Yerevan Defends Armenia-EU Strategic Partnership Agenda; Rejects Baku’s Criticism

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Armenia defended on Wednesday a new policy framework for deepening its relations the European Union which has been denounced by Azerbaijan as a blow to the Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace agenda.”

The new Strategic Agenda for the EU-Armenia Partnership was signed in Brussels last week. It is meant to build upon the Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Brussels and Yerevan in 2017.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry protested on Tuesday against several provisions of the 64-page agenda, demanding their removal from the text. Those include the EU’s pledge to continue helping ethnic Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh as well as its support for the release of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan and the Armenian government’s position on transport links between the two South Caucasus countries.

“[The document] reflects not only the European aspirations of Armenia’s citizens but also the EU’s commitment to supporting our sovereignty, territorial integrity, democracy and socio-economic resilience,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It is clear that this in itself only contributes to efforts to further consolidate peace in the region.”

Badalyan also argued that the EU has welcomed the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process and, in particular, U.S.-brokered agreements reached by the leaders of the two states in Washington in August.

During the Washington talks hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged to give the United States exclusive rights to a transit corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan through Armenia. The transit arrangement will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry complained that the EU-Armenia document makes no reference to the TRIPP.