Pashinyan understands perfectly well that Armenia’s real integration with EU is impossible – Andrey Perla

Speaking with Alpha News, political observer Andrey Perla commented on the reports that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a decree establishing the Department of European Integration at the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

According to the expert, all post-Soviet countries focused more on legitimizing their regimes than pursuing integration with Europe.

“All the post-Soviet countries that pursued their supposed integration policies with the European Union were, in reality, solving a completely different problem—the problem of legitimizing their political regimes in the eyes of loyal voters. We saw this in Georgia, we see it in Moldova, and we are now witnessing it in Pashinyan’s actions in Armenia. Pashinyan is not an incompetent politician and understands perfectly well that any real integration between Armenia and the EU—whether economic, political, or military—is completely impossible. Europe is simply too distant, and no serious trade with Armenia is possible,” Perla said.

According to the expert, what Pashinyan is doing now is very dangerous.

“You could endlessly pursue the ‘European path’ and use it to justify everything happening in Armenian politics. This is essentially what Pashinyan intends to do. He wants to stamp everything he does with a European stamp: what is the purpose of all this? To make Armenia a European country—not just superficially, but truly European. And to distance Armenia from Russia as much as possible. These actions are difficult to approve of, but from a public policy perspective, they could be quite effective.

This system has also proven effective in Georgia, which will take a long time to recover. And when it does, within the framework of so-called European integration and the ‘European path,’ a great deal can be accomplished—and seriously cripple Armenian public, political, and social life. Therefore, what Pashinyan is doing now, despite the comical nature of the decision to ‘create another European department,’ is in fact very dangerous,” Perla concluded.