For more than 15 years the issue of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement has been a priority for Armenia’s foreign and inner policy. From this point of view Armenia’s relations with the European Union are very important as well. The importance of settling the conflict is written in almost all documents signed between Armenia and this institution. If in the relations with some other institutions (for example, the CoE) it is written as a responsibility, the format of cooperation between the EU and Armenia over the issue of Karabakh can be considered a new opportunity to settle the conflict. The so-called “big-document”, i.e. the new neighborhood policy, which regulates Armenia’s relations with the EU, in fact may highly support the settlement of Karabkah conflict. It is not about the specific mechanisms in the project only but the political component as well. The European Union wants to have neighbors, which would have good relations not only with the EU but with each other as well. In a word, the final goal of the neighborhood policy is providing efficient cooperation of the European family in participation of countries, which don’t have conflicts with each other and maintain good relations. From this point of view it may become an opportunity and a new platform for the settlement of the conflict of Karabakh. Certainly the EU does not formally participate in the negotiations and supports the OSCE’s policy. It is apparent but in fact in the recent period the EU is active in the region and is more interested in making long-term peace in the region. This is the ideology that the new neighborhood policy is built on. “Increase political support to the OSCE Minsk Group to support the work to settle the conflict according to the international norms and the principle of territorial integrity, examine the possibility of providing human aids and mine clearing support on part of the EU… continue the efforts to settle the regional and other related issues in cooperation with neighboring countries, as well as support reconciliation,” writes the New Neighborhood Policy action plan. Especially since the recent development in the policy of Armenia-Turkey relations the EU has numerously committed to supporting these relations. Even though the relations of the conflict settlement and Armenia-Turkey reconciliation are not formally connected, from the long-term prospective the EU views this issue in the same context. It is the context of long-term peace in the small and big region.
