SOVEREIGNTY OR “APPENDIX”?: STATEMENT IN MINSK ADDS TO CONTROVERSY OVER ARMENIA IN CUSTOMS UNION

NEWS | 25.10.13 | 17:15

Photo:

By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

In reference to the statement made by the Customs Union member-country
leaders in Minks, the Armenian authorities keep claiming that Armenia
will not lose its sovereignty by joining that structure.

“We are not going to become an appendix of some country, but rather
going to create favorable situations,” says vice-chairman of the
ruling Republican party Galust Sahakyan, claiming that whatever is
not beneficial for Armenia, will not be accepted.

Enlarge Photo Sergey Minasyan

On Thursday, at the session of the Customs Union (CU) executive body –
the Eurasian Highest Economic Council – Belarus president Alexander
Lukashenko said that Armenia should cross the same integration path as
Kazakhstan, Beralus and Russia and make all the commitments without
exceptions. This statement has stirred controversy because Armenia
has no direct borders with any of the CU member-counties, hence its
membership has to be in a different format.

Lukashenko said at the same time that by joining the CU countries
lose part of their sovereignty.

Political analyst, Caucasus Institute deputy director Sergey Minasyan
told ArmeniaNow that the contradictory and vague statements by the
CU member-country presidents do not refer directly to Armenia, but
rather to the ambiguity of that structure.

“Lukashenko says Armenia should assume all the liabilities without
exception, which is absolutely impossible. The same format of
membership for Armenia with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan is simply
impossible because the three are exporter countries, while Armenia
is an importer. Armenia cannot adopt the same format for the lack
of common border, and especially because that border passes through
Georgia, which is going to be a part of the free comprehensive European
economic area,” says Minasyan.

As for the Armenian authorities’ secrecy around the whole CU deal
and its ambiguity, Minasyan says the country leadership does not know
much about what is actually happening and is unwilling to accelerate
the process.

“Because it is unclear whether the CU would actually become an economic
and political reality, or whether it was just a project aimed at
resisting the EU, etc,” he says adding that forcing Armenia into the CU
had one goal – to hamper the inking of the Association Agreement with
the EU in Vilnius and show who is the ‘chief’ in the post-soviet area.

“The result is contrary to the expected: Russia appeared as a country
whose forcing power was enough only for one country which wasn’t even
trying to sever relations with its strategic partner Russia as its
security warrantor and had already been in great dependence from it
in that very sphere,” he says.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress