YEREVAN, May 23. /TASS/: Armenia should boost its military cooperation with Russia and ask Moscow to deploy its military contingent to the Syunik Province bordering on Azerbaijan, MP Gevorg Gorgisyan told a session of the opposition’s Bright Armenia party on Sunday.
"We should keep deepening [cooperation] in the security field with Russia and also make every effort to create Russia’s military contingent in Syunik to counter Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression," Gorgisyan said.
Bright Armenia led by Edmon Marukyan has the third largest faction in the parliament (18 seats). The party decided to take part in the early parliamentary polls due on June 20 without establishing a bloc with other political forces.
On May 12, the Armenian Defense Ministry reported that Azerbaijan's forces tried to carry out "a certain effort" in one of Syunik’s border regions in order to "adjust the border". As the ministry stated, after the measures taken by the Armenian forces, the Azerbaijani servicemen halted these works. In the evening of the same day, Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting of the republic's Security Council, during which he slammed these events as an encroachment on Armenia’s territory. According to Pashinyan, the Azerbaijani forces crossed the country’s border, going 3.5 km deep.
Amid a political crisis that broke out in Armenia in November 2020, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and leaders of the parliamentary parties agreed to hold snap elections. Pashinyan will continue fulfilling his duties as acting prime minister, as will his government. The leader of the My Step ruling bloc, Lilit Makunts, said that Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party would take part in the elections independently and would not join any blocs.
