Kyiv: At the Eastern Partnership summit to be held in November in Brussels, an agreement on a comprehensive and expanded partnership between Armenia and the EU is expected and the country will be able to participate in two completely different economic zones - the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union.
What expectations of Armenia regarding the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit and the results of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly held in Kyiv, Chairman of the permanent commission of the National Assembly of Armenia on external relations, head of the delegation to PA EURONEST Armen Ashotyan told in an exclusive interview to Front News International.
The Parliamentary Assembly of EURONEST
"I want to emphasize that our visit here to Ukraine is the first such format for the new parliament of Armenia. We recently had elections and in fact we tried to combine the multilateral agenda with establishing contacts with our Ukrainian colleagues, "Ashotyan said.
He noted that the results of the parliamentary assembly were positive.
"We not only managed to pass and provide a full agenda, consideration of all issues, a positive vote, but also on the contents of the documents that were basically adopted. First of all, this is certainly the report in four committees: in the political committee, on human rights, on energy issues in the economic committee, in the social committee, "he added.
The Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of Armenia stressed that the delegation was interested not only in the sectoral issues, but also issues related to the agenda of Armenia.
"I would like to emphasize that in all the reports that were adopted here at the parliamentary assembly, Armenia's position was strictly articulated. We actively participated in the preparation of these reports, we put several dozen changes, proposals for the text, which were of a substantial nature. This is certainly true of both the rights and freedom of the press, the implementation of the Paris Agreement and energy issues related to alternative energy, and the role of women, "Ashotyan said.
The Armenian delegation to PA EURONEST presented several dozen changes, most of which were adopted.
"For the first time in the documents of such an interparliamentary, international assembly, the rights of people who inhabit conflict zones from the point of view of preserving the environment were registered. In the corresponding report on our proposals, a proposal was written that people who live in conflict zones also have their rights to protect the environment and make maximum efforts to ensure that international projects on the environment include so-called conflict zones, because regardless of the political situation, people who live there have fundamental rights. I think that this is the first step to considering conflicts not as mere "pain points" in the post-Soviet space, but to consider them through the prism of preserving their rights, integrating people who live there, into international projects, regardless of what political the situation, "Ashotyan said.
At the initiative of the Armenian delegation, the resolution was considered and a resolution was adopted to regulate the so-called "deadly weapons".
"In simpler terms, it's basically a robotic killer or drones of the last generation, the use of which in military conflicts, unfortunately, is not regulated. Which, of course, leads to great human casualties, and Armenians, Nagorno-Karabakh, know first-hand what it is. Because during the April war of last year and this year the Azerbaijani army used such deadly apparatuses, which with artificial intelligence are robots of a new generation that can kill tens of people.
And it is not accidental that the initiative of the world-famous inventor Ilona Mask and hundreds of other workers in the sphere of the latest technologies appealed to the United Nations with an open letter calling for regulating the production and use of such weapons. We are very pleased that our European colleagues, both Ukrainian, Moldovan and Georgian colleagues supported us in this initiative and we adopted a very important resolution aimed at preserving the lives of people, "Ashotyan said.
In his words, the Armenian delegation succeeded in another important thing: it was possible to prove once again here, to confirm Armenia's position that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has nothing in common with other conflicts in the territory of the post-Soviet space.
"As I said yesterday in my speech quoting the first sentence of Leo Tolstoy's world-famous novel Anna Karenina, the first sentence is" all happy families are happy equally, but all unhappy people are unhappy in their own way. «All conflicts are different. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has nothing to do with other conflicts in its origin, nor on its legal basis, nor on the history of this conflict, "he added.
Armen Ashotyan also expressed his gratitude to colleagues who have unresolved problems in their countries, "but they basically clearly understand that problems must be solved in accordance with their origin, symptoms, and, most importantly, from the point of view of their legal basis - international rights".
He stressed that the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has the only international format - the OSCE Minsk Group.
"We succeeded, during long discussions, in the final declaration of EURONEST, precisely those ideas that are based on the work of the OSCE Minsk Group. These are the so-called basic principles, the Helsinki Final Act, which spells out the people's right to self-determination, territorial integrity and non-use of force. These are the three fundamental principles that are laid down in the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. They were also registered in the documents of the EURONEST parliamentary assembly. There were, in fact, no parallels between the situation in Karabakh and other hot spots in the Eastern Partnership, which of course, I think, is a constructive approach not only from our European colleagues, from those delegations that have their own problems related to such conflict zones. Nagorno-Karabakh problem, it is not geopolitical, it is not religious, it is a problem that arose, because some people do not want to recognize the rights of other people, "Ashotyan said.
