We Had Significant Achievements in Foreign Policy Before the Revolution: Marukyan

The Armenian diplomatic corps has essentially not changed since the revolution. We had significant achievements before the revolution, and it has been a year and a half since the revolution—what have we added to what we had? This was stated today by Edmon Marukyan, the head of the 'Bright Armenia' faction, during a meeting with participants of the annual gathering of Armenian ambassadors in the National Assembly.

He recalled that before the revolution, Armenia, as a member of the CSTO, was the only country in the union with deep cooperation with NATO. Additionally, Armenia, as a member of the EEU, is again the only one in the union that has a signed agreement with the European Union.

'It has been a year and a half since the revolution—what have we added to what we had? In this year and a half, we have democracy, freedom of speech, and the values we proclaimed with the revolution as a product to sell abroad, and that adds to what we already have, but I cannot say that this addition has yielded results today. We say we are a democratic country—what reforms have you made in this year and a half? At this moment, there is basically nothing related to that. We can talk about how the revolution happened, but what is being done in terms of reforms afterward?' Marukyan noted.

According to the Constitution of Armenia, the government develops and implements foreign policy, but the head of the LHK faction in parliament points out that there are issues related to declared priorities in foreign policy.

'In essence, we cannot influence or say why our priorities have formed like this, but I have a problem regarding the declared priorities, at least with respect to sovereignty. If someone asks me in the PACE what was your sovereignty that you have now declared as a priority, to be honest, I cannot answer that question. Because you declared it, it would be good to state it so we know what we are going to say,' he said.

Regarding the challenges in parliamentary diplomacy, Edmon Marukyan noted that Armenian parliamentarians are 'actively waiting' in all formats—CSTO, PACE, NATO, and Euronest, among others.