At the request of “Aravot”, today, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Galust Sahakyan, commented on the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev’s letter that was read aloud by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Eurasian Economic Supreme Council Session launched yesterday, in Astana, on the occasion of the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union. According to the NA Speaker, we should distinguish between diplomatic open, public statements made by certain purposes from the actual negotiations. He believes that Nazarbayev just demonstrated a manifestation of targeted attitude to his Azerbaijani partner. As to the specific issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, Galust Sahakyan emphasized that the Eurasian Economic Union does not resolve bordering issues. “Naturally, Nagorno-Karabakh is in one of Customs and Economic Area with Armenia, and I would like to stress that there is no issue of borders on the European Union’s agenda. The Nagorno-Karabakh issue is the most important issue for our country.”
The NA Speaker believes that speculating Nazarbayev’s statement in the press based on narrow party interests does not incur from the interests of Armenia, and we should understand that Armenia’s accession for the Eurasian Union is a necessity, and it is beneficial for Armenia to become a member of that Union. “I want to emphasize that the Eurasian Union is based on mutually beneficial cooperation. Until July 1, we will sign the agreement to join the Eurasian Union, one or two issues are left to be clarified that that have nothing to do with borders. They are import and export-related issues, which are under discussion. After that, the National Assembly will commence working in this direction, there are already 200 ready bills.” To the question of “Aravot” of what would happen if, however, we are compelled to enter into the Eurasian Union, and install a customs checkpoint on Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia border, Galust Sahakyan responded, “The most important issue on the political agenda of newly independent Armenia is Nagorno-Karabakh. There can be no customs border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Making such a prediction is even unacceptable and very dangerous. It is clear that there will be speculations based on narrow party interests, but I call on the media not to spread these speculations, because it stems from the interests of our state and the nation. I think there is no need for giving so much importance to such a statement. And again I recall that the Eurasian Union does not have any border problem-solving functions.”
Melania BARSEGHYAN
