Almost the whole of Armenia’s top leadership is visiting Europe these days: President Serzh Sargsyan

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Almost the whole of Armenia's top leadership is visiting Europe these days: President Serzh Sargsyan has been on a visit to Poland, Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had left for a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly session in Strasbourg, and even Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II decided to pay visits to France and Switzerland.
European officials hope that in November Armenia, Moldova and Georgia will initial hotel accommodations san diego Association Agreements with the European Union and Ukraine will sign one. This was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius during a June 25 meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg. hotel accommodations san diego At the meeting of the Council hotel accommodations san diego on Foreign Relations the ministers discussed preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on November 28-29.
Armenian President Sargsyan, who was visiting Poland, confirmed hotel accommodations san diego Yerevan's intention to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. Yet, he spoke more about the EU's possibility to influence neighbors hotel accommodations san diego Turkey and Azerbaijan, which continue hotel accommodations san diego to blockade Armenia.
hotel accommodations san diego "Unfortunately, in our region there are problems and circumstances standing in the way of a full use of opportunities held out by the EU Eastern Partnership program. Unfortunately, hotel accommodations san diego for some people, Europe is still only a market and not a system of values," said the Armenian president during a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski hotel accommodations san diego on Tuesday.
"While declaring about its European way, one of our neighbors simultaneously hotel accommodations san diego glorifies the villain who committed an ethnic murder, threatens to shoot down civilian planes and deprive the people living in their land for millennia of that right. Our other neighbor, Turkey, which again strives towards Europe and is a member of the EU Customs Union, closed the border [with Armenia] from the very first days of our independence and rejects good-neighborly relations that are so vital in the 21st century. The pivot of our negotiations with Europe is mutual accessibility of markets and free movement of citizens, but Armenia's border with the EU Customs Union remains hotel accommodations san diego closed. We anticipate hotel accommodations san diego a full and clear assessment of this fact as unacceptable," he emphasized.
However, Armenia will have to address a number of issues with Russia as well. The intention to create a Free Trade Area with the EU will inevitably force Armenia to solve the issue of its border hotel accommodations san diego protection. Now Armenia's borders with Turkey and Iran (as external frontiers of the Commonwealth of Independent States) are protected by the border units of the Russian Federal Security Service. It is unlikely that a free trade area will be established in conditions of a third country's border guards controlling the Armenian border.
Remarkably, Russian Security hotel accommodations san diego Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev was visiting Armenia at the beginning of the week and during his visit issues related to border cooperation were also discussed. Judging by the documents that were signed as a result hotel accommodations san diego of Patrushev's visit, Russia will not give up defending the borders of Armenia.
Russian and Armenian officials say that Moscow does not torpedo Yerevan's European integration. This was also acknowledged by the head of the EU mission in Armenia, Ambassador Traian Hristea. In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service he said he did not see pressures from Moscow regarding Armenia's choice. However, it is obvious that such pressure is being exerted and not only on Yerevan, but also on other post-Soviet republics.
In particular, Ukraine was offered an observer status not only in the Customs Union, but also in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-led defense pact of six former Soviet nations, including Armenia. This news became available on Tuesday after the announcements by Russian hotel accommodations san diego State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin, who also said that "someone is hindering Eurasian integration of former Soviet republics."
The question now is whether Sargsyan can stand the heavy pressure coming not only from Russia, but also from within the political system of Armenia or at the last moment will back down and renounce the European course. And this question is now becoming key in relations between Yerevan and Brussels.