Yerevan /Mediamax/. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel writes that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who had expressed interest in signing an Association Agreement with the EU, "made a U-turn after meeting with Vladimir Putin in September 2013.”

In her “Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021” Angela Merkel devoted a separate chapter to the EU’s “Eastern Partnership” initiative.

The former German chancellor writes that the first summit of the Eastern Partnership was held on May 7, 2009 in Prague and notes that the members of this format (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine) were given the opportunity to negotiate with the EU on signing Association Agreements, including the creation of a free trade zone.

“This sounded simple, but in was difficult to put into practice. Since Putin had a strategic interest in impeding these kinds of agreements between former Soviet republics and the EU, he threatened them with a dramatic worsening of their traditionally close economic ties with Russia by casting doubt on existing trade benefits and announcing the imposition of customs duties. In doing so he forced the states to choose between closer cooperation with Russia or the EU – an insoluble dilemma. Azerbaijan, which had its own oil and gas reserves, had never shown any intent to seal an Association Agreement with Europe, nor had Belarus, which was in a customs union with Russia and Kazakhstan.

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan had first declared an interest in principle, but then performed a U-turn after paying a visit to Vladimir Putin in September 2013; he now wished to join the Russian customs union. His country’s geographical position and its conflicts with Azerbaijan and Turkey apparently left him no room for maneuver; Armenia was almost completely economically dependent on the Russian Federation,” Angela Merkel writes.

In December 2013, Spiegel International wrote that the Armenian president had unwittingly became a witness of a hard talk between Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.

“They had gathered at a festive dinner in the former palace of Grand Duke of Lithuania, with the city of Vilnius getting ready for Christmas, along with leaders from the EU and Eastern European countries. The truffle pastry hadn’t been served yet when President Yanukovych started an incoherent talk about his country’s complicated relations with Europe on one hand, and Russia on the other. But at some point Merkel interrupted the Ukrainian President and brusquely told him he might as well stop talking. “You are not going to sign anyway”, she said brusquely. Armenian president, who was sitting beside her, looked at her in surprise,” Spiegel International wrote then.