Armenia celebrates holiday of structure which is absent in reality
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Armenia celebrates Frontier Guards Day, while almost all Armenian borders with neighboring countries are not guarded by Armenian, but by Russian border guards.
In 1992, Yerevan signed an agreement with Moscow on the status of the Russian border troops on the Armenian territory and the conditions of their functioning. Thus, Russian border guards began to police the borders of Armenia with Turkey, Iran and Georgia.
It seems Armenia is not concerned absolutely that the state borders protection is one of the fundamental attributes of state independence.
In recent years, the Armenian society and even the National Assembly repeatedly drew attention to the necessity of transferring border functions from the Russian border guard service of the federal security service to the Armenian national security service. This topic has emerged when Russophobia surged in Armenia.
During Sargsyan’s years in power, Armenian public organizations offered to take control of the border checkpoints at Zvartnots airport until March 1, 2018, and then, hand over the Armenian-Iranian border to Armenian border guards by January 1, 2019. Moreover, they called upon Sargsyan to consider the transfer of full control over the Armenian-Turkish border to the Armenian border troops by January 1, 2020.
It was also planned to develop a schedule and technical conditions for the reception and transmission of border posts located on this site, together with the border troops leadership of the Russian FSS.
However, Sargsyan was overthrown and Pashinyan came to power. The premier has already understood all the hopelessness of demands for Russian border guards’ withdrawal from Armenia. After all, Moscow all this time ignored the Armenians’ protests.
This is not surprising since Armenians are no longer owners of the country. Yerevan should understand that it lost sovereignty as a result of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan and the occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
Therefore, it is strange to celebrate Frontier Guards Day in the current Armenian realities. Pashinyan’s arrival at the Directorate of border troops of the national security service, performance there with a solemn speech, congratulate the “holiday” and imaginary successes of the Armenian border guards looks particularly ridiculous.
Although it is not surprising, because in Armenia it is a tradition to throw dust in someone's eyes and consider oneself important despite it is not true. So, let them celebrate the holiday and console themselves that they live in an “independent state” and it even has “border guards”.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94