EU membership or alienation of territory: What is really happening with Armenia?

On March 14, Nikol Pashinyan commented on the resolution of the European Parliament adopted the day before, which proposes to consider granting Armenia the status of a candidate for EU membership.

Pashinyan said that the Armenian authorities are “fully determined to deepen relations with the EU.” He believes that the resolution should be the topic of broad public discussion in Armenia. In his opinion, such “messages” need an even greater public response, not only the reaction of the government.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Parliament approved a resolution proposing to consider the possibility of granting Armenia the status of a candidate for EU membership. The resolution says that “should Armenia be interested in applying for candidate status and continuing on its path of sustained reforms consolidating its democracy, this could set the stage for a transformative phase in EU-Armenia relations.”

Just a couple of days ago, during his press conference, Pashinyan said that “membership in the EU or the EAEU are issues equal to the Constitution, which requires a referendum”. And now he proposes to make Armenia’s application for EU membership the topic of a broad public discussion. This is no coincidence. The authorities do not only want to make their policy of destabilizing Armenia’s foundations seem legitimate but also create a political alibi for themselves to shift responsibility for possible future losses to the people of Armenia.

This is the reason for Pashinyan’s desire to involve as many people as possible in this process. But what is really happening with and around Armenia today? What is going on, and what are the Armenian authorities trying to keep quiet about?

Do you remember when Artsakh was finally surrendered to Azerbaijan in September 2023, and a number of members of Pashinyan’s team even presented September 19, 2023 (the day of Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh) as the day Armenia gained real independence? Do you remember when they said that if there are no Armenians in Artsakh and the Lachin corridor does not exist, then Azerbaijan has no legitimate reasons not only to demand a corridor through Armenia but also to demand the “return” of Azerbaijanis to Armenia?

Well, during the UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, Azerbaijani MP Ramil Hassan said that “Armenia is far from building a peaceful and inclusive society” and announced the need to create conditions for “the return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia”, claiming that this would allegedly be an important step towards sustainable development and peace in the region.

At the same time, a statement was made from official Ankara that the Zangezur corridor must be opened. This was stated by the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the Organization of Turkic States, Binali Yıldırım.

According to him, Armenia allegedly got the opportunity to get out of the blockade after the “resolution” to the Karabakh conflict.

Most importantly, the Turkish newspaper Türkiye Gazetesi, which is close to the government, published important details of the Armenian-Turkish talks held at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. According to the newspaper’s sources, the Turkish delegation led by Serdar Kılıç proposed to the Armenian delegation to grant the Syunik region (Zangezur) a special status according to the Kaliningrad model—connected with Russia but at the same time acting as an autonomous region.

In other words, under the slogans about the imminent Europeanization of Armenia, as has been said repeatedly, the country’s authorities are following the path of “embedding Armenia into the Turkic world”, which is far from the Europeanization of Armenia…

Think about it…