Should we consider that statement a success? Most likely no, because Josep Borel said that the raise of blockade will be an obligatory condition for Turkey’s EU membership. The speaker of European Parliament could afford a tougher formulation but preferred not to do so and did not say anything clear about the recognition of Armenian genocide. He only said that the issue will be touched upon in the course of negotiations with Ankara. At the same time, Josep Borel mentioned that the European Parliament has «repeatedly declared about the necessity of Ankara’s recognition of Armenian genocide». The European Parliament has not only declared but also demanded the inclusion of the issue of genocide recognition among preliminary conditions for Turkey’s EU membership. However, for some reasons Mr. Borel avoids saying anything distinct about that. The speaker would not lie if he risked to say that according to the decision of European Parliament Turkey will be accepted to EU only after the recognition of Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire.
The European Parliament speaker also touched upon the dates of starting negotiations with Armenia on the plan of actions of new neighborhood policy. According to Josep Borel, the negotiations have to be started immediately, but again he does not express his thoughts distinctly, as if avoiding responsibility in case his opinion does not correspond with real events in future. A person who is at the head of the legislative power of united Europe is expected to be braver in making statements. Borel did not even assure that the negotiations with Armenia will start at least in December. He only said that “it will be strange if the problems between Cyprus and Azerbaijan hinder negotiations with Armenia”.
Here, it should be mentioned that as a result of the provocative policy of Baku leaders, who entered into direct negotiations with the administration of self-proclaimed «Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus», Nicosia demanded not to start negotiations with Azerbaijan on their joining the «Expanded Europe – New Neighbors» program. Actually, Azerbaijan received an ultimatum and in case of its fulfillment Cyprus promised to withdraw their veto. However Azerbaijan did not give any guarantees of non support to separatism of the Turks living in the North of Cyprus. Because of the problems in the relations between EU and Azerbaijan the start of negotiations with Armenia was postponed and the reasons of that are still unknown. However it seems that it is because of the notorious parity principle which is applied to Yerevan and Baku in issues connected with European integration. Up to now, all the European structures accepted Armenia and Azerbaijan simultaneously and it is not a secret that almost always Armenia suffers because of Azerbaijan and their difficulties to fulfill conditions set for the candidate states.
One of the main objectives of Robert Kocharyan’s visit to Brussels was the decision of issues connected with the start of negotiations on the plan of actions within the frames of new neighborhood European policy. However, the Armenian president did not receive any clear answer about how long will Yerevan suffer because of Azerbaijan’s inability to fulfill necessary conditions for taking part in the “Expanded Europe – new neighbors” program. There are still no guarantees that the plan of actions will be ready by the end of his year.
