Armenia ready to initial association agreement with EU

Hovhannes Sahakyan, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group member, says that Armenia is ready to initial an association agreement with the European Union (EU) at the EU summit to be held this November unless any changes take place. According to him, if, in its relations with Russia and the EU, Armenia does not agree to the “either…or” principle, but agrees to the “both…and” principle, it means that the fundamental principle of Armenia’s foreign policy is that the state will spare no efforts for the nation’s benefit.
 
Below is an interview with Hovhannes Sahakyan.

- Mr Sahakyan, in one of his interviews RPA Vice-Chairman Razmik Zohrabyan said that initialing an association agreement with the EU would put an end to Armenia’s blockade and isolation. Do you share his opinion?

- Much has been done during this period, including serious work with Armenia as one of the Eastern Partnership member-states. I would like to say that Armenia has successfully met the seven main criteria laid down for the member-states – the democracy level, mass media and so on. As we have repeatedly noted, we are ready for the initialing scheduled for this autumn unless anything changes.

- Have you been informed of Armenia’s readiness to initial the document?

- The basis for me is Armenia’s involvement in all the processes under the Eastern Partnership project. We have met numerous criteria. Why should we participate if we do not want to?

- With respect to the constitutional provision for referendum, do not you think this task is not for one party to accomplish – even if it is the ruling party - and its leader? It is up to the people to decide.

- Yes, decisions of crucial national importance are normally made by means of referendums. Besides constitutional provisions we have the Law on Referendum, which contains a list of issues to be settled by means of referendums.

As regards the initialing of an association agreement with the EU, we do not speak of joining an organization as an entity or of any relevant activities. It is common knowledge that initialing an association agreement implies a number of tasks, for example, visa liberalization to enable our citizens to travel to EU member-states on easy terms and stay there for longer periods. That is, initialing is actually agreeing on further cooperation.

As regards becoming a full EU member, a referendum can be held to find out public sentiments in the country. But it is too early to speak of that now.

- That is, initialing does not require a referendum, whereas signing does?

- This is my personal opinion. This issue must be settled by relevant authorities after thorough discussions have been held.

- The issue has one more aspect. Two national elections have been held. The former presidential representative in Armenia’s parliament, Chairman of the National Security party Garnik Isaghulyan said in an interview that nothing had been discussed during that period, while the RPA is now ready for initialing the association agreement.

- I do not share this opinion because large-scale debates on foreign policy were held during both the national elections. And when we say that we accept the “both…and” principle rather than the “either…or” principle - which is the fundamental principle of Armenia’s foreign policy – as well as that we are ready to do our utmost for our nation’s benefit, this should be considered part thereof. And we will do it without creating any problems.

- You have mentioned some ‘making capital out of it’ and examples of how Russian may punish. Also, the Russian ambassador to Armenia said that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’.

- First, I cannot understand what ‘punish’ means. Armenia is an independent state and no one can punish it.

- Talks about closer Russian-Azerbaijani relations inaugurated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan.

- It is up to them. We have our own interests and problems, the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. I think that a peaceful political settlement of the conflict is the only acceptable option for us, which President Vladimir Putin stated in Baku.

- Is the mentioned ‘political settlement’ is a new detail?

- Why? The co-chairs’ statements concern a political settlement. That is, the conflict has no military solution.

And Azerbaijan’s petrodollars cannot serve a military solution to the conflict. The present situation is evidence thereof. Azerbaijan would solve the problem in a military way if it had not a doubt for a moment.