Foreign

Home page

Foreign

European External Action Service: The protocol on Armeniaâ€™s participation in the EU programmes is not applied to Nagorno Karabakh

24 October 2013 08:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementieva – APA. The European Parliament has held discussions regarding the recommendations prepared by Polish rapporteur Tomasz PorÄ™ba on “The Framework Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Armenia on the general principles for the participation of the Republic of Armenia in Union programmes”. APA reports that Armenia's accession to the Customs Union in the course of discussions for more than two years during the negotiations with the European Union before the summit in Vilnius and its double game have caused serious anger of European parliamentarians.

The European parliamentarians touched on the gross violation of human rights in Armenia, crackdown on the civil society and religious communities, including the intolerance in relation to minority faiths such as Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses and the increase of radical tendencies. Ulrike Lunacek, representative of the Green Party and Austrian MEP, raised the issue of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and noted that the Armenian citizens currently living in Nagorno Karabakh should not be allowed participating in the EU programmes.

Clarifying the parliamentarian’s questionnaire, the European External Action Service said that the protocol on Armenia’s participation in the EU programmes is not applied to Nagorno Karabakh. According to the paragraph #9 of the protocol, its clauses are applied only to the territory of Armenia. Explaining the issue in terms of the international law, the European External Action Service has announced that only institutions recognized within the external borders of Armenia can benefit from these programmes. As for visa facilitation between the EU and Armenia, according to the second article of this Agreement, it was emphasized that the terms are valid only for the citizens of Armenia.

This once again proves that despite various steps taken by Armenia, the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have never been regarded and will not be regarded as Armenia’s territory by the international community and the European Union.