“After September 3, everything broke. In this stage, the EU is just as uncertain as the political society of Armenia”, -such opinion was expressed by Boris Navasardyan, Coordinator of the Armenian National Platform, Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, in conversation with Aravot.am, talking about the current phase of the Armenia-EU Partnership. Note that on November 20-21, the sixth annual conference of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum will be held in Batumi, which will be attended by the Armenian delegation. This year, the Forum will also address the changes that have taken place in the context of the Eastern Partnership with regard to the Vilnius Summit and subsequent events.
Boris Navasardyan believes that the partnership panoramic view has been changed and the former common agenda is nowhere. “One of the countries signing the EU Association Agreement is in an undeclared war, and even the remaining three, which have not signed the association agreement, there are differences among them, too.” The Forum will also discuss issues regarding further increase of efficiency of activities and structural changes, as well as security matters, propaganda wars, human rights-related issues, especially imprisonment of many political activists and journalists in Azerbaijan and so on. Boris Navasardyan informed that during the Forum, the national delegations would elect national coordinators of all countries. Each national coordinator will take the office for only one year.
To our question of what attitude the European partners have after the September 3 decision, Mr. Navasardyan replied, “Prior to September 3, they were talking about Armenia with quite gratification. In the European Union strictures, Armenia managed to complete negotiations on the Association Agreement in a very short period of time, for which it required quite a long time for other countries to do so. After September 3, there is a certain amount of surprise and disappointment. At least until July of last year, Armenia’s signing the Association Agreement was not taken under question. Now, they approach rather consciously, because they saw how the situation was escalated in other countries. Apart from Ukraine, there are certain concerns regarding Georgia and Moldova. Europeans are ready to deepen relations with us almost in any other format, which is possible for the Republic of Armenia.”
In response to our question of whether this format is outlined to him, Mr. Navasardyan replied, “I have not outlined to me too, I can see that the resource of our authorities to make a decision is zero. Either they follow the instructions coming from Moscow, or are waiting for the instructions. Waiting is more dangerous than performing specific instructions”. Boris Navasardyan is concerned that they also do not know what to talk about with their partners and what further project to plan. According to Boris Navasardyan, “This stagnant situation, when you realize that doing nothing brings new problems, but you do not know what to do, such uncertainty is a deadly phenomenon for the public policy, especially for our country, which cannot slow down or prevent the reforms. This stagnation, in terms of purely methodology, is very dangerous.” Mr. Navasardyan stressed that, on the one hand, the RA authorities announce that they welcome the dialogue, but when it comes to specific moves, nothing turns out.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
