Pashinyan’s Exclusive English-language Interview to Air on Al Jazeera

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s first full-length, English-language interview will broadcast on Al Jazeera’s flagship interview program “Talk to Al Jazeera” this weekend.During the weeks leading up to the election of Pashinyan as Prime Minister, Al Jazeera’s Forestier-Walker, correspondent Natasha Ghoneim, Senior Producer Paul Chaderjian, cameremen Nick Porter, Jamil Bassil and Fadi Elbenny and local journalists Zara Poghosyan and Maria Titizian chronicled the mass civil disobedience campaign, the daily protests, the arrest and release of Pashinyan, the issues prompting hundreds of thousands to take to the streets, the plight of those struggling with the fledgling republic’s poverty and the branding of the ‘Velvet Revolution.’

Forestier-Walker asked Prime Minister Pashinyan about his people’s expectations following the unprecedented ‘Velvet Revolution’ which toppled the ruling Republic Party’s government and paved the way for Pashinyan’s election his country’s interim leader. The Prime Minister also addressed his government’s battle against corruption and dismantling the oligarchic systems that have monopolized his country’s economy.

“In our interview he chose his words carefully and concisely despite limitations with his English vocabulary and the over abiding impression: that this revolution is only just getting going – and nothing – if he has anything to do with it – will derail it,” said Forestier-Walker.

Al Jazeera asked the Prime Minister what has changed since he assumed his new role and what’s ahead for a country that continues to struggle with poverty, a frozen-conflict with Azerbaijan and closed borders with Turkey.

Pashinyan told Al Jazeera he is ready to meet Azerbaijan’s President face-to-face to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and that Armenia is ready to establish a diplomatic relationship with Turkey without any precondition and that its side of the border with Turkey has never been closed.

He told Robin Forestier-Walker that the revolution now guarantees all Armenian citizens equality under the law and equal playing field for all businesses. His message to those who want to do business with Armenia and in Armenia is that his government guarantees the security of any investment.