AUTUMN PROMISES: FROM MOSCOW TO BRUSSELS AND BACK
BY MARIA TITIZIAN
It recently dawned on me that I don’t know how to have fun anymore.
Work is about the country. Home is about the country. Dinners out
with friends or social gatherings are always about the country. I
can’t recall what we used to talk about before moving to “the country.”
We rarely talk about movies or books or art or interesting touristic
destinations because even when we do travel it’s usually work-related
or back to the country we came from before moving to “the country.” If
we talk about events occurring in the world, it’s usually through the
prism of how it affects us in Armenia. If we dare to discuss novel
ideas, more than likely it’s about potential solutions to the plethora
of problems we confront. And since there’s never a dearth of issues
presenting themselves, we always have things to talk about the country.
A friend came to see me in my office a few weeks ago, and after having
a heated discussion about the country, with a trace of sympathy said,
“Maria, really? You need to learn to have some fun.” I thought about
it and for the next few days kept thinking about it but couldn’t find
the answer to the question – when did I forget how to have fun?
A few nights ago, another friend invited us to his place for drinks.
While we didn’t discuss art or literature or recreational activities,
while silly jokes weren’t told, it was the first time in a long time
that I had fun. The peculiar twist is that all we spoke about was
the country, almost non-stop till the early hours of the morning, and
after coming home and trying to sleep, I finally found the answer…I
had been having fun all along.
I acknowledge that fun might not be the correct adjective to depict
the currents of our lives, but the intensity of emotions, the depth
of our frustration and ultimately the sense of purpose and fulfillment
had enriched our lives beyond our wildest expectations.
And yet, as I publicly acknowledge that life has been fun and
fulfilling, the events of the past week have been weighing heavily
upon all of us. On September 3, President Serzh Sarkisian, in the name
of Armenia and Armenians decided that we would turn our backs on the
Association Agreement that he himself had been actively negotiating for
with the European Union since 2010 and instead signed the Russian-led
Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which foresees the creation
of a Eurasian Union by 2015.
While we were naively preparing for Armenia to initial the EU
Association Agreement in Vilnius (which included the Deep and
Comprehensive Free Trade Area) at the end of November, along with
Georgia and Moldova, our country’s leader already knew that he would
steer us toward a closer association with Russia dashing any immediate
hopes of future integration with Europe.
The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), which is the
economic component of the Association Agreement, would have allowed
free access of Armenian goods to the European market. Most importantly,
it would have raised the quality and standards of Armenian products
due to strict European regulatory criteria.
After this dramatic policy shift, Stefan Fuele, the EU Enlargement
Commissioner said that “…the compatibility of obligations to the
Customs Union with those under an Association Agreement/DCFTA with
the EU looks problematic.”
There are those who believe that Armenia didn’t have a choice in the
matter, that Russia had forced our leadership to join the Customs
Union or suffer the consequences. There are others who believe that
this was a sound decision taking into consideration national security
issues (Russian troops protect our borders with Turkey and Iran),
including the security and viability of Nagorno Karabakh and was a
natural choice because Armenia is a member of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization. Signed in 1992 by Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia,
Belarus, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, CSTO is a military alliance which
among other things states that aggression against any one signatory
would be perceived as an aggression against all.
There are those who are passionately opposed to the Customs Union
because they insist that the country’s sovereignty has come under
threat. It is no secret that the Russians still consider the former
Soviet Republics as satellite states, comrades and have recently drawn
parallels between Armenia and Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave located
on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. The irony wasn’t lost
on anybody…comparing an exclave with a sovereign state.
The question of whether or not the EU understood the dynamic of Russian
influence and pull and the Armenian leadership’s real intentions, of
whether they were transparent or aggressive enough with the Armenian
leadership, of whether they provided security guarantees to our
country are not clear.
The question of whether the Diaspora understands the consequences
and many layers of this decision is also not clear but it should
be. This is not simply a choice of Russia or the West – this promises
to be a serious blow to any hopes for democracy, social justice, media
freedoms, and human rights, dismantling of monopolies in our political
and economic life. This presumably dangerous dance with Russia to
ensure the alleged prosperity of Armenia and security for Artsakh,
is ambiguous and could have perilous ramifications for the country’s
future. Many questions remain unanswered – what are the economic and
political benefits of the Eurasian Union versus the European Union?
The people of Armenia, in whose name the President purportedly speaks,
have a right to know the answers and ultimately understand what kind
of country they will be living in at the end of this journey.
Autumn promises to be difficult, tense, and intense. I’m not sure
that it will be fun, I’m not sure that I will be having fun, but I
am certain that I will be present.
From: A. Papazian
http://asbarez.com/113706/autumn-promises-from-moscow-to-brussels-and-back/