And the establishment of the Eurasian Union is an “ambitious project”, – was saying PAP President still last year.
With regard to Armenia’s joining the Customs Union, the political forces, whose position was already clear long ago, began to express their unprecedented modesty in repeating once definitely expressed views. Perhaps they have reasons for that, for example, recent not so positive public moods with regard to policy held by Russia to Armenia, or, perhaps, the risk of not being identified with Serzh Sargsyan after the statement of the decision on September 3.
168.am inquired from Iveta Tonoyan, spokesperson for Chairman of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan, whether G. Tsarukyan supports the decision of RA Authorities to join the Customs Union. I. Tonoyan stated that it is too early to talk about joining the Customs Union, since so far only Armenia’s wish was voiced which may become a reality after going through a lot of procedures. “We strongly believe that the very few people knows, moreover, no one knows what it means by saying joining the Customs Union. Accordingly, it is needless to speak about the pros and cons. When we pass at least half of the way, when at least the consequences of accession would be “approximately” outlined, it would be possible to sound more objective assessments.”
It is interesting that still a year ago PAP has definitely expressed regarding the Eurasian integration project, without thinking of the “test of the time”, by the way, not once. Then, they were not saying that “it is unnecessary to speak about the pros and cons.”
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Let’s recall PAP’s position according to the chronology
On April 2012, in the 07-08 issue of the “Rossiyskaya Federatsiya Segodnya” (“Russian Federation Today”) magazine, which is a socio-political magazine of the RF Federal Assembly, published an extensive interview with PAP President Gagik Tsarukyan. He was asked such a questions that the inauguration of the elected president will take place on May 7 how the return of Vladimir Putin will reflect on further developments of Russian-Armenian relations. Tsarukyan replied,- “I have always said that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a major political figure of our time, who is famous for bringing RF from the crisis of 90’s, increasing the Russian society’s standard of living, successful completion of the Chechen war and making RF one of the poles of a modern multi-polar world. I’m sure that being in the post of the RF president, he would also pay a great attention on enhancement of Armenian-Russian strategic partnership. Vladimir Putin knows the South Caucasus very well, and Armenia in particular. And today, we hope to be eyewitnesses and participants of a new major initiatives in glory of Russian and Armenian peoples… We also support his idea on establishment of the Eurasian Union and express our readiness to cooperate for the sake of bringing the idea to life.”
On April 26, 2012, in an interview taken by “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” (“Russian Newspaper”), Tsarukyan stated,- “Yes, I support the idea of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. RF, Belarus and Kazakhstan have already created a Eurasian economic union, and this international unit is designed to explore the full potential of its members. Creation of a new format of Eurasian integration throughout the post-Soviet territory is an ambitious project format, because it concerns not only the economy but also other areas of cooperation.”
Last year, on July 18, PAP Spokesman Tigran Urikhanyan informed “Liberty” radio station that PAP welcomes the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to create a Eurasian Union. Urikhanyan referred to the Collective security, United Economic Area and other similar contracts, which, according to PAP Spokesman are the basis for Armenia to join the Eurasian Union.
Last year in late August, under the auspices of PAP President Gagik Tsarukyan, the “Young Eurasia” International Innovation Forum was launched in Tsakhadzor, which was attended by more than 600 young people from 15 countries. The desire for a bright future brought young people together under the roof of one hospitality. Chairman of the RF State Duma Sergei Naryshkin’s welcome speech was transferred to the youth with the following emphasis: “This event is a major step towards European integration.”
In his speech the PAP President stated, – “To make the creation and development of the Eurasian Union a reality, we need a wide-scale involvement of youth. Just for this reason we give such a great importance to their active involvement in social and political life.”
There is no political power in Armenia that has definitely expressed its position with regard to supporting the idea of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, so, ungrounded modesty manifested in these days is not so appropriate.
Emma GABRIELYAN
