“Guarantees may be in the state, which is legal. From this prospective, the RF is far away from being a legal state” such opinion was expressed by the Chairman of the Helsinki Committee Armenian office Avetik Ishkhanyan, in response to the question of Aravot.am about what guarantees there are that in case of Armenia’ accession to the Eurasian Union, the Armenian migrants will be granted such privileges as the citizens of the Eurasian Economic Union member countries. Recall that the co-chair of the Armenian-Russian interparliamentary commission, Heghine Naghdalyan, said, “The Armenian migrants in Russia will be granted such privileges, such as the citizens of the Eurasian Economic Union member states.” Nevertheless, the Armenian migrants already have problems in Russia related to Russia’s economic downturn. 200 thousand migrants appeared in the status of unemployed. Referring to Heghine Naghdalyan’s statement, Mr. Ishkhanyan mentioned, “Heghine Naghdalyan’s words are still from the sphere of desires. Armenia is not a member to Eurasian Union, and if there is a clear legal difference for the citizens of this Union as compared with other migrants, then for Armenia it is still at the level of verbal promises. I would recommend the authorities of Armenia not to make statements unless there is a clear legislation. The fact is that if this legislation is available for Eurasian states, it is not effective for Armenia, since Armenia is not a member to the Union, and it is suspicious on how the Armenian citizens, the migrants, will be treated after the membership. Russia is far from being a legal state, and at any time, to extort some concessions from Armenia, this country may keep the issue of Armenian migrants as a sword of Damocles.” With this regard, Mr. Ishkanyan remembered how years ago Tajikistan released the Russian pilot suspected in transportation of drugs, when after his arrest, as a response, Russia started illegal returning of Tajik migrants to Tajikistan. And it was a tool that was applied to the authorities of Tajikistan, and they had release the suspect, who could be the culprit. Avetik Ishkhanyan thinks that the issue of Armenian migrants, probably, is the result of Russia’s frame of mind. To our question of whether he shares the opinion that we are no longer expected in the Eurasian Union, Avetik Ishkhanyan responded, “I was against entering the Eurasian Union, I am convinced that this might be the beginning of the end of Armenia’s sovereignty and independence. Anyway, I have not received a reasonable explanation from the authorities of why we are joining the Union. The representatives of non-public authorities whisper that it is related to the security of Armenia, mentioning the Karabakh problem. Question arises, then CSTO is not a security guarantee, the Armenian-Russian relations, the Russian military base and the Russian alliance were not a guarantee, joining the Eurasian Union is a guarantee, in which one of the three states is the allies of our enemy, the other state, Belarus, I would say that it is more ally to Armenia than to Azerbaijan, and the main player, Russia, which is considered to be our ally, continues selling weapons to Azerbaijan. It is apparent how the Karabakh issue will be in this Union, when Armenia is a member of several international organizations, but nowhere the Karabakh issue was raised as in Astana.” We inquired whether, in fact, the policy of “and – and” turned into nothing, we lost the prospect of the European Union, and we are not openly accepted in the Eurasian Union, Mr. Ishkhanyan answered, “It would be our salvation. Only the fact that Armenia had appeared in the status of a stepchild, our being a founding member was resisted, and now I did not rule out that Belarus and Kazakhstan would prevent Armenia’s accession. In fact, because of the will of non-authorities of Armenia, the “and – and” option turned into a “neither-nor”.”
TATEV HARUTYUNYAN
