Retrospective economic and political comparisons in տhe context of the Second Artsakh War
Atom Sh. Margaryan
2020 was, by far, one of the most turning and fatal years of the millennium of the permanent flow of Armenian history. The plague that started at the beginning of the year and turned into a global evil from March (COVID-19), which was a destructive and deadly threat to human lives and the normal life of the country, hit Armenia with all its might. At first, the underestimation of that great threat by the Armenian “velvet” authorities and the unimpeded spread of the fire because of it, and then the application of panic and monstrous restrictions by the sameauthorities was just ridiculous. At the same time, 2020 had much more terrible and destructive consequences. The large-scale Azeri-Turkish attack on the entire front of Artsakh on September 27 and the 44-day heavy war that followed, which led to heavy losses – human, territorial, military-technical, communication, etc. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the effects of these two crucial factors.
The article develops the provision according to which the 30-year history of the newly independent Republic of Armenia is, in fact, a story of imitation of the reforms aimed at modernizing the institutional and economic systems of the country and, ultimately, their failure. In fact, the country’s elite-guided and antinational electoral elites have not been able to create emerging security, diplomatic, legal-political and economic emerging systems capable of withstanding external and internal challenges and crises. This is confirmed by its continuous social and economic failures, and, finally, by the heavy defeat suffered by the country after the Second Artsakh War, with huge territorial and human losses.
According to the study reflected in the article, the main determinants of the behavior of the ruling elites of the Third Republic of Armenia were based not on the realization of national interests, visions of strategic development and realistic and viable programs anchored on them, but on corrupt groups in practice. In fact, one and a half dozen successive governments in the country have served the interests of these groups and their paramilitaries, regardless of the areas in which decisions are made, their implementation, the rule of law, defense, security systems and the military, economic resources, income distribution, goods or social policy. The main precondition for success in politics, advancement in the public service, and significant income in business and economic transactions over the past decades has been for people to be loyal to the top leaders of the highest bureaucracy, to serve this or that leader, to be part of the government, and so on.
The above-mentioned realities and factors have overwhelmed the reforms in Armenia for decades, and instead of modernization and development, the society has witnessed stagnation and failures. As a result, the country has not been able to accumulate sufficient resources over time, both in terms of neutralizing external military threats and effectively enduring other emergencies, on the contrary, it has largely squandered the existing and previously accumulated development potential. As a result, corruption, illegality, mass violations of human and civil rights flourished, the income and property burden of the society, poverty and emigration expanded and deepened.