Armenia and EU sign Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement

November 24, 2017 By administrator

BRUSSELS. – Armenia and the European Union have signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent reports from Brussels

The agreement was signed by Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at the presence of Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and president of the EU Council president Donald Tusk.

On 12 October 2015 the Foreign Affairs Council authorized the European Commission and the High Representative to open negotiations on a new, legally binding and overarching agreement with Armenia, and adopted the corresponding negotiating mandate. Negotiations on the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement were successfully concluded on 26 February 2017.

EU Eyes Closer Ties With Armenia Amid Tensions Over Brussels Summit Declaration

November 23, 2017 By administrator

By Rikard Jozwiak

BRUSSELS — The leaders of the European Union and the six Eastern Partnership countries will meet in Brussels on November 24 in an effort to deepen ties between the EU and the former Soviet republics.

The summit’s main event will likely be the signing of an enhanced EU partnership deal with Armenia. That pact, however, omits free trade and is less ambitious than the association agreements secured by Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Like those three countries, Armenia previously negotiated an EU Association Agreement. But Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian walked away from the deal in 2013 under pressure from Russia.

Armenia later joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

The EU launched the Eastern Partnership in 2009 to promote economic integration and European values in six eastern European and South Caucasus countries.

The run-up to this year’s summit has otherwise been dominated by speculation about whether authoritarian Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka would show up. Minsk said on November 21 that Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makei would lead its delegation.

In October, EU sources told RFE/RL that Lukashenka had received an invitation “without restrictions,” just like the leaders of the other five Eastern Partnership states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

This was a U-turn compared to the previous four summits, when he was blocked after being hit with EU sanctions following a violent crackdown on protesters after the Belarusian presidential elections in 2010.

Most of the sanctions, including those on Lukashenka, were lifted in February 2016.

Conflicting Statements

This year’s summit in Brussels could also see clashes over the gathering’s final declaration, according to EU diplomats familiar with the talks.

One paragraph concerning conflicts in the region has been left open after both Armenia and Azerbaijan wanted specific, but conflicting, statements on the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a draft text seen by RFE/RL.

The current text also fails to mention the war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

“The summit participants call for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law,” it reads.

It adds that “the resolution of the conflicts, building trust and good neighborly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation.”

EU diplomats told RFE/RL that they wanted neutral wording in the statement and to omit any mention of specific conflicts in the Eastern Partnership countries, citing squabbles between Baku and Yerevan over the 2015 declaration that delayed the summit by several hours.

Ukraine is also likely to make a final push to secure more positive wording concerning its prospects of eventually joining the EU.

The current draft language on that topic is identical to that of the previous summit, stating that “the summit participants acknowledge the European aspirations and European choice of the partners concerned, as stated in the association agreements.”

The text references a December 2016 decision by EU heads of state that included a legally binding supplement to its association agreement underscoring that Brussels will not give Kyiv the right to automatic EU membership or guarantee any EU military aid for Ukraine.

The addendum allowed the Netherlands to finally ratify the Ukraine Association Agreement earlier this year despite the fact that 61 percent of Dutch voters disapproved of the deal in a citizen-driven, nonbinding referendum held in April 2016.

The draft declaration also outlines some future EU strategies in the Eastern Partnership countries.

These include “facilitating access to local currency lending” for local small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting “increased access to high-speed broadband,” and “progressing towards reduced roaming tariffs among the partner countries.”

EU may include Armenia on blacklist of tax havens: Bloomberg

November 23, 2017 By administrator

The European Union may include Armenia on a blacklist of tax havens as soon as next month, Bloomberg reports citing people familiar with the matter and a draft summary table dated November 21.

Also included in the list of possible tax havens is Turkey, as an EU working group tasked with screening “non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes” concluded that Turkey’s commitments to address transparency issues and abolish sweetheart tax regimes are so far “not sufficient.”

Ambassadors representing EU governments are due to discuss the list ahead of the finance ministers meeting.

As many as 36 countries could be blacklisted, including Serbia, Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, Panama and Tunisia.

According to earlier reports, European officials have told 53 countries and territories that they risk being blacklisted as tax havens after the UK earlier delayed warnings to a dozen jurisdictions with ties to Britain.

Can Merkel push the EU towards a new Turkey policy?

