Pundit: Armenia has no chance to become EU member state

Armenian political scientist Suren Surenyants has said Armenia has no chance to become a member state of the European Union (EU).

"As for Armenia's prospects for EU membership, I would like to say that since 1999, Türkiye has been an EU candidate state. Almost a quarter of a century has passed and I can say that the progress in membership is minimal. So neither Ukraine nor Georgia will get EU membership in the next 10 years. That's pretty obvious," Caliber.Az quotes Surenyants as saying during an interview with independent journalist Narek Kirakosyan.

"And one should not draw far-reaching conclusions from any very important fact, ignoring the regularity of historical precedents, this is the first thing. Secondly, Armenia has virtually no prospects of becoming a member of the EU for several reasons. Our economy and infrastructure are completely dependent on Russia, and if the Russian Federation wants, it can cause an economic collapse here within a few days. Objectively and subjectively, our entire security system is largely determined by the Russian factor.

I think the Armenian authorities will not propose such an agenda, given the specifics. So the presence of observers in Armenia is a very small push to change the direction of Armenia's foreign policy. This is possible, of course, if we carry out a proper diversification, and do not actually build a policy with the West as a counterbalance to Russia. External political diversification can indeed contribute to the strengthening of Armenia's security and defence capacity, but we do not see anything like that,” he said.

“Moreover, it is necessary to establish a content in relations with the EU that is realistic. And it does not follow from the logic of realistic politics that we can become a member of the EU or that, the EU will be interested in protecting our security. They said that instead of real security guarantees they offer to settle relations or reconcile with Türkiye and Azerbaijan," the political scientist said.