Time is on Baku’s side in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and this is getting more obvious for all sides involved in the conflict.
The critical economic situation in Armenia, worsening day by day, helps understand a simple truth – Armenia’s authorities who are not willing to refuse form the status quo are to blame for the blockade the country is in due to its occupation policy.
Not only this is talked about by external observers, but also Armenians – members of Armenian opposition – are in terror observing the country’s downfall in economic abyss.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, leader of the Armenian National Congress party, first Armenian president, announced that corruption […] and political philosophy as the basis of the Armenian state-building or, to put it another way, the strategy of maintaining the status quo in the Karabakh issue and development in blockade conditions another 100 years is the root of all Armenia’s troubles – that is the difficult social position, poverty, mass emigration, illegitimate elections, lack of justice, violation of democracy and human rights.
He was addressing the second session of the Armenian National Congress.
It is obvious that the Armenian economy suffered deterioration because while continuing the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, the country deprived itself of the participation in all big regional projects which bring stable profit to Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Beggar Armenian people are witnessing many interesting projects which are concentrated in neighboring regional countries.
For example, Georgia earned a lot of money by transporting energy resources and those funds were spent for the country’s citizens’ welfare. While Armenia is aging and degenerating, its citizens are emigrating. At the same time, the birth rate has recently increased in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Even the global economic crisis and the fall in energy prices did not greatly affect the regional countries with excellent tourism infrastructure, based on the income from the regional infrastructure projects, as those countries found new sources of revenues.
Beggar Armenia is unable to attract tourists by anything because the country’s authorities misappropriated all funds transferred by the Armenian diaspora in the form of handouts.
And such a situation will continue till the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved. The conflict settlement would solve the problems with Azerbaijan. Moreover, it would be a step towards opening the border with Turkey.
By the way, the Armenian diaspora has also opened its eyes and is outraged by the behavior of the Armenian authorities, which, under the pretext of aid to the population, simply fleece the representatives of the Armenian lobby. Not only the image of Armenia, in general, is so flawed that the Armenian diaspora’s money spent on lobbyists in the US, Europe and Russia, doesn’t bring benefits, but also the population of the country doesn’t receive anything from the aid of their rich relatives.
An indicative fact of the state’s plunder is the new law, under which in order to solve the social problems of families of killed or disabled servicemen, each working citizen of Armenia will have to pay 1,000 drams ($2.5) monthly to a special fund over 20 years.
The essence of the law is that all people, who suffered while serving in the Armenian Armed Forces, realizing the insane will of the occupation authorities and holding the Azerbaijani lands, will receive a small compensation for their crippled health and life. Moreover, the compensation will be paid not by the Armenian government, which stole billions of dollars, but just by victims of President Serzh Sargsyan and his criminal company.
In other words, during twenty years, a part of money should be deducted from already low salaries of Armenians for the government’s “apologies” for victims fallen in vain in the occupied region of Azerbaijan.
Time is clearly against the Armenian authorities, and very soon the Armenians themselves will not want to see the government in power at the cost of the lives of citizens, the government, which holds the territories of Azerbaijan under occupation at the expense of Armenian citizens.
Armenia’s image as an occupant country with the corrupt government and doubtful leadership won’t make it possible for the international community to build true partnership relations with this country, either. Moreover, the Armenian diaspora seems to have tired of cleaning up Sargsyan’s mess and pay for nothing.
Baku acts wisely by diplomatically trying to make Armenia resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as in this case, the longer Yerevan occupies the territories, the less chances are there for Armenia to survive.
Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency's Russian News Service