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The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed Friday between Armenia and the EU provides vast opportunities, which must be used and is expected to bring positive changes, an Armenian political scientist said Monday.

“The agreement is, of course, a serious document. It has a normative basis and is not just a memorandum of desires, it is a circle of obligations set for both Armenia and the EU. We know that similar agreements have already been signed with Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, and to claim that those three states have turned into Switzerland is not right. It should also not be stated  that the agreement has little importance. It gives quite vast opportunities, but must however be used,” Alexander Iskandaryan told a news conference in Yerevan.

Speaking about the part of the agreement that refers the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the expert highlighted how it was signed given the intrigue particularly regarding the declaration which was maintained until the last days of signing the deal.

According to the expert, the agreement was signed in a more or less ideal way for Armenia, envisaging all the possible points discussed at the Riga Summit, when the Azerbaijani side simply raised hysteria. Alexander Iskandaryan highlighted the way the deal was signed shows the attitude of the overall international community and particularly the European structures towards Armenia on one hand and Azerbaijan on the other hand.

“Contrary to what Armenian media say about the success of the Azerbaijani propaganda, we witness an obvious tendency of worsening attitudes towards Azerbaijan and improved attitudes towards Armenia,” the political analyst remarked, highlighting the fascist rhetoric, mass human rights violations and liquidation of civil society in Azerbaijan as important factors behind the singing of the Armenia-EU agreement.

Alexander Iskandaryan also underscored the agreement cannot directly affect the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the processes around it, adding the issue will continue to be dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Group.

According to the expert, the CEPA is slightly different from the association agreement, adding Armenia managed to perfectly run the policy to combine the two projects.

Armenia and European Union concluded the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Brussels on 24 November. The document was signed within the framework of the Eastern Partnership Summit by Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Frederica Mogherini.