September 5, 2017 By administrator

In the middle of Germany’s election campaign and after 12 years of talks, Chancellor Angela Merkel may push for an end to accession talks with Turkey. It would be an overdue step. DW’s Bernd Riegert offers an analysis.

EU accession for Turkey is effectively over. Negotiations that began in 2005 may be soon declared dead, and the government – or, better said, regime – of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is responsible. Turkey has neither met EU requirements nor appears anywhere close to doing so. Turkey’s April referendum effectively turned the state into an autocracy, thereby ending the possibility of joining Europe’s community of democratic states. This much is clear based on regular EU reporting.

German policy shifts

Turkey’s rule of law has deteriorated since the failed coup one year ago, and has flipped Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on the matter of Turkey’s EU candidacy. In April, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel expressed his hopes that Turkey could remain a candidate for EU membership.

By August, he had given up that position in light of Ankara’s aggressive actions. Martin Schulz, the SPD chancellor candidate and longtime advocate of Turkey’s membership, has taken a similar step, calling for an end to talks. During Sunday’s televised chancellor debate, Merkel stated what has been obvious for months: “There cannot be a Turkish accession to the EU.”

Foreseeable end to negotiations

Merkel’s comments hardly say anything new. Last week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in Brussels that Turkey had already taken huge steps away from Europe, making membership impossible. An official decision to expel Turkey from talks could come as early as this weekend’s foreign ministers’ meeting or at an EU summit at the end of October. Making good on the unavoidable would be a dramatic turn of events after 12 years: slamming the door to the EU on Turkey.

Juncker had previously warned that Erdogan will have good reason to blame the EU for the failure. However, that would not make the damage any worse. An end to accession talks could also be an end to financial support for accession. So far, suspending payments has been illegal, although the EU has been paying just a small portion of them since 2013.

Turkey never seriously tried

Turkey-EU relations could hardly get any worse. A July meeting between Turkey’s foreign minister and the EU’s foreign affairs representative showed how little chance there was at renewed progress. The EU ending accession talks would be unprecedented in its history, but at most symbolic. In reality, talks have been on ice since December, when the Council of the European Union refused to open the next chapter in the negotiation process.

Negotiations have effectively gone nowhere since their start 12 years ago because Turkey has repeatedly refused to recognize Cyprus’ membership in the EU, an island whose northern half remains occupied by the Turkish military. Even without Turkey’s dramatic descent into dictatorship in the last year, this alone shows that Turkey was never really serious about EU membership.

EU social democrats were the most hopeful for Turkey’s membership in 2005. At the time, Erdogan was Turkey’s EU-friendly prime minister. That hope waned as Erdogan moved ever further away from European values and, with them, EU accession criteria.

Angela Merkel, who was at the time parliamentary opposition leader, spoke out against membership even then. Her conservatives were satisfied with a “privileged” partnership for Turkey. She continued her resistance to membership even after she became chancellor, which meant inheriting negotiations from her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder of the SPD.

Austrian chancellor: EU could never digest Turkey joining

July 27, 2017 By administrator

Austria’s chancellor says the European Union could “never, ever” digest the economic impact of Turkey joining, underlining his country’s hard line against membership, ABC News reports.

Austria has been among Ankara’s most outspoken critics in the 28-nation EU and argued for freezing membership talks with Turkey.

Chancellor Christian Kern told Thursday’s edition of German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that “it must be legitimate to say: ‘You simply are not a membership candidate’.” He added that Austria has advanced not only arguments about the state of Turkish democracy but also economic ones.

Kern said: “In purely economic terms, Europe could never, ever digest Turkey’s accession. How is that supposed to work?”

He also said that “Turkey has crossed almost all red lines” on issues such as its treatment of journalists and lawmakers.

Iraqi Kurds resume immigration to Europe amid crises in Kurdistan

July 26, 2017 By administrator

SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Kurdish people have once again started to migrate to European countries as the crises in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region have become further complicated.

Part of the workers in Sulaimani second hand markets told NRT on Monday Kurdish people have resumed selling equipment in their homes to migrate to European countries.

“When we go to the houses, they say they sell everything except their clothes,” a worker at Sulaimani second hand markets said. “For example, I paid $9,000 [for the equipment of] three houses yesterday.”

“There are people who sell their equipment to go to abroad,” another worker said.

