The limits of the European Union's normative myth in Armenia and Georgia

This chapter seeks to identify several endogenous and exogenous factors that hampered the EU’s democracy promotion in Georgia and Armenia between September 2013 and December 2015. Georgia and Armenia have reacted differently to the EU’s intended norm diffusion. While Georgia adopted some of the EU’s reforms for the price of future integration with the EU, Armenia chose to align with Russia, which was exemplified by its accession to the Eurasian Union. These divergent integrative approaches demonstrate that the effect of the EU’s normative power is challenged by several factors