Armenian official: MFA hasn’t raised issue to review CEPA with regard to Karabakh

News.am, Armenia
Nov 25 2021

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia hasn’t raised the issue of revision of the Armenia-European Union Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) due to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is what Head of the European Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Tigran Samvelian said during a discussion on Thursday.

Samvelian recalled that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the fight against terrorism and readmission are the functions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia with regard to the CEPA.

“When the CEPA was signed in 2017, it was very clearly stated and arose from the stances of the EU and Armenia according to which the conflict needs to be settled on the basis of the documents that contain references to the OSCE Final Act, the UN Charter and the principles of territorial integrity, no use of force and the right of peoples to self-determination. Our approach remains unchanged. Each of the sides may express its disagreement or the desire to review the document. We need to assess whether raising the issue arises from our interests,” Manvelian said.

As far as the relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are concerned, if one of the sides is the European Union, according to him, there can’t be a mechanism for a resolution of the conflict through the use of force.

“Whether the principles of peaceful settlement of the conflict, only territorial integrity or the right of peoples to self-determination will be enshrined or not, all this is within the domain of the sides’ interests. We don’t have access to the document, but we need to rely on the consistency of the EU with respect to its position on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Even if this principle is not enshrined in the document, it is mandatory for implementation. The prevailing majority of the EU member states don’t have such an approach that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved. On the contrary, there is a view that conflict has yet to be settled,” the Armenian MFA official concluded.