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Armenian paper unhappy with Georgia's role of bridge with West
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
8 Jul 05
Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak on
8 July headlined "You must have your own toothbrush"
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan's visit to Lithuania showed
that now Armenia can better feel the results of the Georgian
"revolution of roses". Our prime minister was officially informed in
Lithuania that instead of bothering the West, Armenia can appeal
directly to its neighbour Georgia and solve many problems.
Although the prime minister is against this, Armenia does not have
enough levers to influence ways of contacting the West. If the West
has decided to view Georgia as Armenia's supervisor, it will be very
difficult and even impossible for us to change such a decision.
This only shows that there are much more important values in the world
than stability propagandized by the Armenian authorities. To be more
precise, stability is an important value if it is based on laws. There
are many stable states in the world, for instance, North Korea, Cuba,
Iraq, but such stability is of no value because it does not serve the
prosperity and liberty of people.
On the one hand, the West's decision to contact Armenia via Georgia is
encouraging Georgia, and on the other, it is a sort of punishment for
Armenia and its authorities. To put it differently, our authorities
are not mature enough to have free access to the external world.
Nevertheless, this is not the worst scenario for Armenia. It will be
much worse if the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in
autumn bring about radical reforms in that country. In view of this,
Armenia will end up playing the role of an absolute outsider in the
region, which will cause problems not only in foreign policy, but also
in economic relations.
All this is due to the fact that the international image of our
republic, which is run by an oligarchy, resembles the image of our
local oligarchy. Yes, they are strong, they have potential to
influence the international situation, they are richer and have
greater financial possibilities, but they are not really respected,
and people maintain contact with them just to get something out of
them and make them more tolerant.
At some point, this attitude can be assessed as tolerance, but
actually this attitude is not a final one as it keeps the necessity of
reforms on the agenda. At present, we are allowed to solve problems
with the top leadership of Georgia, but if no changes take place in
Armenia, it is possible that this format will change. For instance,
Georgia's interior minister may become our next supervisor, then
Tbilisi's mayor, etc.
The West should not be blamed for this. If somebody openly runs away
from us, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror. Maybe in that
case, we shall understand that we should at least take a shower, have
a shave and brush our teeth in order to communicate with others and
not only in the political sense.
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
8 Jul 05
Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak on
8 July headlined "You must have your own toothbrush"
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan's visit to Lithuania showed
that now Armenia can better feel the results of the Georgian
"revolution of roses". Our prime minister was officially informed in
Lithuania that instead of bothering the West, Armenia can appeal
directly to its neighbour Georgia and solve many problems.
Although the prime minister is against this, Armenia does not have
enough levers to influence ways of contacting the West. If the West
has decided to view Georgia as Armenia's supervisor, it will be very
difficult and even impossible for us to change such a decision.
This only shows that there are much more important values in the world
than stability propagandized by the Armenian authorities. To be more
precise, stability is an important value if it is based on laws. There
are many stable states in the world, for instance, North Korea, Cuba,
Iraq, but such stability is of no value because it does not serve the
prosperity and liberty of people.
On the one hand, the West's decision to contact Armenia via Georgia is
encouraging Georgia, and on the other, it is a sort of punishment for
Armenia and its authorities. To put it differently, our authorities
are not mature enough to have free access to the external world.
Nevertheless, this is not the worst scenario for Armenia. It will be
much worse if the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in
autumn bring about radical reforms in that country. In view of this,
Armenia will end up playing the role of an absolute outsider in the
region, which will cause problems not only in foreign policy, but also
in economic relations.
All this is due to the fact that the international image of our
republic, which is run by an oligarchy, resembles the image of our
local oligarchy. Yes, they are strong, they have potential to
influence the international situation, they are richer and have
greater financial possibilities, but they are not really respected,
and people maintain contact with them just to get something out of
them and make them more tolerant.
At some point, this attitude can be assessed as tolerance, but
actually this attitude is not a final one as it keeps the necessity of
reforms on the agenda. At present, we are allowed to solve problems
with the top leadership of Georgia, but if no changes take place in
Armenia, it is possible that this format will change. For instance,
Georgia's interior minister may become our next supervisor, then
Tbilisi's mayor, etc.
The West should not be blamed for this. If somebody openly runs away
from us, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror. Maybe in that
case, we shall understand that we should at least take a shower, have
a shave and brush our teeth in order to communicate with others and
not only in the political sense.