Armenian media focus on the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Armenia and the European Union scheduled at the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on Friday.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” stresses that “the signing of the document clearly meets Armenia’s interests as it presents a serious counterbalance to Armenian-Russian relations that pose a threat to Armenian sovereignty.” The paper at the same time warns that Armenia’s failure to sign the document this time around will spell an end to its independent statehood and will reduce it to a “Russian province”.
“Zhamanak” reports that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated at a news briefing on Thursday that Moscow treats the EU-Armenia agreement with respect. “It means or at least should mean a major guarantee that the agreement will be signed,” the daily writes, adding that “however historic the new accord between Yerevan and Brussels may be, it won’t change Armenia’s life automatically, but the country should be able to benefit from the opportunities offered by it.”
In an interview with “Aravot” political analyst Suren Sargsian excludes the possibility that some wording in the new accord could make Armenia refuse to sign it. “There is no wording that cannot be rephrased so as to satisfy both or all parties,” he explains. In this view, the analyst does not rule out some “ambiguous wording” that can be interpreted differently by the two sides.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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