The Armenia Alliance Issues a Statement

The Armenia Alliance has issued a statement in anticipation of the upcoming European Political Community summit in Yerevan.

“On June 4, the 8th summit of the European Political Community is scheduled to take place in Yerevan, followed by the first EU-Armenia summit the next day. These are indeed significant events, the substantive importance of which for Armenia could have been much greater if the timing of these events were taken into account. In a tense domestic atmosphere, the holding of such events by the Armenian authorities, just weeks before nationwide elections, is inevitably presented as external support, while European political circles are directly involved in the internal political processes of Armenia.

Once again, we wish to emphasize that the Armenia-European Union relations have been, are, and will continue to be one of the key directions of the Republic of Armenia's foreign policy. However, the interest of the Armenian authorities lies not in the substantive development of Armenia-EU relations, but in utilizing European political circles in Armenia's internal political processes. We regret to note that statements by individuals representing the executive powers of the European Union only increase our concerns that the manipulative actions of the Armenian authorities seem to receive European support.

We reaffirm our commitment to contributing to the continuous development of the Armenia-EU partnership, based on the “Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement,” shared values, and historical experience. Armenia-EU relations should be kept away from both exploitation for internal political purposes and the context of geopolitical confrontation, the best opportunities for which are set out in the logic of the “Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.”

We call on the high-ranking delegations arriving in Armenia to approach the development of Armenia-EU relations by considering the best interests of these relations, rather than the political expediency of having a friendly authority in Armenia, as the constraints on democratic processes by the Armenian authorities, the violation of the rule of law, and the limitation of political freedoms will gradually complicate their “European protection.” The purely political calculation of being passive towards the abuses of the Armenian authorities, including by European partners, has led to an unprecedented increase in the number of political prisoners in Armenia.

European bodies have not demonstrated appropriate political behavior or condemned the ongoing illegal campaign unleashed against the Armenian Apostolic Church by the authorities. We do not expect any foreign player, including the European Union, to intervene in the political processes in Armenia. However, among Armenia's external partners, the European Union is one of the few that has legal obligations to monitor the rule of law and democratic processes in Armenia.

In this context, we expect that the second civilian mission to be deployed in Armenia will fully adhere to its mandate and will be guided by the principle of political inclusiveness, ensuring the opposition's voice in its work.

In any case, the representational events planned in Armenia are a good opportunity to highlight such critical issues for our people and state as the release of our captives held in Baku and the de-occupation of Armenian territories. In this context, we welcome the separate provisions of the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on April 30 regarding “Support for Armenia's Democratic Resilience,” which relate to the rights of the return of Armenians from Artsakh, the protection of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh, the freedom of Armenian captives, and the necessity of guaranteeing equal and competitive conditions for all opposition actors in Armenia. We expect that this principled position of the European Parliament will serve as a guideline for the executive powers of the European Union.”