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Armenia's Economics Minister: 'No Customs Checkpoint Between Armenia and Artsakh'
"Why should there be a customs point?" said Armenian Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan, speaking to journalists and responding to a question on whether there will be a customs checkpoint between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
As for Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's statement "Who said that we will enter the Customs Union with Karabakh", that such a thing hasn't happened and cannot happen because Karabakh, at least according to our legislation and our notions, does not comprise a part of Armenia today, Chshmarityan refused to comment, stating that he does not comment on the Armenian president's remarks. "I also don't comment on [Kazakhstan President Nursultan] Nazarbayev's remarks," he added.
When journalists again asked him whether a checkpoint will be introduced, Chshmarityan said: "I don't think so… What organization have we entered together with Artsakh [i.e. Karabakh] — can you say? Are we a member of the UN together with Artsakh? Are we a member of the CIS together with Artsakh? We will deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic [NKR] as we've dealt with it till now. That is, NKR goods will freely flow in both our markets and those of CIS member countries and EU markets; that is, all this time no problems have arisen — why are you so worried over the reading of a letter of a third, fourth country? I want to remind you of my parliamentary experience: you'll probably remember, when we were at a inter-parliamentary meeting, there the president again read [Azerbaijan President Ilham] Aliyev's letter, his invitation to Azerbaijan, for the next forum to be held there. [The letter] was read, but after that it didn't happen, did it? That is, I don't think it should be given so much importance. It's just that here the load is different. For example, in the case of the World Trade Organization. And the statement that was made referring to the UN-recognized borders, I don't think it was quite right diplomatically or professionally. I can just say professionally the quality of the letter that was read there."
Asked whether after Armenia joins the Eurasian Economic Union, goods produced in Karabakh will be labelled "Made in Armenia," Chshmarityan said: "Generally, it's been more or less like that till now, and I don't see big problems here. The cooperation is so deep that goods produced in Armenia and goods produced in Artsakh in terms of origin — they're pretty close. One other thing I can mention here is that, in any case, there is no checkpoint today and we haven't taken, are not taking, and I think we won't take any action with Artsakh to place a checkpoint."
As for Armenia not becoming a founding member of the Eurasian Economic Union though it wanted to, the economy minister said Armenia didn't become a founding member because "they founded it." He also assured the press that those 2–3 technical issues to which Serzh Sargsyan was referring have nothing to do with Karabakh. "They are purely professional, economic matters; the NKR issue is not with the technical [issues], I can guarantee [it]," said the economy minister.
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