WHAT ARMENIA SUFFERS
HAKOB BADALYAN
Story from Lragir.am News:
Published: 21:48:26 – 22/11/2011
Armenia is a small landlocked country still suffering the economic
impact of the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan, writes Tom de Waal,
senior researcher for Carnegie Endowment in an article on emigration
from Armenia. He studied emigration from Armenia, wrote about its
reasons, spoke about the difficult situation but apparently he arrived
at a wrong conclusion.
The point is that Armenia is not suffering the economic impact of the
unresolved conflict. Yes, the conflict with Azerbaijan had an impact
on the relations with Turkey, significantly limiting the economic
possibilities for Armenia. But the sufferings of the country are not
caused by this impact.
Armenia suffers the political and economic monopolies, as well as
provincial thinking and morality that began hardly three or four years
after the independence, consistently established and consolidated in
the following years and in the past ten years directly crystallized
and institutionalized. Armenia suffers because it already has the
third president, and all the three presidents ruled, and the third
continues to rule with the mindset that they are the key to the
salvation of the country and any opinion and action beyond their
scope is against the nation.
Armenia suffers because the political government is coalesced with
business and is using the government bodies as support unit for their
own businesses.
Armenia suffers because the Constitution is a titular document which
is implemented to limit the creative potential of the society rather
than to open up this potential.
Armenia suffers weak law enforcement, corruption, injustice,
material and financial greed of the ruling class. If the conflict
with Azerbaijan is resolved and the roads are opened for transport
in the current situation, the change of the situation in Armenia will
not be realistic.
It may sound strange but with the current level, structures, content
and morality in Armenia open roads will lead to considerable increase
in statistics but will be a mere route for the nourishment of political
and economic monopolies, ensuring additional resources for this system.
The change of the situation in Armenia, the growth of importance of
public opinion in internal processes are determined not only by the
rising level of civil consciousness and activity in different layers
of the society, powerful opposition but also the lack of nurturing
resources which weakens the principle of almightiness.
Strangely, though, in Armenia the possibility of internal reform seems
to be greater, even in the current conserved situation the government
will nevertheless take steps because otherwise the government itself
will be threatened.
For Armenia, at least statistical growth is necessary. Certainly we
do not have hope for internal change, there is no will, consistency,
if we think we are doomed to live under the press of the political
and economic monarchy of a group of people, where human rights and
freedoms are dosed, where distribution of wealth is dosed, where a
group of people make decisions which are more forceful than the law,
where we do not set political and civilization goals before the state,
all we can do is to have the blockade lifted and enjoy the fruits
of statistics which can lead to considerable improvements in diet
and clothing.
These are truly important circumstances and man fairly wants to eat
nice food, and dress in nice clothes, and live in comfortable houses
unless it happens at the expense of others.
But in this case the problem is the choice of the public and political
elites, whether they have political and civilization wishes and
ambitions which are above all these things because they are considered
as elite by the scope and quality of their understanding rather than
by food they eat, clothes they wear and houses they live.