Profound silence among the concerned figure a few months ago
On May 29, Armenia may join Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, signing the Eurasian Economic Area forming document. But, recently, rumors have begun to circulate that Armenia’s accession process is delayed because of the disagreement with regard to the status of Karabakh in the CU, Armenia will not be able to join the integration projects, and that a customs checkpoint will be installed between the Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. The discussion of these topics by Russian circles, seems, has been quite consistent, which, perhaps, is an indicative of the fact that Armenia is going to face challenges on the way to its accession to the Customs Union, and Moscow is not intended to ignore the interests of Baku on Nagorno-Karabakh issue. To this respect, the ex-deputy of the State Duma, Russia’s Public Chamber rep, Sergey Markov, in his interview to 1in.am, has expressed a remarkable opinion, “Today, Russia is unable to make Armenia join the Customs Union together with Nagorno-Karabakh, because Russia also intends to involve Azerbaijan in the membership of CU. And Armenia’s membership of the CU along with Nagorno-Karabakh would mean recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Armenia. Hence, I think that Russia’s position here is quite clear that only Armenia would become a member of CU… I guess that the leadership of Armenia, when beginning the CU accession process, slightly rushed as they had not yet made a definite decision.” The Kremlin’s position disseminating Russian leader, later, hinted that Armenia is following the situation in the region. “Russia, due to regional developments, is subjected to large-scale attacks by the United States and the EU, aiming to destruct the CU and the Eurasian Union. It seems to me that the leadership of Armenia still does not know who will win this fight, and has decided to temporarily freeze this process and to be in no haste with regard to the membership with the CU. In other words, Armenia is guided by the calculations, thinking that the U.S. and the EU may succeed in failing these projects. In short, Armenia has taken a pause.” Thus, the representative of the RF Public Chamber has made us understand that Russia cannot resolve the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and if desired, Armenia can evade the issue of NK in the CU, like Russia did with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but it does not want. “Even a month later, Armenia will not join the Eurasian Economic Common area. Armenia will wait to see who will win this great geopolitical war, which is run by Russia, on the other hand, and the West, on the other hand,” said Markov. Recently, the Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan advised the MPs to speak less about the Customs checkpoints between Armenian and NK under joining the Customs Union until the negotiations are over. “Speak less about it, speaking more obstructs the negotiations. We want it to be exactly as we want…”. He had informed that the meeting of the CU presidents would be held by the end of May, later the meeting of the prime ministers in late June, in Minsk, after which everything will be clear. Earlier, at the discussion held in the “Novosti” international press center, a question was voiced that, eventually, what will happen to NK when Armenia joins the Customs Union, later also the Eurasian Economic Union.
At the video bridge, Russian and Kazakh speakers unequivocally insisted that the Nagorno-Karabakh has no place in these unions. In response to the Russian and Kazakh speakers, Artak Zakaryan, the Chairman of the NA Foreign Relations Committee, representing Armenia at the discussion, said, “Of course, the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reserved for the OSCE Minsk Group. However, it should be also considered that Nagorno-Karabakh is located in the territory of the Eurasian Economic Area, a geographic area, and we think that this issue will further give a new momentum to Eurasian integration processes.” After joining the Customs Union, there can be no Customs checkpoint on the border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, it is impossible in any event, said Artak Zakaryan. Russians and the reps of other CU member states, in fact, clear indicate that the customs border of the Customs Union, after Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union, can pass through Armenia’s internationally recognized borders. Generally, the positions of Belarus or Kazakhstan are not new. They consider that there should be a checkpoint on the border with Nagorno-Karabakh, in other words, Armenia should join the CU without NK. This position fits into defending the Baku position, in terms of being adhere to the principle of territorial integrity of the states. Will Armenia be successful to reach a common agreement with Moscow on this issue is not yet clear. Moreover, the “sources standing close” to the Kremlin currently are “working” against the interests of Armenia, in addition, they are accusing Armenia for “taking a pause” and “entering into games” with the West. Under this, to put it mildly, not favorable for Armenia position by the Russian side, another fact is amazing. Until September 3, when Serzh Sargsyan had not stated that Armenia should join the Customs Union, when still a brutal struggle was going on against Armenia’s signing the EU Association Agreement, and thousands and one “crushing” counter-arguments were brought why Armenia should not initialing the EU Association Agreement, the famous figures, who were giving interviews on daily base and running to the press clubs, were explaining the nation that in case of initialing the EU Association Agreement, there will be a necessity to have a customs border between Armenia and Karabakh, and were accusing Europe of implementing malicious projects and were “saving” Armenia and Karabakh from malicious Europeans…
Now, however, there is a strange, but at the same time quite profound silence among the same figures regarding the same topics. Apparently, they have pretty strong reasons for forgetting Karabakh…
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EMMA GABRIELYAN
