Ilgar Mammadov, co-founder of the Republicanist Alternative (Re:AL!) Civic Union, comments on an article by Armenia's ex-foreign minister.
When a person of such a high and honorable status as the first foreign minister of Armenia speaks out after a long break about the future of regional affairs and of his own country, one should listen carefully. Unfortunately, I have just read another example of wishful ethnocentric thinking:http://onlinejournal.
Mr Hovannisian, you may continue in your belief that the myth about the 'genocide of Armenians' will be recognized by the majority of intelligent people of sober mind. Or that Azerbaijan will one day again donate another piece of its historic land to Armenia after the deportations of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from tsarist and Soviet Armenia in the 19th century, during 'collectivization', in 1948-1953, and 1987-1990.
The reality is that Armenia is dying. Not only because, as you said, there is no rule of law, no true elections in your country, but mostly because Armenia is increasingly poor and irrelevant.
Who needs Armenia? Your Russian metropolis? Its elite is currently in deep debate about whether or not Russia should retain sovereignty over the North Caucasus, not to mention its strong presence in the South Caucasus. A bunch of US congressmen with a famously idiotic view of the facts of history through their election funds? Or shop and boutique owners in downtown Buenos Aires?
You can continue relying on all of these, although two decades of formal state independence have yielded nothing: as you perfectly know, in five to 10 years your country will be even further behind Azerbaijan and Georgia and Turkey – your ultimate friends and partners whom you look at as an envious neighbour. Stuck in the 19th century way of thinking, your country demands territory and 'justice' from all three of us under different pretexts and in different formats.
The entire agenda that your nation’s leaders have built for ordinary Armenians is just paranoid. You have experienced severe depopulation, you have no money, you have no economy, your borders are under Russian control, your country became mono-ethnic, because sick ethnic pride in your society cannot accommodate minorities, and yet you - one would not expect it of a wise man - support the fantasies of your homegrown and transatlantic nationalists.
Very disappointing. Very disappointing for me as someone who dreams of a South Caucasus without borders – from the Black Sea to the Caspian, a land of free trade, prosperity, cultural diversity and political freedom.
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