First ombudswoman: Armenia to take no advantages of integration processes, if country run improperly

YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. Larisa Alaverdyan, a former ombudswoman of the country, commenting today Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union, said not a single integration process will give benefit to Armenia, if the country is run improperly.  

Armenian and Russian presidents, Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin, made a joint statement on September 3, after they met in Moscow. It has become known from the statement that Armenia has decided to join the Customs Union and it intends to take part in formation of Eurasian Economic Union in the future. The announcement came as Armenia was poised to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. European officials find combination of membership in both unions impossible. 

“Independence is a hard burden of responsibility, which our political elite doesn’t stand,” Alaverdyan said. “Mismanagement and disability of our country’s leadership use all the advantages of a sovereign state will leave us without any benefit.”

In her opinion, membership in any union implies handover of a part of the country’s sovereignty to other institutions for a certain period of time and on particular conditions, Novosti-Armenia reports. 

“These conditions are an absolute proportionality and equality of the parties, and this is doubtful in terms of the Customs Union,” she said. 

She said protest sentiments in Armenia and objections to the country authorities’ decision to join the Customs Union show that people here have a certain idea of disadvantages of Eurasian integration, but knows about European integration risks not so much.----0---