Yerevan/Mediamax/. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has stated that "our goal is not to install European values in Armenia, but exercise the values that we have produced and mixed in one common European pot, creating something integral”.

He has made that remark in the interview to Nouvelle d'Arménie magazine, when asked if it is possible to be Russia’s strategic ally and protect western values at the same time.

“Consider Israel Ori. He started his journey in Europe, toured European capitals, then traveled to Russia and managed to convince the tsar to interfere in the matters of South Caucasus. Other countries were also ready to assume that role, but it did not happen for a multitude of reasons. Why do we value our relations with Russia that much? Because we have always considered Russia a power that helped exercise European values in our region. It is a very important fact. We asked Russia for interference, not any backwards country. We invited Russia to our region, because it was one of the most developed European countries.

What did Peter the Great do? Why did he send young people to get education in Europe? Why did he adopt European values? Why didn’t he send the youngsters to other places? What do we mean by European values and Russian values? The Russia of today is the Russia of Peter the Great, a carrier of his values, is it or is it not? If yes, there is no contradiction between Russia and the western values; in fact, there are different interpretations in Europe itself: Poland has its own, unique approach to European values, so does France, and the UK actually voted for leaving the European Union. What does this mean? European values do not belong to Europe only, they are ours too. Why? Because we have had our large contribution as well to the formation of these values.

The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek greatly influenced current European culture. For me, European values are our values, the same as for France, the UK and Russia, because we created these values together. Therefore, our goal is not to install European values in Armenia, but exercise the values that we have produced and mixed in one common European pot, creating something integral,” said Nikol Pashinyan.