EU is ready to view Armenia as tool, but not as equal partner – Andrey Perla

Speaking with Alpha News, political scientist Andrey Perla commented on the statement by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk that Armenia will have to choose between the EU and the EAEU. According to the political scientist, the EU is ready to view Armenia as a tool, but not as an equal partner.

“The most difficult thing to understand about the political regime of Nikol Pashinyan is that he constantly seeks to replace the political and economic reality of Armenia and the Armenian people with illusions that are extremely important to him. In particular, like many other leaders of post-Soviet countries, he has the illusion of the so-called ‘European path’—the illusion that Armenia can cease to be a participant in unions and agreements initiated by Russia and its allies. Instead, Armenia can supposedly become part of a certain ‘European civilization.’ At the same time, Pashinyan is not at all interested in what the EU actually represents today—the European Union is, so to speak, a fading garden that is constantly losing something—nor in the EU’s real attitude toward Armenia. This attitude is, to put it mildly, very dismissive. At best, the EU is willing to view Armenia as a tool, but never as an equal partner. The combination of these two things defines Pashinyan’s real policy,” Perla said.

According to the expert, Pashinyan’s policy is leading Armenia nowhere.

“Pashinyan is in fact rejecting all the benefits that Armenia objectively has. Here we are not even talking about membership in the EAEU itself—although that is certainly very important—but simply about cooperation with Russia. That is why, for example, the absolutely real prospect of building a nuclear power plant in Armenia by Russia is suddenly replaced by some kind of competition in which Russia is somehow supposed to lose to those who have no relevant experience in building such nuclear plants. The problem is that Pashinyan currently has sufficient authority to turn his illusions into Armenia’s actual political course. And this course, without a question, leads Armenia nowhere. So the Russian Deputy Prime Minister is absolutely right—100% right—in explaining why Pashinyan’s course is completely unacceptable not for Russia, mind you, but for Armenia itself,” Perla concluded.