EuFoA publishes two new shortpapers

Today, European Friends of Armenia (www.EuFoA.org) published a paper “Oil and democracy in the UK-Azerbaijan relations – an opinion poll analysis,” in addition to a shortpaper “The EU’s assistance and development programmes in Armenia – an introduction with concrete examples” on EU aid in Armenia, issued on Wednesday 31 August 2011. Both documents are available on EuFoA’s website at http://www.eufoa.org/en/publications, EuFoA press office said.

“We prepared the EU aid shortpaper because our own opinion poll from November 2010 has shown that most people in Armenia have little or no information about what the EU actually does in Armenia. Our shortpaper on EU aid is a contribution to bridging this gap,” commented Dr Sargis Ghazaryan, Senior Research Fellow of EuFoA.

Dr Michael Kambeck, Secretary General of EuFoA, added, “As our UK poll paper explains, over two-thirds of UK voters would penalise their government for close ties with a country that threatens its neighbour with war – as Azerbaijan is persistently and publicly doing. This data thus provides a reason for the British government to rethink its policy towards Azerbaijan. The UK should use its leverage over Azerbaijan to ensure that the latter’s negotiations with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh are conducted peacefully.”

The EU aid paper presents an overview of the EU’s development projects in Armenia, providing an introduction to the EU’s cooperation mechanisms with its Eastern European neighbours. Using concrete examples, it explains the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership.

The UK poll analyses UK-Azerbaijan relations in the light of a recent opinion poll, commissioned by the European Foundation for Democracy (www.europeandemocracy.org), on the importance of values in British foreign policy. Since the United Kingdom and Azerbaijan have a relationship largely determined by trade in oil and gas, it also highlights the UK’s leverage in the South Caucasus and how it could be used to prevent the re-emergence of war in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is noteworthy that the UK public is starting to debate the perceived “too tight” links of leading British decision makers with the Azerbaijani government, irrespective of Baku’s highly problematic human rights record and the repeated war threats.