Lukashenka suggests that Pashinyan will ‘destroy Armenia’

Lukashenka suggests that Pashinyan will destroy Armenia

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Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka has claimed that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will ‘destroy Armenia’ as a result of ‘flirting with the EU’. He also put sole blame on Armenia for the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Lukashenka’s statements were made at a press briefing on Sunday, during which he also called Armenia’s deepening relations with the West, ‘a most dangerous game’.

‘[Pashinyan] is also turning Russia against him […] He has made enemies all around him’, Lukashenka said, accusing the EU of destabilising the region.

‘The European Union will start helping him there with something… Doesn’t he understand what happened in Ukraine? Alright, Ukraine, but Georgia is nearby. He will destroy the country. That is why he must dial it back a bit. No war in the Caucasus should be allowed’, Lukashenka said.

Lukashenka’s statement came the day after Pashinyan told Armenia’s public broadcaster that forces both inside and outside the region ‘have set a goal of generating a new escalation’.

Ties between Armenia and Belarus have been in freefall since spring 2024, leading to a statement by Pashinyan in June that no Armenian officials would visit Belarus while Lukashenka was in power, due to the latter’s support for Azerbaijan during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

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Lukashenka referred to these accusations on Sunday as well, stating that he had always supported ‘common sense’. He further noted that ‘[Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev did not seek war with Armenia’.

‘What happened, the results of these fights are the fault of the leadership in Armenia. Only their fault’, he said, adding that Pashinyan ‘gave up on Nagorno-Karabakh’ and that, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, they were ‘stunned’.

‘Why did he say that? No one forced him to say it’, Lukashenka quoted Putin as telling him after Pashinyan recognised Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in October 2022.

‘However, at that moment. Ilham [Aliyev] was ready to agree to Armenia having serious influence in that territory. But here comes such a concession. Who wouldn’t take advantage of it? What do I have to do with it?’, Lukashenka said.

Lukashenka also admitted to selling weapons to Azerbaijan, evidence of which surfaced last June. According to leaked documents reviewed by Politico, Belarus supplied Azerbaijan with multiple shipments of advanced military hardware between 2018 and 2022.

During this period, Azerbaijan launched the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and several other major clashes took place on the Azerbaijan–Armenia border, during which Azerbaijan gained control over 150 square kilometres of territory inside Armenia, according to Yerevan.

‘Maybe Azerbaijan did buy them [weaponry]. But we were open to [selling to] Armenia too. Whoever paid the money got the goods’, Lukashenka said.

Lukashenka has frequently criticised Armenian foreign policy and its frozen membership in the CSTO. The recent quarrel took place at the end of December 2024, when Pashinyan and Lukashenka got into an argument during the Supreme Eurasian Economic Union Council session, with Pashinyan announcing that Armenia would also attend next year’s meeting, set to be held in Minsk in May, remotely.

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Pashinyan said the Armenian delegation might even sit out the EAEU sessions in Belarus.

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