Armen Martirosyan opposes Ruben Hakobyan, “Since the four factions in the Parliament are working exclusively for various domestic political issues, and the foreign policy approaches are not discussed, and thus, the 12 domestic political issues are raised. In general, I must say that the four forces have different approaches. We have always believed that Armenia has nothing to do in the Customs Union, and the Eurasian Union, since we believe that it would not be beneficial situation for Armenia if it takes any of these directions,” said the Deputy of “Heritage” party Armen Martirosyan, in the conversation with “Aravot”.
We inquired from him whether the issues related to Armenia’s foreign policy are not topical now, that in its 12 requirements to the government, the “Quartet” (PAP, ANC, ARF, and “Heritage”) had referred exclusively to domestic political issues. Meanwhile, to the yesterday’s question of why foreign policy-related issues were not discussed in the session of the “Quartet”, particularly, the recent developments in Astana, whether it means that the “Quartet” is pleased with the government’s foreign policy line, the leader of “Heritage” faction Ruben Hakobyan answered, “I do not think that if we have not discussed these issues, such assumptions can be made, because all four political forces, one-by-one, had given their assessment about the meeting in Astana and the foreign doctrine. Simply, today, because of the lack of time, we haven’t referred to the foreign policy issues. But, of course, these 12 clauses are not the end; we will discuss many other issues in the near future.” Recall that at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council panel session held in the capital of Kazakh, where the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union, the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, mentioned in his speech, “there are only 2-3 issues left on which mutually acceptable decisions have already been made at an expert level”, and had asked to fix the deadline of signing the agreement according to which the Republic of Armenia will join the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union by June 15. And by July 1, the agreement on Armenia’s accession to the EU will be signed. The President of Kazakhstan has put forward a condition with regard to Armenia’s accession, to join the Eurasian Union with the UN-recognized borders. In other words, without Nagorno-Karabakh.
The latest events, according to Armen Martirosyan, vanished the RA authorities’ assurances that the Customs Union will ensure the security of the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. “The only matter that is resolved is the matter of maintaining or extending the power,” he said. “It is clear that Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union is irreversible, whereas the EU integration in the foreseeable future is impossible,” announced the ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the March 1 rally. Meanwhile, yesterday, the ANC leader Levon Zurabyan, in his interview to “Radio Liberty” r/s, has qualified the events in Astana as “diplomatic failure” by RA authorities. Yesterday, the “Heritage” requested the RA authorities to halt the process of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union. PAP has not yet made a clear position about Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union, and the ARF Bureau member Hrant Margaryan had stated that they are opposing the form by which the process is carried out. In response to the question of “Aravot”, Armen Martirosyan said that he does not think that the differences in the approaches of the “Quartet” regarding the most essential foreign policy issue could result in discrepancies in the “Quartet”, since the parliamentary collaboration is not around foreign policy issues. “Armenia interest, at this point, requires to have a close relationship with the EU, especially with regard to economic and democracy-related values, hence, currently, I do not see a deep contradiction within the four,” he said, adding that the foreign policy is the continuation of country’s domestic policy. Therefore, our interlocutor believes that “Quartet” has taken the right path in this sense, aiming to first establish a legitimate government in the country, and introduce another government system, which will also enable to conducting a foreign policy, which will protect the interest of the Republic of Armenia. To the observation that “the Quartet” is planning to summarize the findings at a single rally, while the process of Armenia’s accession to the CU seem to develop during the summer, Armen Martirosyan did not give a clear answer. He recalled that “Heritage” has given alarm about expected risks earlier, that on September 20, last year, they even held a rally with an agenda of independence. “But, unfortunately, as it was seen from the process, we have a lot of talkers about Armenia’s independence, but we do not have a lot of partners who are willing to join our fight in this respect,” he said, adding that in any case if you have a legitimate government, we will be able to avoid such problems. Armen Martirosyan’s accusation of only talking about independence does not refer to the partners of the “Quartet”. He thinks that the ANC, ARF, and PAP were honest in the matters that they did not spoke sharply against the process of joining the CU. Our interlocutor, however, did not say exactly which forces particularly speak about Armenia’s independence, but practically do the opposite steps. He only said that they are the forces that supported for reproduction of acting power during the elections, contributing to such a situation.
NELLY GRIGORYAN