The head of the Kurdistan Branch of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR), Ari Jalal, told NRT Kurds’ migration has widely resumed as the political and economic situation in the Kurdistan Region remains unclear.

“Despite the difficulties with the routes to Europe, people have begun immigration to European countries just like the previous years due to the lack of payment, jobs, and unemployment with the hope of a better and deserved life,” Jalal said.

According to the federation’s statistics, 240,000 people from the Kurdistan Region and Iraq have traveled to Turkey as tourists in the first six months of this year. Most of them have gone to Greek and Italian coasts, the statistics indicated.

Up to 300 people have died en route to Europe in the last three years, and 48 bodies of Iraqi and Kurdish people have also gone missing.

Source: http://ekurd.net/iraqi-kurds-resume-immigration-2017-07-25

EU: No accession until Turkey halts authoritarian trend

July 26, 2017 By administrator

EU Turkey, No accession Turkish ministers pushing for EU accession in Brussels have been told by the EU there will be no progress until Ankara restores human rights. It’s Brussels’ most public criticism in the aftermath of Turkey’s failed coup.

Johannes Hahn, the EU’s membership commissioner, told Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at a press conference Tuesday that Ankara must reverse its trend toward authoritarianism before any progress could be made on Turkey’s entry bid.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also cited what she called a “worrying pattern of imprisonments of a large number of members of [Turkey’s] democratic opposition, journalists and human rights defenders.”

EU officials stressed that the talks were not being suspended but new topics were not being added to the accession agenda.

Mogherini described Tuesday’s talks as constructive despite public verbal sparring between the commissioners and the visiting Turkish ministers. She even alluded to this, saying that the direct talks in Brussels were more productive “than talking about each other with the media.”

“The rule of law, the right to a fair trial, due process, the freedom of expression and assembly, good neighborly relations are key principles that Turkey has committed to, not only as a candidate country [for eventual EU membership], but also as a member of the Council of Europe,” Mogherini said. “We have witnessed a worrying pattern of imprisonments of a large number of members of the democratic opposition, journalists and human rights defenders in Turkey.”

Celik: ‘disagreements’

Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik acknowledged what he termed “disagreements” but said the accession procedure’s so-called chapters dealing with Turkey’s judiciary, fundamental rights and security should be opened.

Cavusoglu told the EU it was being misled into criticizing Ankara over arrests and trials of prominent journalists and rights activists, claiming that “pseudo-journalists” had helped in “terrorist activities.”

“There are those journalists, soldiers, politicians who helped the coup attempts last year. They need to also face the sentences that are necessary,” Cavusoglu said.

Amnesty petition

Shortly before Tuesday’s meeting, Mogherini had met the secretary-general of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, who presented a petition signed by a million people calling for the release of rights activists in Turkey.

“Our message is very clear. Turkey has been seeing a very steady deterioration in its human rights situation since the attempted coup,” Shetty told DW on Tuesday. “And right now, it has arrested 10 very well-known human rights activists and defenders, including the chair and director of Amnesty International in Turkey. So the message was that what we need is the immediate and unconditional release of these 10 activists.”

Since last year’s failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his regime has jailed 50,000 people, pending trial, and dismissed 150,000 more from their jobs.

Turkish officials argue the crackdown was justified by the gravity of events on July 15, 2016, when rogue soldiers were blocked by crowds summoned by Erdogan.

Armenia can be proud of its civil society – EU ambassador

July 14, 2017 By administrator

Armenia can be proud of its civil society – EU ambassador

Armenia’s civil society is its brand identity and pride on the post-Soviet territory, EU Ambassador Piotr Switalski said today, considering civic activism as a serious potential for the country.

In his speech at the opening of the Committment to Constructive Dialogue project, the diplomat also highly praised the recently adopted legislative amendments allowing NGOs to more broadly benefit from financial assistance and resources.

Meantime, he stressed the importance of developing the dialogue between government institutions and civil society organizations.

Ambassador Switalski further reiterated the European Union’s commitment to assist the civil society in Armenia, focusing on specific priorities such as capacity-building of smaller and regional NGOs. He also highlighted the social entrepreneurship initiatives and the increasing attention to the youth, women and minorities.

