President of the Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardyan, is telling new details about withdrawing of his candidacy for the elections of the EaP Civil Society Forum Steering Committee co-chair in the elections of co-chair of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Steering Committee.
“This disgraceful failure for Armenia is the failure of all of us, no matter how different our shares of responsibility are. Armenia failed because it was negotiating on the Association Agreement for more than three years, implementing respective policy domestically and in the relations with the EU, and within a few days the resources spent became senseless, as well as the time of the European Union and its own officials. Today, also resources are spent to eliminate some results of previous works”, – said Mr. Navasardyan to Aravot.am.
He was concerned that this overturn took place without visible change in the situation, or the emergence of new circumstances. “All the reasons that were brought up as justification, were also 3-4 years ago, but it did not hamper in holding negotiations and to state about determination of signing the Association Agreement.
Today, Armenia is compared with Ukraine, but it is not justified. Prior to signing, Ukraine faced the very specific challenges, the scale of which was not easy to predict. And the leadership of Ukraine had presented the public and the EU partners that strong pressure was exerted over them. Their reasons might be considered insufficient for denying signing, but at least it is clear to everyone on what has happened.
Read also
However, the President of Armenia was claiming in Vilnius and earlier that there has been no pressure on his country, making the situation even more obscure and uncertain. Our delegation returning from Vilnius was proudly noting that Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union “was accepted by the European partners with understanding.” Let’s understand what’s hidden behind this “understanding”. It was made clear that Armenia can not make independent decisions on its domestic and foreign policy issues of critical, moreover, it does not have the courage to explain of what really happened.”
According to Mr. Navasardyan, the world concluded that one should not accuse Armenia’s authorities for the overturn, nor perceive the authorities of this country in the future as inadequate party for relations by solving all issues with other decisions-making country. “This will also apply to such matters as the Karabakh conflict and the Armenian-Turkish relations. If the current leadership of Ukraine proved to be unreliable, inconsistent indecisive, irresponsible partner, then for Armenia, almost the entire political elite left such unprincipled impression. In other word, there are serious doubts, in the future, on possibility of effective cooperation with Armenia… What else should it be to be called a failure?”
He said that only personal reputation, knowledge, and experience are not enough to lead a structure that combines the 6 EaP countries and EU member states’ representatives. “To be convincing and confident in such a responsible work, you should have a country and a society behind you that has success or at least has not failed in the mission of given structure. In addition, the developments in Armenia dictate the need for centralizing the time and effort on the issues inside the national platform.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
