The Armenian opposition is growing frustrated with the European Union’s apparent reluctance to press hard for political reform in Yerevan. Opposition leaders now regard the United States as the only potential source of external support for their efforts to force President Robert Kocharian’s resignation and to open Armenia’s political system.
One prominent oppositionist spoke for many of his colleagues recently when he said privately, "The world has only one boss, and you know what that country is."
The opposition mood has been reinforced by the EU’s effective decision not to set specific political conditions for Armenia’s participation in its European Neighborhood Policy (ENP)-- a program that envisages privileged ties with the expanding union. Armenia as well as neighboring Azerbaijan and Georgia were included in the program last June in a move which heralded a deeper EU involvement in the South Caucasus.
Another clear example of the difference between the EU and the US as perceived on the ground. One is seen as supporting the status quo (or at best, evolutionary changes so to allow events to "just happen") while the other is seen as leader for democratic change. How can the EU even contemplate superpower status when they have no ideology to endorse, promote, or enact?
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