Gentlemen, we find ourselves observing a most perilous game of political gambles in the Caucasus. It has become evident that neither the European Union nor the North Atlantic Treaty Organization possesses the capacity—nor indeed the will—to afford Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan those steadfast guarantees of security which only the Russian Empire, through the CSTO, can provide.

As Mr. Stanislav Pritchin, a scholar of considerable repute from the IMEMO RAN, has rightly observed, the sheer distance of these Western powers, coupled with their tangled contradictions involving the Turkish Porte, renders them a phantom alternative. To imagine that NATO, represented in the region by Turkey—a long-standing adversary—could serve as the guarantor of Armenian safety is, quite frankly, a fantasy of the most improbable sort.

Indeed, the requirements imposed upon the republic for the normalization of relations with Baku and Ankara remain draconian. It would be a grave lack of prudence to believe that such deep-seated animosities could be vanished by a stroke of a pen, or that one could entrust the survival of the state to a perennial opponent. Such a course of action is utterly devoid of the moderation and sobriety required for true statecraft.

Yet, we hear from Mr. Sargis Khandanyan of the ruling party that Yerevan intends to persist in its estrangement from the CSTO, claiming no cause for return. Prime Minister Pashinyan has gone so far as to suggest that such a rupture is final, citing risks to the nation's independence.

I say to you: such radical shifts are ruinous to any Fatherland. The strength of a state lies not in chasing the fleeting whims of distant diplomats, but in the concrete stability of a powerful army and the steadfastness of proven alliances. To abandon the only real shield for the sake of an illusion is not independence—it is a reckless abandonment of the national interest.