YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenia will continue to form a “single economic territory” with Nagorno-Karabakh even after joining the Russian-led Customs Union, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian insisted late on Thursday.
“We will remain a single territory, and I believe there can be no other formulations on this issue,” he told journalists before attending a meeting of the leadership President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).
HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov also made this clear after the late-night meeting. “No customs posts can be set up between the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” he said.
“I reaffirm our government’s position that Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are part of a single economic territory,” added Sharmazanov.
The ruling party officials were commenting on this week’s statement by a Russian official saying that Karabakh will not be part of the Customs Union or its free-trade regime. This presumably means that Armenia will have to open border checkpoints and start collecting import duties from products made in Karabakh.
Sharmazanov said that while Yerevan has never demanded that Karabakh join the Russian-led bloc along with Armenia it will not apply the Customs Union’s uniform duties to imports from Karabakh.
If that’s what Mr. Putin wants that what shall be done. No Mr. Nursultan Äbishuly Nazarbayev is going to stand in the way of progress.
Do people really think Russia has given up on trying to court Azerbaijan into stopping its oil and natural gas exports and thus, eliminating competition for itself? Russia may act like it’s trying to do Armenia some favors, but in reality, this is just a trap. I am almost certain that the more that Russia has solid control of Armenia, the more it can force us to concede land in Karabagh so that the Russians can have a legitimate incentive for the Azeris to join their shitty League of Authoritarian States (aka, Customs Union), and for potentially creating an environment that would witness another opportunity for the Russians to establish a base in the South Caucasus. Another instance in which Russian and Armenian interests dramatically diverge.