ACCORDING TO HOVHANNES IGITIAN, EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD INACCEPTABLE FOR
CURRENT RA AUTHORITIES

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The reports on South Caucasian
countries made by the European Commission open wide opportunities for
these countries and it’s important not to miss them. Hovhannes
Igitian, Chairman of the EU Chamber of Commerce and Industry in
Armenia, declared. “If by now, for EU, we have been only a country
receiving aid joining the “European Neighborhood Policy” (ENP) we
become EU policy partners,” Igitian said. According to him, it’s very
important that EU puts forward pre-conditions for the ENP participants
and the countries not meeting these pre-conditions will be left out of
the ENP. Hovhannes Igitian is sure that though the EU is first of all
an economic union the ENP is a political program. The program’s goal
is to make the EU neighbor countries at most similar to the EU
countries, which will provide security in the EU border zone. He
expressed an opinion that such problems as Karabakh conflict may be
solved if the ENP proceeds successfully. “If we manage to pass the way
the EU countries have passed during the last 20 years the conflicts of
this kind will lose their sense. The governments of EU countries have
only obligations towards their peoples – to ensure the safety of their
lives, and almost have no rights. And the relations between the
government and people are in most cases defined not at the national
but at the EU level. Therefore, the belonging of a territory becomes
unimportant,” Igitian emphasized. Meanwhile, he was pessimistic saying
that Armenia will be hardly able to quickly meet the ENP
pre-conditions including democracy and provision of human rights. “I
don’t believe the sincerity of today’s authorities when they declare
about their devotion to the European principles. The point is that
each step to Europe reduces their power. If the ENP principles are
consistently fulfilled these authorities have no chance for
reproduction,” he declared.