Bill launching EU accession process is loyalty oath to Western countries — Movses Ghazaryan

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist and international observer Movses Ghazaryan commented on the news that the Armenian parliament adopted in the first reading a bill launching the EU accession process and also analyzed the possibility of a new escalation between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“This looks like a kind of ‘carrot’, supposedly it is needed to, on the one hand, give some guidelines for the pro-Western part of Armenian society. On the other hand, it is supposedly needed to show the international position of the Yerevan authorities, that is, they want to show their Western moderators and Western leaders where they are heading. I believe that this is still a situational decision, this is a testing of the waters and a loyalty oath to the countries of the Western community and their agenda,” Ghazaryan said.

According to him, Armenia can find the keys to its development not in European but in Eurasian integration projects.

“By enjoying certain benefits, support from the Russian side, having various options, and using the support of its other partners not from the European Economic Community but from the Eurasian Economic Community, Armenia has the chance to create the most efficient economy,” Ghazaryan emphasized.

Commenting on the issues of regional security, the expert did not rule out that external actors might resolve their issues in the region by creating another conflict.

“Escalation is beneficial to them not only in terms of creating problems in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, but it would be beneficial, for example, to test the waters of Iran in certain aspects and security issues, to see how Iran might react to such risks,” he said.

The expert also commented on the latest infamous statements by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about the Armenian Genocide and the Karabakh conflict.

“Nikol Pashinyan is trying to downplay the defeat in the last Artsakh war to show that this is the part of our history that we should forget, something that Armenians should process and rethink constructively,” Ghazaryan concluded.