EU: Parliament adopts by a large majority a resolution recognizing the “Nagorno-Karabakh region” the right to self-determination

July 7, 2017 By administrator

EU Parliament adopts recognizing the "Nagorno-Karabakh region" On Wednesday 5 July (457 votes in favor, 124 against and 66 abstentions), the European Parliament adopted a resolution entitled “Recommendation of the European Parliament of 5 July 2017 to the Council on the seventy-second session of the General Assembly Of the United Nations, “in which paragraph (a) of the Peace and Security item refers to the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as follows:

“Continue to advocate full respect for the sovereignty, internationally recognized borders and the territorial integrity of the countries of Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, in particular Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, Violations of international law committed in those regions; Support and re-launch diplomatic efforts to achieve a peaceful and lasting settlement of these ongoing and long-lasting conflicts and the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and to enforce human rights on the ground. Human rights, territorial integrity, the non-use of force and the equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination; Urging the international community to fully implement the policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of the Crimea; To actively strengthen the pressure on Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to resolve the conflict in Ukraine in accordance with the Minsk accords and the problem of the occupation of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Ossetia from South ; Seek a political balance that rejects all the aspirations of exclusive spheres of influence; “

MEPs explicitly recognize the right to self-determination of the “Nagorno-Karabakh region” and if they are committed to “respect for the territorial integrity of the countries of Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus”, they insist Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine “, three Eastern Partnership states that have signed an association agreement with Brussels. But they do not explicitly mention Azerbaijan and Armenia, as Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the question of Artsakh (Karabakh in Armenian) concerns in law, the principle of self-determination of the Armenians in this region, mentioning only “Nagorno Karabakh” shows at the same time That this Republic of Artsakh is a party to the conflict, that Armenia is not, as stipulated in the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council and that Azerbaijan does not see its territorial integrity specially mentioned. At this stage, it is a step forward for the rights of Armenians in Arsatkh, presumably because Azerbaijan is multiplying human rights violations, aggression against Armenians and acts of intimidation against Members of the European Parliament. But this vote is also due to the fact that Armenia is about to sign an association agreement with Brussels in November 2017, if all goes well. And as Moscow and Brussels seek to overcome their differences, Armenia has in this perspective a card to play.

Writing

European parliament votes to suspend Turkey EU accession talks

July 6, 2017 By administrator

EU suspend Turkey Talk The European Parliament has voted to ask for Turkey’s accession talks to the EU to be suspended. Meanwhile, police have detained a group of human rights activists, including Amnesty International’s Turkey director.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday voted for the suspension of membership talks with Turkey on Thursday.

The vote on the proposal passed by a wide margin, with support from the biggest party groups.

Proponents of the measure say Erdogan’s crackdown on opposition forces and the media mean Ankara cannot meet the bloc’s democratic criteria.

However, the parliament has little sway on the issue. The European Commission and EU member state governments have so far ignored calls for the process, already effectively in limbo, to be formally suspended.

Anticipating the vote, Turkey’s EU affairs minister warned it would be a “terrible mistake,” adding that European lawmakers should show solidarity with Turkey after last year’s failed coup attempt.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftugolu separately said the decision was based on false claims and allegations.

Arrests at island meeting

Meanwhile, Amnesty International demanded the release of a group of human rights activists – including its country director – on Thursday, citing their detentions as a “grotesque abuse of power.”

Amnesty’s Turkey Director Idil Eser and others were taken to a police station on Wednesday evening after they gathered at a hotel on the island of Buyukada, just south of Istanbul.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said 12 people had been arrested. It was unclear why they were being held, with police saying they would make an announcement later on Thursday.

The detentions follow thejailing of the chairman of Amnesty’s branch in Turkey, Taner Kilic, on charges that he was a member of a terrorist organization.

Amnesty: Human rights ‘meltdown’

Amnesty demanded the group’s release, saying it was “profoundly disturbed and outraged” at the detentions, as the group met on the island to discuss strategies for digital security and information management.

“Idil Eser and those detained with her, must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Amnesty’s International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty.

“Her incommunicado detention and that of the other human rights defenders attending a routine training event, is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country. ”

Amnesty urged world leaders meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg to address Turkey’s human rights “meltdown” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Among those detained with Eser were seven human rights activists and two foreign trainers, one from Germany and one Swedish.

rc/ng (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)