In the conversation with Aravot.am, political scientist Gagik Hambaryan expressed an opinion that during the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council Session in Astana, the reading of the letter by Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, written by President of Azerbaijan, should not have been a surprise to the Armenian community, because the same Nursultan Nazabayev’s being a tandem speaker between Turkey and Azerbaijan in the CIS is an obvious fact for everyone. “For no reason, our society, political figures, and political scientists recall only Nazarbayev’s last statement in their comments. But we know very well that this is not Nazarbayev’s first statement of expressing his own opinion about the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. In fact, I must say that the president of Belarus is also not one of big apologists for Armenia to become a member of Eurasian Union. On October 24, 2013 and December 24, respectively, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev once again the then had expressed their negative attitude to Armenia to become a member of the Customs Union, finding that Armenia cannot become a member of this Union because of its problems with neighboring Azerbaijan. Moreover, on December 24, 2014, Nursultan Nazarbayev said that Armenia’s neighboring country, Turkey, may also become a member of the Eurasian Union,” reminded the political scientist. And as to why the President of the Russian Federation allowed the Kazakh president to read Aliyev’s letter, Gagik Hambaryan is convinced that the first reason is that the location of the meeting was in Astana, and Vladimir Putin had no intention to act in a way that Nazarbayev would feel offended on his own land. And the second reason is forcing Armenia to unreservedly join the Customs Union. “We all know very well that the Republic of Armenia had some “technical problems” for becoming a member of the Eurasian Union, because there were clauses there that were not in compliance with our interests. If Belarus, Kazakhstan, or Russia have economy, and are fighting to protest the interests of their domestic businesses, we, unfortunately, do not have economy as such, and we should not fight for good consumption of Kazakh and Belarusian goods in our market. By reading this letter, Russia allowed the President of Kazakhstan to put the Republic of Armenia into a bad situation so that Vladimir Putin would tell us tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, you see, you had problems and I resolved them, now must withdraw your preconditions. I would also add that Russia has its military-political and economic interests in Azerbaijan. Russian’s oil companies are introduced in the Azerbaijan market, and the Russian military-industrial complex has an agreement with Baku on about 4 billion dollars of arms sales. There are also problems in the economic sphere. For instances it is absolutely not beneficial for us that the vehicles imported from Europe, the USA, and Japan are taxed as they are taxed in Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan; taxes are terrible.
These three states have automobile industry and all three of them are fighting to fill in the market with their domestic products, they are fighting against importing from outside by setting up high taxes, anyway, this is not beneficial for us. For whom should we set up high taxes? For the Russian “Volga”, or “Lada” come and be sold here? Or, the “Maz” manufactured in the territory of Belarus, or the vehicles produced by Chinese-Kazakh joint ventures manufactured in the territory of Kazakhstan? I mentioned one area, bur there are dozens of such problems that are not beneficial for us. No one tells us until now what are our relationships with Eurasian countries; we are not connected with them by land, just as we missed becoming familiar with the EU Association Agreement in the time, which Armenia was to ratify in Vilnius on November 2013, likewise, now we do not know what the Eurasian Union presents itself. We do not know it properly.” According to the political scientist, the Belarusian president also has reservations on Armenia. The relations between Azerbaijan and Belarus are to the level that the president of Azerbaijan, without state commitments, can lend several hundred million dollars to the Russian president for a few days so that the latter would resolve his problems with “Gazprom”. According to Gagik Hambaryan, such a case was recorded during aggravation in Russian-Belarusian relations when they raised the gas price for Belarus. The latter had no money. No European state lends a loan or a debt. The president of Azerbaijan lent it without signing any obligation. To the question of what it means that Armenia should join the Eurasian Union without Nagorno-Karabakh, the political scientist said, “Nagorno-Karabakh is not a territory of the Republic of Armenia, and everyone knows it. NKR is a self-declared and unrecognized republic, de facto and de jure, and it has nothing to do with the Republic of Armenia, but everyone knows very well that economically, it is integrated into Armenia’s economic system, and our national currency operates there… What does it mean that Armenia has became a member of the World Trade Organization without Karabakh? We all know it. So what? I am asking a question, “Is northern Cyprus an independent country recognized only by Turkey? Not. Everyone knows that unlike the NKR, where at least a democratic society is established, there was a time that the mayor of Stepanakert was an opposition member, there is a dictatorial regime in northern Cyprus, and it is fully exposed to Turkey. Who says that Northern Cyprus has entered into NATO with Turkey, or has become a member of the World Trade Organization with Turkey, who says so? NKR is a self-declared republic, not recognized by anyone, but it does not mean that this country should become a member of a union without its willingness. Who says so? Or, if Nazarbayev is saying that it should become by the UN-recognized borders, is Russia becoming a member of the Eurasian Union by the UN-recognized borders? Well, we let’s leave Abkhazia and South Ossetia aside, which de jure are independent, but, in reality, Russian puppet henchmen are ruling, let’s address a specific fact. The Crimea is a UN-recognized Ukrainian territory. Now, isn’t Nazarbayev concerned about this issue that backs up for Turkish ideals? They consider the Crimea as a historical territory of Turkey, don’t they?”
Nune AREVSHATYAN
