ARMENIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: SOVIET-ERA CORRUPTION, NEPOTISM
Appo Jabarian
March 11, 2011
Considering the fact that two major illnesses — Ottomanization and
Sovietization have long infected the left and right flanks of our
people, it’s a miracle that Armenians, and the existing twin Armenian
republics — Armenia and Artsakh (Karabagh) continue to exist today.
The force behind the miracle is the dominant center flank of
nationally-aware silent majority, and their outspoken activist allies
in the homeland and Diaspora.
Armenians constitute one of very few nations that have been written
off several times by “Forces That Be”, yet the center-flank Armenians
somehow staged a major come-back for their people:
– Armenia was over-run by Seljuks (now called Turks) in 1071, yet
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia rose shortly after, in 1090’s;
– Armenians were nearly wiped out from their ancestral homeland in
Western Armenia and Cilcia at the hands of Turkey in 1915, yet the
Democratic Republic of Armenia emerged in Eastern Armenia in 1918;
– The short-lived independent Republic of Armenia was partitioned
between Kemalist Turkey, and then newly Sovietized Republic of
Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Soviet Union in 1921, yet Armenians
became one of the forces in late 1980’s that triggered and expedited
the downfall of the Soviet Union, giving rebirth to the independent
Armenian statehood;
– The newly independent Armenia was negatively affected by the 1988
earthquake and Artsakh Liberation War against Azerbaijan; and in 1993,
was subjected to illegal blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Yet
center-flank Armenians in Armenia and other parts of the world,
helped Armenia survive both the war and the blockade, and together
they engendered the birth of the second independent Armenian Republic
of Artsakh free from Baku’s yoke;
– While the effects of war and earthquake rocked Armenia from outside,
corrupt Armenian criminal elements embarked on a long campaign
of looting and impoverishing Armenia from within. The result was
nothing less than social and economic disaster. They undertook
the disintegration of the industrial base of Armenia, causing the
elimination of thousands of jobs which in turn fueled mass exodus.
According to reliable sources, nearly one million Armenians left
Armenia during the 1990’s. Some pundits (understandably) wrote Armenia
off as a non-viable country. Yet determined Diaspora and homeland
Armenians never gave up. Key individuals like Kirk Kerkorian, Charles
Aznavour, Gerald Cafesjian, Eduardo Eurnekian, and many others along
with several major and minor Armenian organizations collectively pumped
billions of dollars in the form of humanitarian aid, and grants for
massive educational and construction projects, helping Armenia get
on the trail to transformation.
Socio-economically, Armenia of 2000 outpaced Armenia of the 1990’s.
Armenia of 2010 outperformed Armenia of 2000.
However, the vestiges of Soviet-era corruption and nepotism still
persist, fueling self-exile — a demographic danger to the twin
Armenian republics.
“According to Gallup’s studies in 2010, 39% of the population desires
lo leave Armenia. Moreover, this statistic is the highest among the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Nearly 70,000
people have left Armenia in 2010. According to Police records, the
difference between the numbers of those who left and those who have
repatriated has been 4,019 people, meaning that 7,894 have returned
and 12,013 have left. This statistic can be categorically questioned
by visiting 72 Manouchian Street address, where Russian Federation’s
Migration Services’ offices are functioning in Armenia, making you
witness the real depopulation of Armenia,” wrote Siranoush Papyan on
Lragir.am website.
The report by Papyan, titled “‘Armenia Without Armenians’ Plan Is
Successfully Executed,” further quoted an Artashat elderly man as
saying (that) “I am receiving 28,000 drams a month (nearly US $80).
How can I survive? I am broke; (thanks to Russian Federation Migration
Services) I can go (to Russia) legally. I can raise cattle and that
country can raise me, or else these (elements in Armenia) are only
taking care of themselves. … Sergey too is complaining ‘why shall
I stay, when they are shutting the doors in the face of the producers.
They are raising the price on gas, water and everything else and are
(effectively) saying ‘Die!’ Am sicken tired of them, everything.’
According to him, this is policy is especially masterminded,
and the government is contributing to the depopulation of
Armenia. … Hovhannes had also come (to the RF Migration offices). He
was saying that this ‘country has been sold-out. Here, a man can not
manage to actualize his abilities.'”
Why is self-exile a major national security threat?
In normal circumstances, a low dosage of expatriation is healthy and
necessary for fostering better relations and trade between nations
and peoples. But in Armenia’s case, the levels have been extraordinary
since its independence.
Who are responsible, the authorities, the society, or both?
The still-Sovietized society as a whole and the leadership that it has
“produced” are responsible for the wider community’s ills. Each and
every corrupt individual (and their number is sizable) is responsible
for the many shortcomings of the Armenian state.
Why former Soviet Armenians and their families are resorting to
self-exile? We can paraphrase “the big fish eat the little ones,” by
saying that “the least-muscled corrupt elements who are overpowered
by the corrupt giants are just running away from their adversaries,
their own community, and their own selves.” Nearly a decade ago, an
Armenian observer had written about repatriated national hero Monte
“Avo” Melkonian: “He (Monte) had come to save us from our selves!”
Can the middle-aged and older generations transform themselves and
ultimately help boost Armenia’s domestic and international standing?
As many of us may know, “old habits die hard.”
In early 1990’s, when a Diasporan friend returned from his visit
of then newly-freed Armenia, he stated that “Armenia needs at
least another 50 years to rid itself of the old Soviet mentality
and corruption. Many friends were disillusioned to hear such an
assessment. But time has proven him accurate. The current Armenian
society is still infected by Soviet-era corruption. Nearly twenty
years have gone by from the day (September 21, 1991) when Armenia
officially broke free from the Soviet Union. But the society has yet
to eradicate the effects of Soviet social ills.
How can the Armenian republics overcome this illness?
For the short term, and for the sake of urgent national salvation,
everybody has to pitch in immediately.
For the long term, but effective now, the members of the new generation
need to be empowered to carry out transformational changes.
The members of this segment of Armenia’s population are born during
late 1980â~@²s and the 1990’s — the social line that clearly
differentiates between the generations that existed before, and the
one that came into existence after Armenia’s adult population started
opening up to the free world in an unprecedented way. At long last,
the “Iron Curtain” was no more. In early-to-mid 1990â~@²s, most of
Armenia’s adults who became ready for parenthood had already begun
transforming their outlook on society. Many started rethinking their
personal relationship with the newly created Armenian state.
During Soviet rule, the individual was secretly conditioned to rob the
state and its system “in order to live well.” But with the advent of
the independent Armenian statehood, the rationale began to undergo a
new process of shifting responsibilities and benefits. As a result,
patriotic Armenians started teaching their children the virtues of
model citizenship, and the disadvantages of corruption, yielding some
positive results. However that is not sufficient. Positive change must
come massively. It’s up to our community worldwide to take ownership
of this most important cause, and ultimately empower Armenia to become
a better performing society in the 21st century and beyond.
Armenians can not afford to allow corruption and nepotism to endanger
Armenia’s and Armenian people’s very existence. Collectively, we have
much to accomplish.
From: A. Papazian
http://www.armenianlife.com/2011/03/11/armenias-national-security-threat-soviet-era-corruption-nepotism/