Today Europe enjoys what it planted in February

Interview with the president of the European Armenian Unions Forum Ashot Grigoryan

-What is your opinion about the Vilnius Summit and its results?

-I think we should speak about the results later but the overall situation has been quite clear since March by playing both with the EU and Russia. If we were to join the Custom Union why would we let Putin sell so much military hardware to Azerbaijan? If Serzh Sargsyan knew this was the right way he wouldn’t let this happen. Research shows that the President hasn’t known what he has been doing and on September 3 he realized that he had no way to refuse Russia.

If he did so he would have appeared outside all the borders. And all the promises given to the EU to sign the Association Agreement went in vain, which caused the leadership of the EU show their attitude to Armenia. And so all the causes and consequences of the fiasco must be carried by the people and not the president. If the president had been honest enough to announce that Armenia was going to join the CU but in the meantime wished to strongly develop relations with the EU wouldn’t have caused the discontent and disappointment of the EU.

-Under the current circumstances what is your opinion about the personal participation of the Armenian president in the Vilnius Summit?

-Indeed, Sargsyan should have tried to temper the expected impact but Sargsyan lost his whole image in Europe. Today we have instable relations with the EU. In February Europe supported Sargsyan and the latter turned out to be very ungrateful and today Europe is enjoying what it has planted in February. Our people will have to be accountable for the fiasco.

-During his speech Sargsyan mentioned that due to the support of the EU the last three elections of Armenia proceeded in a peaceful and democratic environment. He also promised that Armenia would continue developing internal democracy. What do you think about this?

-Europe has made a fatal mistake by accepting the results of the openly falsified elections. Europe will be accountable for that. Europe has to live with the stigma of not criticizing the fraud of Armenian elections. What Sargsyan did during the elections was against the principles of Europe and it was against the benefit of the Armenian people. Will Europe still continue supporting the Armenian president and his fake promises? He doesn’t even apply a soccer policy but more like a casino policy. As a result of that trust he continues lying to Europe. None of the three elections have been transparent. If he considers these three elections accepted by Europe then it is a big slap to Europe. After all that we can expect the attitude, which we have been seeing during the past several months.

-Sargsyan in his speech also mentioned that he expects the support of the EU in the matter of the blockade of the Armenian-Turkish border. But we know that the border matter has been frozen long before the deterioration of the Armenian relations with the EU. Why should Europe help now?

-Europe is not going to show any special support regarding this matter. This matter was very interesting to the US. The contrary resolution of this matter would more interest Russia and Diaspora. It means the Diaspora agrees that the border cannot be opened on preconditions. Many of the Diaspora Armenians think that the opening of the border is a little untimely now because Turkey is using this matter for its own interests.

They believe even if he does open the border it can still close it any time it wants to because there are not guarantees. As of the opening of the border based on the protocols then I should say that it is a big crime against the nation and the fatherland. It is the right of the Armenian people and the people are categorically against that and nobody gave the right to the president to speak on behalf of the Armenian people without considering their opinion. If he tries to do so he will receive a counterattack as he has faced in Paris. This means we rule out the opening of the border based on the protocols and I don’t believe Turkey will open the border by itself. This is not serious.

-In two days Russian president Vladimir Putin will visit Armenia. What do you expect from that meeting?

-It is a terribly belated visit. After Putin’s fancy visit to Azerbaijan this so-called random visit to a friend and strategic partner country like Armenia is not a big deal at all. I have already mentioned that Sargsyan deteriorated his relations with Putin, the foreign affairs ministry, all Putin’s visits planned to Armenia have been cancelled. Putin will finally come to Armenia.

He will give something to us, will tap on the shoulder as an older brother, perhaps during the face-to-face meeting he will threaten the Armenian president. He will show that although Russia is angry but it’s not offended. It means our relations turns vertical from slightly horizontal ones. This is a terrible thing. We finally succeeded to have independence. The Oskanyan-Kocharyan couple was able to deal with Russia like equal-to-equal of course with great compromises. I didn’t forget the granting of the major strategic objects to Russia in lieu of the 100 million USD loan. At any rate, perhaps it would be better to build better trade relations with Armenia and cut deals in favor of our country. Our relations with Russia were at a higher level but they degraded by Edward Nalbandyan “diplomat.”

-Your organization stated that it was going to fight against Serzh Sargsyan and his administration. What have you done so far?

-We sent a letter to Hovik Abrahamyan, who stated in Brussels that he’s ready to cooperate with us and even expressed his willingness to jointly fight against corruption. We accepted this challenge and we expect Abrahamyan’s response to our letter. After that we will target the president to get rid of him. The president is number one responsible person of the current situation. Levon Hayrapetyan sated during our meeting that the impeachment shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. And we will do so if our demands are not properly taken care of.

By Gayane Khachatryan