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November 10, 2014

Signing of the agreement to join the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) by Armenia on October 10, 2014 disrupted the country’s course of establishment and strengthening of democratic institutions, as well as social, economic, and other sectors; a course which is difficult but has no alternatives. Clearly, ineffective governance and private interests along with falsified elections have been almost insurmountable obstacles on this path. Nevertheless, the political course for signing  the Association Agreement with the EU, including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement gave hopes that Armenia could develop through strengthening of democratic institutions and economic empowerment.

In fact, by joining the EEU, Armenia steps into the path of political adventurism, led by the ruling political force, which has repeatedly demonstrated its narrow partisan ambitions, which were put above the interests of the state and nation. Apparently, the most ominous consequence will be the loss of sovereignty of the country, along with the inferior and humiliating status of Armenia in the EEU.

The process of integration with the Eurasian Economic Union was accompanied with disturbing escalation of ceasefire violations along the Mountainous Karabagh border and considerable slow down of economic growth in Armenia that will further exacerbate according to forecasts of prominent international organizational.

At the same time, obvious trends for restriction and oversight of civil society activities are contained in the new legislative initiative. Some oppositional political forces of Armenia regarded this U-turn of the Armenian foreign policy course with irresponsible indifference; others welcomed it, or considered it to be irreversible reality. Such political forces, together with the ruling political majority, are leading the country towards a dangerous and unpredictable future, in order to please the Kremlin and satisfy their own narrow personal interests.

Armenian National Platform of EaP CSF expresses its concern over the following:

• The agreement to join the EEU was signed with gross violation of the RA Constitution, without appropriate legal procedures.
• By entering EEU Armenia will be deprived from the right to voluntarily withdraw from the Union, which means that our country is losing its sovereignty.
• Armenia is joining a Union which members are authoritative, not democratic states, where violations of human rights and freedoms are widespread.
• The arguments that EEU will ensure the security of Armenia don’t stand any criticism, especially, since this factor is not included in any of the founding documents of the EEU.
• RA government have not provide the Armenian  public with any information as to how, to which extant and in what format Armenia will proceed its political and economic relations with the EU, given the current situation. And finally, will Armenian lose the “GSP+” with EEU accession?

We, the representatives of the CSF Armenian National Platform member organizations, call upon the government and oppositional political forces and the civil society to review the decision of entering this dangerous game, fraught with devastating consequences.

At the same time, we are disappointed with disproportional response of the European Union to the EEU agreement signed on October 10 and associated dangers, thus ignoring the threats that the expansion of EEU poses to Armenia and other countries of the region.

CSF Armenian National Platform intends to continue wide public discussions on the developments in the  Armenian foreign policy and prioritizes public awareness about all the risks associated with EEU membership.

In the existing situation, we consider prevention of ratification of EEU agreement by the Armenian National Assembly to be the sole solution. For this reason, we call upon all the political and civic forces that are against Armenia’s accession to EEU to unite, in order to be able to effectively struggle for prevention of this destructive process.

EaP CSF Armenian National Platform

November 10, 2014

Yerevan