The disaster Armenia suffered last year had deeper roots and a complex explanation, including the developments of recent years, political and geopolitical factors, and certainly the incompetence of the leadership of the moment and many more. But there is also one aspect of the painful reality: the richer country with the better-equipped army won the offensive war.
This article will focus on why we as a nation decided that we could afford the luxury of utopian economic ideas for decades, while ignoring real opportunities, including the wise exploitation of natural resources. This, mind you, while being at a state of war with an oil-producing country next door.
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Thanks a lot for very interesting issue
Thank you for this much needed perspective.
Indeed The Disneyland….
Brava Anna. Incredibly well said. As a diasporan Armenian I can’t agree more that us diasporans all too often romanticize Armenia as some kind of Utopian ideal rather than considering economic realities and opportunities for advancement. I would welcome, however, a greater degree of engagement and interest from the Armenian leadership in diasporan input (from successful leaders and entrepreneurs) in Armenian economic and public policymaking.
Need communications and transport.
Need to follow real politic with turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. let people and goods flow freely
Great article. Powerful Diaspora’s disillusions and illusions can reap havoc on old countries. I believe the invasion of Azerbaijan facilitated by the Russian 336th battalion was actually an operation to use and destroy Armenia. Attempt to invade all the way to Baku and take oil fields failed, which left Russian with egg on its face. Kremlin quickly passed the hot potato to Yerevan.
Result= Armenian economy struggled to populate and maintain occupied lands. Lets remember, nearly 1 million people lived in the area before 1992. Moving 20,000 Armenians in will not maintain the land nor exploit any available natural resources.
Now there are less than 3 million Armenians, economy in shambles, leadership in chaos, average age and outward migration to Russia, Iran, Turkey and USA are on the rise. Armenia in general is so weak right now, Azerbaijan and Turkey could gobble it up and payoff the Russian, American and EU politicians to keep quiet.
Let’s hope we don’t end up with a bunch of nutjobs in Yerevan who miscalculate reality again and lose half the country to Azerbaijan.
Perfect analysis and discussion of real case.
Thanks, Anna.
Great article, but in my views the points and suggestions raised here are no less utopian and wild than those already pursued in Armenia before the war. The author misses an important point namely those countries make development which have good/cordial relations with neighbours. In Armenia case it has good relations with none of the countries it borders. Relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan are non existent thanks to claims on their territories. Deep down their is tension with Georgia as well. Good relations and small border with Iran cant compensate for this isolation. Remember for maintaining hold on a small piece of land Armenia isolated itself from participating in the mega energy and transport projects in that region and so its economic potential was not allowed to realize. I suggest the leadership there strongly contemplate confine itself to the internationally recognized borders of the nation, believe me three fourth of the problems will be solved automatically because Turkey and Azerbaijan then will have no excuse to look at the country with covetous eyes. It will further result in the awkward relations and dependence on Russia and the country will be more at liberty to pursue trade relations with Europe and America
“Eco tea doesn’t buy attack drones. In the case of Azerbaijan, oil did.”
Here is some alternate info for you to ponder, Anna.
After 2016 when it became evident Russia had a dirty plan on Artsakh, and after attack drones were used to kill Armenians, and Russia proclaimed “both sides need peace and Artsakh cannot have a military solution” or some similar BS, and the incompetent thief “president” at the time was busy looting Armenia, some in the diaspora saw the writing on the wall. A wealthy diasporan in fact donated money to have Armenia/Artsakh start its own attack drone project. Only to find out years later the money was all gone, and no drones in sight, and Artsakh has now been “sold off”.
I would say the real “disneyland” is Armenians who think that this last war was a real war and that Armenia actually has a legitimate government and worse, that the current inept cowardly thief named Pashinyan needs to stay in power. With such crooks running the country and the pitiful ridiculous mentality of the population, no amount of ‘mining’ is going to save Armenia.
The most frightening weapon Turks/Azeris have is not attack drones. It is the “know-it-all of Armenia”.