Do we need Europe or does Europe need us? It is already 17 years that Armenia is a member of the OSCE. It is 8 years that Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe. Has our society performed readiness to move toward the European society during this period? Do we really care about European values? We may ask the same questions to the authorities and ask whether they really care about this process or just they only want to maintain good relations with European officials. The same question may be asked to Europe as well and we may ask whether Europe really cares about us and wants us to develop to the extent of reaching its level. Or, do they blow minds and sponsor from the budgets of their countries only for the purpose of demonstrating something.
Yesterday the Civilitas foundation headed by former foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan organized a discussion with the mentioned topic. One of the speakers, the head of the Human Development International center Tevan Poghosyan said that it seems the society is moving toward Europe but the process of Europeanization on part of the society does not go well. “People don’t consider themselves European,” he said by referring to the research findings of their organization. According to the finding of this research, in 2007 around 57% of the society did not consider themselves European, and now more than 80% of the society think so. According to Mr. Poghosyan, the reason is the fact that there is no change of generation. He thinks the most important thing to change the situation is the education sector.
Many people think that we need time to approach Europe and say that at least their children may enjoy the benefits. The Internews agency director Nune Sargsyan was a speaker as well and says that people should not live with the memories of the past and hopes for future only. She believes the present is very important. She believes in order to make a positive change in the country he society should make some inner changes.
T. Poghosyan says the inner changes are important and brought a good example saying how people learnt to use the car security belts. The latter says we will become a part of Europe only when we like Europe inside ourselves but not ourselves in Europe.
What about Europeans? Are they serious to us? Mr. Poghosyan believes it depends on us first of all. “The Europeans are serious to us when our actions correspond to the work we do… Europe will help us as much as we do our promises. If we do real work, Europe will be serious to us, if not, no one will care about us.” Tevan Poghosyan says that Armenia chose the path to Europe in 1991. He says the biggest lesson Armenia should learn is that we should be governed by our own interests. By the way, the best teacher from this point of view is Russia because in favor of its interests it may ignore and forget its ally and partner of many years.
The former FM Vardan Oskanyan believes there is no alternative other than Europe for us either. He thinks that in order to be success in the process of Euro-integration there should be trilateral cooperation. “Europe from one side, the society from another side, and the authorities of countries from the other side. If this trilateral cooperation does not work normally, if each of these three parties doesn’t bring a contribution to the process, we will not be able to be success in this process.” Oskanyan believes the important thing is not the membership in the EU but the processes which should be beneficial for us. “In the relations with the Europeans I think that we should demand from them to be more serious and engaged,” says Oskanyan and admits that Europe should demand from Armenia to fulfill its responsibilities. The former foreign minister believes our society should always demand more.
“The demand of the society is spontaneous and corresponds to the European values. If we demand in our routine life as well, I think we will generate inner pressure on the authorities to fulfill their responsibilities,” said the former foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan. As we understand from the words of the former foreign minister, the difficult thing is to change something here, and he says there are two reasons for that. “The first point is that the adoption and use of European values have been accepted by the authorities as a threat to their power. Until we manage to establish counterbalances in our political sector, the stance of democracy will be in the same situation all the time, and the authorities will consider the media and other democratic institutions as a threat to their power,” says Vardan Oskanyan. He believes the next reason is the fact that the ones who are to make reforms don’t have a deep respect and belief toward the European values.
Of course he speaks the truth. It is true that Oskanyan is a bearer of the Western thinking as well. A question originates and one may ask how it comes that a politician, who is advocating for European integration, was a part of the same political power for ten years; he was a part of the same political power which did not believe in the European values and was considering them a threat to their power. It would be better to organize another discussion dedicated to this issue as well.