“If you study the then and today’s reactions, then the opposite would become clear that we neglected,” so responded the Chairman of NA Standing Committee for State-Legal Affairs, Hovhannes Sahakyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am, in response to the question of how it happened that the number of those in the public having positive opinion of the Customs Union (CU) membership is gradually decreasing by years, and whether it might be the neglect of the government that the society was not properly informed.
Note that the Gallup International polls in Armenia clearly showed that in 2013, prior to Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that we want to join the Customs Union, 67 percent of respondents voted for the Union, a month later, the index was 64 %, a year later – it became 57 percent. In this regard, Hovhannes Sahakyan detailed. “We should be able to deliver our people and the public correctly about why we do it and what benefits can these actions taken bring to our people and the state. I think we should first and foremost clearly introduce our public the expectations and consequences that can be either positive or negative in the event of membership or not with the Eurasian Economic Union. This is one of the most important steps. Our people fully understands the regional events that occur and what can happen as a result.”
Mr. Sahakyan is not amazed that there might be people in the society voting for or against, we must also acknowledge that accession to any union can have both positive and negative consequences, but we should think over the positive and negative aspects. To our observation that perhaps the public now knows more about the CU, therefore it is disappointed, Mr. Sahakyan responded, “Let’s put these numbers aside, it should be considered as a whole. We cannot get a complete picture with one question. I think we all have a commitment to present the positive and negative aspects for the accession to the Customs Union.”
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To the question of whether it is not a risk to go to the Customs Union in the event of such sentiment by the public, Mr. Sahakyan said, “It is not a risk, by saying risk we should viewed it in terms of our national security.” Vice-Chairman of the Heritage political party, Armen Martirosyan, is not surprised at such a sentiment by the public. He added, “Prior to announcing about the accession to the Customs Union, there was no discussion, and Serzh Sargsyan presented his entirely personal decision on September 3 and meeting with Putin for just two hours changed the foreign policy course by 180 degrees, which could not be assessed positively.”
Mr. Martirosyan is amazed at what calculations the state has done pertaining to the membership. “In this situation, Armenia cannot do any move without the consent of Russian authorities, and all the fears of Armenian authorities are quelled by Putin. The minimum common sense suggests that the economy, which cannot provide innovation, new technologies, new investments, and free market ideology, the economy, which is corrupt to the end, and under sanctions, it is simply unacceptable to have relationships with this economy. The logic suggests to possibly being far from such an entity. But since the so-called healthy policy only applies to falsification of the government, appropriation, and servicing the resources of the country for a group of people’s interests, hence, it is hard to say what decision the government would make. ”
Pertaining to the public sentiment, Mr. Martirosyan said, “The public has already a little more visualization about the threats of the Customs Union, this is the cause of disappointment.” To the question of why there was no serious resistance against the Customs Union, Armen Martirosyan answered, “Everybody in Armenia is right in its own way, they are not united, because each of them smite the breast unlike the RA authorities, who specifically feel the interest and are collectively united around this interest.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