Eastern Partnership Summit
Answering the question of Front NewsInternational about the mood of the delegations before the forthcoming Eastern Partnership summit, Ashotyan noted that each country of the Eastern Partnership has its own expectations.
"We are not at different stages of European cooperation, but on different paths. There are states that have chosen the way of the Association - Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine. Signing agreements with the EU, they are going through their difficult path.
For us, the upcoming summit is an additional opportunity to strengthen our relations with the European community by signing a new framework document, which is in fact in the political part identical with the association agreement. The economic part of this document is spelled out in the framework of Armenia's commitments, which we have in the Eurasian Economic Union. No so-called counterdiction, no opposites, oppositions, there are no contradictions in these two statuses, "Ashotyan said.
Armenia is a full member of the EAEC and intensively develops economic contacts with the Russian Federation and other members of the EAEC.
"At the same time, we are strengthening our contacts with the EU, and the new framework agreement on an in-depth and comprehensive partnership will certainly open new opportunities for reforming not only the political sphere, strengthening institutions of democracy, human rights, fighting corruption, an independent judiciary, but also in the economic sphere in those volumes that do not contradict the Armenian obligations in the Eurasian Economic Union.
What is the uniqueness of Armenia in this situation - the European commissioners stressed that as a member of one economic union we are establishing contacts with another economic union, actually showing in our Armenian experience that convergence, cooperation is possible, it is possible to compare interests even at such large on the first a look of political disagreements, "Ashotyan said.
He also expressed the hope that the new framework agreement will be signed in Brussels during the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit.
"For our part, Armenia has done everything possible to be in time. We have fulfilled our part of the work and we hope that our Brussels colleagues, European officials and the European Council will finish their part of the work on time, "Ashotyan said.
Nagorno-Karabakh
The media of Armenia and Azerbaijan constantly report on the conduct of fire by one and the other parties.
"And again returning to the problems of the Karabakh conflict, in the framework agreement that we want to sign, which is already initialed in March, the problems of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are described in their assessments and approaches in strict accordance with the peacekeeping mission of the OSCE Minsk Group with those approaches and with those guidelines, which the countries proposed by the co-chairs. This is very important, because in fact the European Union at such a high legal and political level expresses its support precisely to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is an important factor for maintaining stability in the South Caucasus region, "Ashotyan added.
"If you read the media of different countries, you can always get confused. Let's talk logically. At the level of development of modern technologies, any international organizations dealing with security issues can easily determine at the satellite level who violates the agreements.
When you look at the chronology, the victims of the Armenian army are ahead of the information propaganda carried out by the Azerbaijani media. The Armenian parties never violated the ceasefire. We continue to insist that the peace negotiation process must take place in an atmosphere of confidence, in order to restore this trust, additional measures should be taken, as discussed at the meetings of the co-chairs in Vienna and St. Petersburg last year, "Ashotyan said.
Answering the question what include these measures, he noted that first of all this is the implementation of the monitoring mechanisms at the border.
"The Armenian side and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are in favor of implementing these mechanisms, because we have nothing to hide, we have never started to shoot first and defend ourselves naturally. Our army always responds to provocations that come from the Azerbaijani side. It is an ungrateful business to always speak if there is political will, if indeed our Azerbaijani neighbors have nothing to hide, if they are interested in holding the negotiation process in an atmosphere of mutual trust, with all possible conflicts and provocations excluded, then significant steps must be taken to implement monitoring On the border between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. We need to take steps to expand the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group, so that they have more observers, more opportunities to monitor this situation, "Ashotyan said.
"If we restore confidence to each other, if we know that we are really negotiating, and not firing behind the backs of our diplomats, then I am sure that the negotiation process could go into a more rapid phase with positive dynamics. As Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said: "We are ready to negotiate, we are ready to fight". Just let's decide what we do. The choice is not for us. We, being adherents of the diplomatic efforts of the mediation mission of the Minsk Group of the OSCE, are never going to disrupt this process. We are the only party in the negotiations that is interested in preserving and strengthening the format of the OSCE Minsk Group. In comparison with Azerbaijan, which in every possible way tries to discredit the OSCE peacekeeping mission. I very much hope that after the Geneva meeting of the presidents, we will be able to move to a more detailed negotiation process, provided that confidence is restored, provided that we fully implement those monitoring mechanisms and monitoring the situation that were discussed both at the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings of the co- Armen Ashotyan summed up.
Maria Streltsova, Diana Kolodyazhna, Front News
