YEREVAN – Armenia’s parliament took another step in the country’s westward march, approving a bill calling for the government to seek European Union membership.
Adoption of the bill in the second and final reading was the latest move away from the orbit of Russia, as historical ties fray over what Yerevan says has been Moscow's glaring failure to support it in its conflict with neighbor and longtime adversary Azerbaijan.
The bill calling on the South Caucasus nation’s government to begin the EU accession process passed on March 26 with 64 yes votes, all from the ruling Civil Contract party, against seven no votes from opposition lawmakers.
“We submitted this bill so that the Republic of Armenia can express its political will for movement in the direction of the European Union. This process is irreversible. The people are calling for it,” said Artak Zeynalian, a former justice minister who represents a group advocating membership to the 27-nation bloc.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian backed the bill in January but noted that joining the EU would require a referendum. Armenia would also need to conduct major reforms in the justice system and other areas to have a chance of joining the 27-nation bloc.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought several wars in the past three decades over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been a majority ethnic-Armenian enclave since the Soviet collapse and is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory.
After Baku took full control over the region as the result of a lightning, one-day military offensive in September 2023, nearly 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia. Yerevan accused Russia, which had almost 2,000 troops stationed in the region, of doing nothing to prevent the fighting and the subsequent exodus.
Days after the assault, Pashinian said in a televised address that Armenia’s existing security alliances – a reference to Russia and the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) were "ineffective" and "insufficient.”
SEE ALSO: Pashinian Suggests Armenian Rift With Russia WideningIn February 2024, Pashinian froze Armenia's participation in the CSTO. It has also joined the International Criminal Court, meaning it would be expected to comply with an ICC arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin if he were to visit, and has deepened its defense ties with France.
Armenia held military drills with US troops in June 2024 and signed a strategic partnership agreement with the United States this January, a week before US President Donald Trump took office.
Russia has warned Armenia that a turn toward the EU could harm it in various ways, in particular economically. Russia’s deputy prime minister for Eurasian integration, Aleksei Overchuk, said in January that starting the process of joining the EU means “starting the process of leaving the Eurasian Economic Union,” a Moscow-led customs and trade alliance, adding that a country cannot be member of both blocs.
Last week, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said Armenia risks losing tariff-free trade with Russia and a potential hike in Russian natural gas prices, and that Russia could expel large numbers of Armenian migrant workers.
Armenia and Azerbaijan announced last week that they had finalized the text of the historic peace deal, though it remains unclear exactly when their leaders would sign it.