THE EUROPEANS BROUGHT ARMENIA CLOSER TO CUSTOMS UNION: OPINION
The Karabakh issue can be resolved if Russia, the EU, and Azerbaijan
come to an agreement, and the resulting decision is not contrary
to Iran’s interests, said expert on electoral and political affairs
Armen Badalyan, in conversation with Epress.am.
According to him, it’s meaningless to talk about returning to the
Karabakh negotiating table at this time – this is nothing other than
self-delusion, since second president of Armenia Robert Kocharian
removed the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh from the negotiating table,
turning the conflict into not a question of self-determination,
but a territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Now,
according to Badalyan, even Armenia’s participation is limited, as
the Russian Federation has a great influence on Armenia’s foreign
policy. In his words, given this fact, the Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting
cannot be discussed, which was simply a regular round and de facto
did not yield any results.
“On Sept. 3, Russia’s president informed Armenia’s current president
about his decision to make Armenia a member of the Customs Union. And
[Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan informed Armenian society about
Russia’s decision. From that day on, it became obvious that Armenia’s
sovereignty was restricted, and hereinafter Russia has a big impact on
Armenia’s foreign policy, whether that be in EU-Armenia, Iran-Armenia,
US-Armenia or other relations,” he said.
Badalyan believes that it’s obvious that Armenian news outlets were
given “state orders” to blame Putin for what happened, trying not
to make Serzh Sargsyan appear guilty or a victim of criticism. “In
fact, Russia decided for Armenia because of the current situation in
the country, for which Serzh Sargsyan is to blame. It is the current
administration’s fault that 95% of Armenia’s citizens are dead from
a political point of view,” he said.
According to Badalyan, the media reports that after four years of
negotiations, Serzh Sargsyan “threw” the Europeans, while, in fact,
it is because of the policy of European officials that Armenia will
join the Customs Union.
“Every time they would send Prescott or someone else to say that the
elections in Armenia were a step forward, believing that with that
one step they are bringing Armenia closer to the [EU] Association
Agreement, [but] actually the opposite: with one step they were
bringing [Armenia] closer to joining the Customs Union. They turned a
blind eye to the political prisoners, the victims of [the events of]
March 1 [2008], and fraudulent elections, leaving the people alone and
having hope that Serzh Sargsyan will sign the agreement,” he concluded.