FM Mirzoyan says Armenia considering seeking EU membership
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has voiced his country’s aspirations to expand ties with the West, saying they are considering seeking membership in the European Union (EU).
In an interview with TRT’s Yusuf Erim on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in the Turkish city of Antalya on Friday, Mirzoyan said Armenia is considering applying for EU membership as Yerevan seeks to forge closer ties with the West.
“Many new opportunities are largely being discussed in Armenia nowadays and that will not be a secret if I say that includes membership in the European Union,” Mirzoyan, who was discussing the progress of the ongoing peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, said.
Since coming to power in a 2018 revolution, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has deepened Armenia’s ties with Europe and the United States, repeatedly drawing the ire of traditional ally Russia.
Armenia blames Russia for failing to defend it against long-standing rival Azerbaijan, which has drawn closer to Moscow in recent years.
However, Yerevan has maintained that its traditional alliance with Moscow does not stretch to the war in Ukraine.
Pashinyan has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking to undermine the Armenian government.
Media observers also link the strained ties between Yerevan and Moscow to the Hague-based ICC Court issuance of arrest warrants for Putin for alleged crimes committed during Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
ICC accuses Putin of allowing the illegal deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine.
The court claims there is reasonable ground to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility in the move.
The Kremlin has already called the move outrageous and legally void, as Russia is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC. Russia withdrew from the ICC treaty under a directive signed by Putin in 2016.
Russia says the military operation in Ukraine has been in order to defend the pro-Russia population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against the persecution of Kiev’s pro-Nazi leaders.
Since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022, the US-led Western allies, namely, the UK and the EU, have been extending all-out support to the Kiev leaders’ forces to fight Russian troops.
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