During a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Turkish journalists asked about Armenia's EU membership process.
"The Republic of Armenia has adopted a balanced and balancing foreign policy. And within the framework of that policy, we are developing our relations with the European Union, and also with Russia within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union. And as I already said, our regionalization policy also fits into the context of those relations, that formula. Our relations with the European Union have developed and deepened in recent years, and against the background of those developments, civil society, public representatives submitted a bill to the parliament with about 50,000 signatures. Our Constitution provides that citizens can submit a bill with 50,000 signatures for parliamentary consideration, which is what happened, and our ruling majority decided to vote in favor. That vote in favor also fits into the logic of the balanced and balancing foreign policy.
We also do not oppose the deepening of our relations with the European Union to our relations with our other partners. Moreover, an interesting fact, if we look closely at our region, two of our four neighbors are candidates for EU membership. And I mean this process also does not contradict our regionalization policy. But on the other hand, we understand, and it is obvious, that the adoption of that bill does not mean membership to the European Union, because that is a completely different process. We thereby record our political interest in that process, understanding that it is a complex process.
But on the other hand, in the context of a balanced and balancing foreign policy, we also want to have a certain menu of alternatives for our people, as I put it, because membership in the European Union can ultimately also take place in the event of approval through a general referendum, in the case of the Republic of Armenia, because even in that case it is not yet a fact that Armenia will join the European Union, because the member states of the European Union must also reach a consensus in their turn.
I mean, I want to say it directly, we simply want the Republic of Armenia to overcome the foreign policy of the absence of alternatives. We want the Republic of Armenia and the people of Armenia to have alternatives. This is not at all a direct choice of one of those alternatives, but it is a possible opportunity, another alternative opportunity for our state and our people. This is essentially a service, of course also for our society at least, and more than 50 thousand signatures were collected, close to 60 thousand, and it is also an expression of our democratic nature, if the Constitution provides such an opportunity, why should the democratic Government and the democratic majority reject that project. And this is our perception, and I think that it is an important addition to the menu and opportunities of the people of the Republic of Armenia and the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia, if I may put it that way.
I say again, one of our most important tasks of our balanced and balancing policy is to overcome the policy of lack of alternatives and enter a place where we can look more carefully at our region, look more carefully at the world, look more carefully at the opportunities, analyze the threats more carefully, but also see opportunities. And this is the logical continuation, I say again, including of our regional policy, because I don’t know what our approach would be, but in our discussions and analyses, this has been of significant importance, that we have recorded that two of our four neighbors are candidates for membership in the European Union. Moreover, quite recently, this message was also delivered by Turkey, that Turkey has not abandoned the European policy at all. This is also true for Georgia, no matter how much there are certain problems in the relations between Georgia and the European Union now, but Georgia also declares that it has not abandoned the policy of rapprochement with the European Union, and these decisions of ours should also be viewed in this context."
