the airport, and in many ways the status of the host party is determined by political expediency. For example, in April 2021, when Mirzoyan was still the speaker of the National Assembly, he personally welcomed a delegation led by French Senate Chairman Gérard Larcher at Zvartnots Airport. The delegation had arrived in Yerevan to participate in events commemorating the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In March 2025, when German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Yerevan, his delegation was received at the airport by Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan. However, Mirzoyan did not make time for Lavrov.

Mirzoyan did not have the time, and the Armenian police did not have enough will and means to prevent a number of participants in Pashinyan’s meetings with the extra-parliamentary “opposition”—Arman Babajanyan, Tigran Khzmalyan, and others—from holding protests against Lavrov’s visit and Russia’s actions in Ukraine. For two consecutive days, dozens of protesters with flags of the European Union and Armenia gathered at the main entrance to the Armenian Foreign Ministry building early in the morning. They carried posters with anti-Russian slogans, and the demonstrators themselves chanted, “Russia, get out of Armenia!”

The Armenian reality is that when the authorities have a desire to disperse the protesters, they do it with harsh methods, regardless of the circumstances. This was evident during the Holy Struggle protests in 2024, when police acted without restraint at the Foreign Ministry building. Of course, no one is calling for violence against protesters, but double standards are obvious.

Once again, we see “classic Pashinyan” in action: on the one hand, he is hosting the Russian Foreign Minister in Yerevan; on the other, he is creating a negative media atmosphere around the visit, using his political allies.
And in the press conference between Lavrov and Mirzoyan, questions were raised implying “Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine” and “Russia armed Azerbaijan, which led to Karabakh’s downfall.”
Here we come to an important part of Lavrov’s visit: he voiced what Pashinyan and his team had long denied—a gentleman’s agreement on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh was reached in the 2020 trilateral document, but the statement in Prague on October 6, 2022, nullified it.

As for Lavrov’s words that “Armenia and Russia have moved past the stage of mutual distrust and resentment,” the media and propaganda around his visit show that the situation is far from the stability Moscow would prefer.

Think about it.…