The question “Do you want to become an EU member?” is a rather stupid one from a political point of view. Is there any country that does not want to become an EU member? Another question is whether Armenia is ready to join such an organization or not. Former Armenian Prime Minister Khosrov Harutyunyan said this at a panel discussion titled “EU-EAEU: Political or Economic Choice”.
“There have been talks about holding a referendum. Why are they actually holding a referendum, for membership? No. No matter, even if in the referendum people choose the EU over the EAEU, we will not become an EU member. The EU will say to Armenia, ‘How do you want to join me if, for example, there is a Russian military base in your territory?’ Of course, this will be followed by the process of withdrawing the Russian military base from Armenia. In other words, the goal is not to join the EU at all,” Harutyunyan noted.
Speaking about the risks of withdrawing the Russian military base from Armenia, the former prime minister noted that if Russia withdraws from Armenia, Turkey will enter.
“I am not happy with Russia’s politics, but I know one simple thing. Turkey does not avoid invading the territory of neighboring states for its own interests. Syria and Cyprus serve as an example for us. “The Russia, which now supports Turkey and Azerbaijan, knows that Syunik is of highly strategic importance and having a military base in Armenia will not allow the capture of Syunik,” Harutyunyan said.
According to him, the referendum will not be aimed at joining the EU, but at removing the Russian military base from the region. Harutyunyan noted that we will not become a member of the EU with the referendum, but we will run into new problems.
