The goal of the European Alliance is strengthening the European direction in Armenia and implementing of concrete actions
Interview with the chair of ANM bureau Ararat Zurabyan
-A few days ago the ANM came up with a statement, by which they suggest revising the agreement of the Collective Security Pact and re-signify the development of Russian military bases in Armenia. Why did the ANM do so now?
-Today we are all following the activities taking place in Ukraine. We have known that Russia and Ukraine have had strong brotherly relations for centuries, which is no obstacle for Russia to deploy its troops in the territory of Ukraine and in Crimea particularly. And this process creates new separating lines and this is a very dangerous process. At some point this threat existed during the Russian-Georgian war when Armenia should have expressed its standpoint regarding the military actions based on the fact that is a member state of the Collective Security Pact. Thank God, back then everything ended soon and the consequences were not destructive. Otherwise, we might be involved in such processes irrespective of our will, that will become irreversible for Armenia because Georgia is a neighboring and a friendly state for Armenia. The same is happening in the case of Ukraine. Moreover, if you have noticed the Armenian government is not expressing any opinions.
-By the way, in regards to Armenia’s attitude to the events in Ukraine on March 10 the Armenian foreign affairs minister Edward Nalbandyan said the following, “We are optimistic that all the necessary steps will be undertaken to resolve the problem in a legal and peaceful manner, which will conduce to the reduction of tension.”
-We may construe this statement in the following way, “My opinions says nothing about this regard and is very vague.” Now you draw conclusions and the reason of this is very simple because Armenia has lost its sovereignty not only in regards to this matter but all others as well. Armenia is even retrained to express any opinion regarding this matter. And our government is in shock and confusion. With its actions Russia can cause the international community apply sanctions against it. In this case not only Russia will suffer but also Armenia. This is not only my opinion. The minister of economy of Armenia also thinks the same thing. There is another important circumstance. Recently Russia extended the contract of deployment of its troops in Armenia. I think this was connected with the fact that Russia wasn’t confident about Armenia and ensured its presence in Armenia for another 49 years. This was an unprecedented development. Russia has always been in change. Every 20-30 years certain changes are taking place in Russia as a result of which things in Russia drastically change. And even now we cannot predict where Russia will be at the end of the termination of this contract. That is the reason why we need to bring this matter up. But the reason why we are concerned now is that on September 3 Armenia has announced an important direction in its political course. Armenia, which was moving towards the direction of EU, changed its political course overnight and decided to join the Customs Union. In this case, once again it as reiterated that the Armenian government is in an inadequate situation and is not serving the interests of the people. We may speak very long about this but I should say that the Armenian government agreed to this turnover and once again stated that servitude to the Russian government.
-What is the European Alliance?
-Today in Armenia we have the following situation. We have a pro-Russian government, which serves the Russian interests more than its own. We have an opposition, which unfortunately at least more the majority of them, don’t mind joining the Customs Union. We don’t agree with this trend and think that Armenia should be moving towards Europe. I am sure that in Armenia there are people and parties, who agree with us. I am sure that the future of Armenia should be built in the European family. And we are initiating the European Alliance to develop the European direction in Armenia. This should serve a forum and platform to implement concrete projects and initiatives. We think that we have a lot to do in that level. The current color pallet of Armenia is very uni-polar and we are trying to diversify the political course of Armenia. I am sure a lot of people will join us because they know this is the ultimate future for Armenia. If Russia had the opportunity to change it would do the same. I have said this numerously and am saying now again. When Putin was to be re-elected he stated that they are envisioning to closely cooperate with NATO and EU. It didn’t happen because Russia didn’t conform to the European standards and criteria.
-Mr. Zurabyan, you have connected this matter with Ukrainian actions. How can we be sure that in the event of change Russia wouldn’t do the same it did in Crimea by deploying its troops?
-The problem is that there is no guarantee it wouldn’t happen. If you remember, Putin after arriving in Gyumri, spoke about the necessity of developing Armenia-Russia relations and he also stated that Russia is not planning to leave the Caucasus. They make such a statement only when they are visiting an outpost and not a friend state because countries usually have respectful and dignified relations with friendly states. Moreover, we have heard lots of inappropriate comparisons from Russia, when Armenia is compared with Kaliningrad, outpost, etc.
-In the 2011 summit of the CSP in Moscow a protocol was signed about installing military bases in the territories of CSP member states. It was ratified by the NA in 2012. According to that protocol, fast response mobile groups have been established, the purpose of which is to solicit the security matters in case of need. Does the ANM initiative relate to this matter as well?
-Indeed, it also alludes to it. It is such nonsense. Armenia and NATO came to an agreement to build a big military hospital in Armenia, where all kinds of diseases can be cured. Or they were thinking about building a training center in Armenia. It turned out that Armenia had to ask the permission of other states to do so. This is nonsense. If the initiative of forming mobile military groups takes place all our chances of becoming a democratic state will flush in the water. You have very accurately mentioned the issues, which make us establish the European Alliance.
Interviewed by Aram Sargsyan
