Karen Ghazaryan
“Radiolur”
What will Armenia gain and what will it lose by joining the Eurasian Union? The pros and cons were discussed at a seminar-discussion initiated by the “Agreement” center and supported by the Polish Embassy in Armenia. Some say membership in the Eurasian Union will harm the process of integration with the European Union. Others note that these two directions do not conflict with each other.
President of the “New Times” Party Aram Karapetyan considers, however, that there is a contradiction between the two. The Eurasian Union does not exist as such, but the Tax Union and the common economic area have already been formed, while for Armenia the issue of economic importance is of primary importance, Karapetyan said. He does not accept the arguments that Armenia has no shared border with the Eurasian Union. He reminds that Armenia has no common borders with the European Union, either.
Secretary General of the Heritage Party Stepan Safaryan considers that the Eurasian Union is simply a geopolitical structure aimed at maintaining the zones of Russian influence. At the same time, according of Safaryan, the Eurasian Union is trying to present an alternative to the European Union.
Safaryan says, when speaking about the Eurasian Union, we must separate it from the Armenian-Russian relations, as Armenia can deepen its relations with Russia as much as it wants on the bilateral level.
