Former Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan has described the prospect of enshrining EU membership aspirations in Armenia’s Constitution as extremely dangerous, saying he had warned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other government members about the risks while still in office. He made the remarks in an interview with CivilNet.
“I tried to persuade them, and I would have continued trying to convince them not to pursue this path,” Grigoryan said.
He emphasized that the position outlined in his recently published article was not new, as he had previously raised similar concerns.
Grigoryan also pointed to Armenia’s attempts to follow the path taken by Georgia, arguing that the consequences of that approach were already apparent.
Asked whether his article signaled a new political position, he said he would most likely not have written it had there been no discussion about including an EU accession commitment in Armenia’s Constitution.
In his article, Grigoryan argued that EU membership may appear attractive at first glance, but aspirations are often confused with realistic possibilities.
“When assessing Armenia’s prospects for EU membership, a number of political, geographical and economic factors must be taken into account, making this goal unrealistic,” he wrote.
