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Only Commissaries Are On The Barricades

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  • Only Commissaries Are On The Barricades

    ONLY COMMISSARIES ARE ON THE BARRICADES

    Golos Armenii, Armenia
    Feb 13 2014

    a translated excerpt from Ruben Margaryan

    On the eve of Yerevan's decision on the accession to the [Russian-led]
    Customs Union, an odd dispute unfolded between pro-Westerners and
    pro-Eurasians in Armenia. The former maintained that if Armenia joined
    the Customs Union it would lose [Nagornyy] Karabakh and the latter
    argued no less strongly that Armenia would lose Karabakh in case it
    initialled the Association Agreement with the EU. Both sides lied,
    of course.

    I recalled this because currently, a similar picture can be seen. The
    supporters of Armenia's association with the EU argue that the Customs
    Union is rather dead than alive, that it is a bluff, and so forth.

    Pro-Eurasians maintain the contrary, saying that the Eastern
    Partnership project is dead. It is understandable that in the case
    of the debate on Karabakh, these are pure speculations.

    The Eastern Partnership exists as it existed, its member states are
    included in the programme and the EU is in the process of designing
    new directions of cooperation. The same applies to the Customs Union,
    which still includes three countries. The Customs Union, however,
    plans to intensify and widen cooperation between its members and set
    up a Eurasian Economic Union on the basis of the Customs Union in
    the future. A tangible example of the presence of the Customs Union
    for Armenian citizens is that Russia recently removed restrictions
    of residence terms on its territory for working migrants, citizens
    of the Customs Union member states.

    But all this is not relevant to the "commissaries" of the EU or
    Customs Union. They will always find a counter argument to speculate
    on noisily.

    [Passage omitted: Pro-EU and pro- Eurasian groups are wasting people's
    energy and time by diverting attention from relevant issues]

    These "commissaries", alas, cannot find a better occupation than
    attempts at dividing this country into two camps. They are not happy
    with the fact that political parties divide people into as many
    factions as possible. They now want to add new dividing lines in the
    society, as if the Ukrainian experience were not enough.

    [Passage omitted: People distrust the media and political analysts]

    When we see seemingly reasonable people apparently talking nonsense
    [on integration plans], the impression that come to one's mind is that
    tomorrow, they might change their sponsors and convert into diehard
    supporters of Eurasia or vice versa. Please, Mr Integrators, keep
    quiet, the year ahead will be full of political confrontations. You
    will find better rostrums for your ambitions!

    [Translated from Russian]

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