ANP - Ararat News & Publishing

Armenia expects EU to play active role in Caucasus

Ararat News-Publishing (ANP) – Roni Alasor, Brussels – 7 / 10/ 2009 – Last Tuesday the Brussels-based organization European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA / www.eufoa.org) hosted a lunchtime briefing with Ms. Karine Ghazinyan, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, responsible for the relations with the EU. The main topic of the discussions was the EU-Armenia Cooperation and the role of the EU in Armenia-Turkey relations. EU officials in charge of Caucasus, diplomats and advisers attended the event.

Ms. Ghazinyan was glad to underline the positive cooperation between Armenia and EU in the framework of the Eastern partnership. Although with the support of EU some important achievements were done in the field of democracy and human rights in Armenia, much still should to be done in the field of free trade and visa policy, especially for the ordinary Armenian citizens, said Ms. Ghazinyan.

The rest of the two hours exchange of views was devoted to the Armenia-Turkey relations. Both Ms. Ghazinyan and Mr. Avet Adonts, Armenian Ambassador to EU, welcomed the positive relation development between the two neighbouring countries. They expressed their gratitude to the EU and to the international community for their efforts to support the dialogue.

Ms. Karine Ghazinyan said that the 21st century needs more openness and communications between the neighboring countries, than to have closed borders. Therefore, the official position of the Armenian government is for signing of the protocols with Turkey. The participants in the discussion were generally agreed that the signing of the protocols should not be related to any preconditions.

EuFoA in a recent press release listed several conclusions of the meeting following exchange of ideas with people close to the process of negotiations between Armenia and Turkey:

“The normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey will be a truly historic development, as it will signify the first resolution of a dispute in the South Caucasus by purely diplomatic means.

The EU should fulfill the role of a guarantor for the implementation of Armenia-Turkey agreements, in order to make sure that the protocols are first ratified by both Parliaments, and then fully implemented by the parties.

The Union should apply “conditioned anchoring” to both parties. By this we mean the process in which the Union grants financial, economic and political incentives to the parties involved, conditioned to further progress in the implementation of the protocols. The Union can perform this in the framework of accession talks with Turkey, and ENP/EaP conditionality when it comes to Armenia.

The Union should, among other initiatives, implement Confidence Building Measures in Armenia and Turkey, promote cross-border projects and strengthen P2P contacts. The whole process is not only intergovernmental, civil societies on both sides have to be actively involved, as they are the primary stakeholders of the process.”

Photo ; EuFoA

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