Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is pursuing a course of gradually loosening Armenia’s ties with Russia as the country aims to eventually become a member of the European Union. While the Kremlin continues to pressure Yerevan to hold a referendum on potential EU accession, Armenian leaders signaled Aug. 24 that the South Caucasus state is moving toward applying to join the 27-nation bloc. But how realistic are Yerevan’s ambitions, especially given the experiences of other countries seeking EU membership?
According to Pashinyan, “in the near future” Armenia will “perhaps begin the process of submitting an official application to join the EU.” His statement came after the leaders of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) urged Yerevan to hold a nationwide referendum “as soon as possible” on whether to join the EU or remain in the EAEU.
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The likelihood of Armenia becoming a member of the EU or especially of NATO (with veto-yielding Turkey as a member of the latter), is about as low as the likelihood of Trump winning the Nobel Peace Prize. This naive, clueless idiot Pashinyan has needlessly angered Russia by turning to the West and burning all bridges with it, without receiving security guarantees and other “rewards” by the West in return, and has consequently led to Armenia being exposed and to suffer the avoidable catastrophe in Artsakh. He sold a lie to the gullible Armenian electorate about the West being the “Promised Land” for Armenia, among his many other rosy pipe dream promises, and Armenia is paying a very heavy price for falling for this self-serving con man and his empty promises.
You’re wrong.
EU needs Armenia than vice versa. Who else does it have?
Hmmmmmm.
Exactly.
Armenia is more important to the future of the EU than half the countries in Eastenr Europe.
Your future depends on a strategic position against Russia. Without Armenia, you have no fort or front.
Good luck.
Armenia is okay without you. We have so far. But if you want a base or bases on the Eastern end…
EU has to court us. Not the other way around.
“May be out of reach”??????!!!!!!
IS out of reach!
Honestly, the sheer geographical illiteracy!
The Turks applied to join in 1980, 46 years later, they’re still waiting!
There is no chance, none whatsoever, of Armenia ever being a member.
EU needs a democratic partner in the East. Armenia is and is Christian too.
Why would the EU not want to court it…..
Turkey is Muslim, authoritarian and the complete opposite.
You speak without understanding the importance of having a friend, and ONLY friend, in the East.
If EU doesn’t want a position anywhere east of Budapest, that’s fine for Armenia.
EU needs Armenia more than Armenia needs the EU.
@Shawn Aiva
You are very naive, and indeed geographically and politically illiterate when you think that the EU “needs” or “wants” Armenia, especially as a “fort” and “front”, against Russia, not to mention Turkey and Iran! Armenia would become cannon fodder in a hypothetical war against them! The EU is a political organization, not a military pact like NATO (with Turkey as one of its members, Armenia has zero chance of joining NATO). The EU is very unwilling to expand to this part of the world, far and geographically disconnected to even the closest EU member countries, at the periphery of Europe, especially to confront these three regional powers. It simply won’t.
That Turkey is refused EU membership for being Muslim, is true, and rightly so, not only because it is Muslim, also because it is undemocratic, poor and very populous (if it were a EU member, it would be its most populous member with 85 million people).
But that Armenia is Christian, is no automatic entry card for EU membership. Georgia, Serbia, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia are Christian too, and there is no appetite in any EU member country for them to become EU members, as well as for Armenia, because of poverty, little or no democracy, and large populations in the latter two. And that you describe Armenia (under the autocrat Pashinyan) as “democratic”, is a joke, and a bad one.
To wrap it up, the EU (and the West in general), is no knight in shining armor ready or willing to rescue Armenia. It did absolutely nothing when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia and Artsakh, and destroyed the latter, and will likely do nothing if Armenia gets attacked again. Where have you been for the last six years, especially between 2020-2023?
You urgently need to take a crash course in geopolitics.
You speak without understanding the importance of Geography.
Iceland’s rejection of the EU just goes to show how moribund it is.
Geographical illiteracy leads to dhimmitude.