Former President: We must engage with geopolitical centers in areas  where interests converge, rather than interfere where they diverge

ArmInfo.Small countries must avoid getting entangled in the contradictions between major geopolitical players, as stated by former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan during an interview with RTVI. He pointed out that the  Kremlin's concern regarding Yerevan's current policy is well-founded. 

He criticized the Armenian leadership for pursuing a "geopolitical pivot" toward the European Union despite the total lack of clear prospects for actual membership.

The Europeans, as the former president noted, encourage Armenia in  any steps that could irritate Russia, and Armenia is essentially  following this path. "The experience of Georgia, the experience of  Saakashvili, teaches nothing to the Armenian Prime Minister. Our  approach is this: you can't get involved in the contradictions of  major geopolitical players, especially small countries, because then  disaster is sure to follow. We must interact with geopolitical  centers in areas where interests converge, and not interfere where  they diverge. Look at Pashinyan's formula. We are going to the  European Union, we froze membership in the CSTO, and with the  Eurasian Economic Community, everything is fine as long as it  benefits us. I think for a great country, this is even insulting. I  don't think any small country can formulate its foreign policy  objectives and priorities in this way with the Americans, with  Brussels for example. And this cannot but cause irritation. But the  Russian leadership is patient, and I have the feeling that they  tolerated this for a long, long time, until it reached a certain  point, and they decided to speak out. But the tension - it's always  been the case,  as it seems to me and as far as I understand this  situation, it was all held back in the hope that people would  eventually learn, that people would begin to better understand how to  build foreign policy guidelines," Robert Kocharyan emphasized.

He also pointed out Armenia's enormous economic dependence on Russia,  and it must be strange for Moscow if the Armenian leadership pursues  foreign policy in isolation from the country's economic interests.  "These are movements in completely different directions: on the one  hand, there's a sort of political statement about rapprochement with  the European Union, on the other, the EU's share in foreign trade is  decreasing, while Russia's is increasing. This divergence suggests  that people simply don't understand what they're doing," the former  president noted.

He also recalled that it was during his presidency that Yerevan spoke  of a complementary policy, which had practical implications. "By the  way, during my tenure, trade with the European Union was  approximately the same as trade with Russia, but we never said that  politically we were moving toward the European Union. Firstly, that's  unrealistic, and secondly, we live in a region where the European  Union has no intention of joining," Robert Kocharyan added. The  former president expressed confidence that the European Union would  freeze its enlargement policy. "There's a very serious crisis there;  they need to figure out their own identity, what they want, and where  they're heading. But the security system we were in is tied to  Russia. You can't be in one security system and somehow move  somewhere else politically; that's strange behavior. I think this is  the behavior of people who don't understand the fundamental  principles of international relations and security," the former  president noted. Answering the question of whether he personally sees  Armenia within the orbit of Russia or the European Union, the former  president noted that the word "orbit" doesn't quite capture what's  happening. 

"Today, even according to official statistics, more than 40% of trade  turnover is with Russia. Almost everything is tied to Russia—more  than 60% of trade turnover, including parallel imports, exports, all  of these flows. And in this situation, talking about any other  benchmarks is simply pointless. The most pragmatic task for Armenia  is to develop these relations, to integrate into a huge market—the  Russian market, the EurAsEC market. There is simply no other market  that can replace this one. I know how difficult it is to enter the  European market for every product group. It's enormously challenging.  They defend their market zealously, very persistently, and have found  very interesting mechanisms for protecting this market through  phytosanitary controls. Every government must think about the  security and well-being of its state and its people," the former  president emphasized.