“There are such sings, and this is done with the greater the impact on Armenia”,- so replied Ara Papyan, Director of “Modus Vivendi” Center, to the question of Aravot.am of whether recent developments: Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union, gas contract, Nazarbayev’s and Lukashenko’s recent statements, do not prove the fact that Russia is doing everything for Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement be dependent solely on Russia. In this regard, the political scientist remembered a well-known joke that Armenians again rely on God, and stated that “this not the matter to reply on God.” The political scientist is not optimistic about the future development steps towards the Karabakh conflict resolution process, particularly under the accession to the Customs Union. Assessing the fate of Karabakh “uncertain”, Mr. Papyan did not rule out the following possibility, too, “It is possible for them to put it firmly, saying that as we now have Russian passports checkpoints, so as after the Customs Union accession, Russian, Kazakh and Belarus checkpoints must be established at NKR-Armenia border, and a customs duty will be charged for the products imported from NKR to Armenia, or the country of origin should be stated. And what should it say? Azerbaijan?”. Ara Papyan does not understand the silence of the NKR authorities and the people, with the option “everything is OK.” He raised a question, “Tell me please, what is good?” The above situation is interconnected to the Armenian-Turkish relations and to the assessment of the international community. In particular, the problematic decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to justify Perinçek who denies the Armenian genocide. As assessed by Ara Papyan, this decision will have its negative impact. Detailing, he said, “This private decision is not acceptable that refers to the Holocaust. It turns out that the Armenian Genocide may be justified, but the Holocaust – no.
The law may not have a discriminatory effect.” ANC representative, Vahagn Khachatryan, also agrees that Russia has far away objectives, to act in a way that the Karabakh conflict resolution depends solely on them. In the conversation with Aravot.am, Mr. Khachatryan said, “Russia is doing all that followed by this objective, as well. However, it is important to know where the desire is coming from: Russia or us. Now I feel that it is coming from our side, too, and to this effect, the citizen of Armenia suffers”. The fact that it is possible that after joining the Customs Union Customs checkpoints may be established at the NKR-Armenia border, Mr. Khachatryan replied as follows, “Nazarbayev’s statement meant it. Of course, I do not want to make preliminary conclusions, I want these documents (he meant the road-map, T.H.) to come first. But, I’m sure those three countries of the Customs Union: Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, would not like to spoil their relationships with Azerbaijan. We go for provocation that we are devoted to Russia, but “Gazprom” paper means that Armenia is nothing for them.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
