Why peoples fail to become nations

Daron Acemoğlu, or Acemoglu for most of humanity, who do not know Turkish transcriptions. Daron is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an award-winning, bestselling author in the field of political economy. He is a descendant the Armenian Genocide survivors, who retained the Armenian root of his last name and bears an Armenian first name. He might seem like an ideal candidate for the reformist team or at least their consultants hereof, in order to finally pull Armenia out of the vicious circle of underdeveloped institutions and economies.

At least, that’s what Nikol Pashinyan ‘thought’ at the time, and, apparently, the Armenian World should have been wary even then. Just like Serj Tankian, Acemoğlu sparked false hope among Armenians, but unlike Serj, he did not even feign interest (not idle, like any observer in 2018, but Armenocentric) in participating in building a new future for Armenia and the Armenian World. One could say that Daron even anticipated the sincerity of the current Prime Minister, declaring at the peak of the ‘velvet’ madness that responsibility for the country’s future lies not with him, not with the Armenian institutions of power, and not with the ‘Diaspora’ (i.e. Armenian overseas communities – Armenian Republic), but with the Armenian ‘People’. In 2020, Pashinyan cleverly picked up on these ideas, no longer hiding the policy of distancing himself from the Armenian communities and beginning to shift all responsibility for his shameful concessions to Azerbaijan onto the Vox Populi. However, Acemoğlu promised to help the Government, not the people, ‘in any format’, and in 2022, he supported the 30-year policy of distancing the Armenian World from its Center, the Armenian State, claiming that the positive effect of the ‘Diaspora’ could consist in the supply of money and technologies to Armenia, while the political influence of the Armenian World is detrimental to the development of the country. In its core, it is nothing more than self-castration with a smile on a face, in the best traditions of Armenia’s timeservers.

Now Acemoğlu admits that, despite his timid statements, he never intended to take part in Armenia’s feasible economic transformation in 2018. ‘After all, the specialists with the deepest knowledge are within the country,’ the MIT professor modestly argues. A little later, he says that the best minds left Armenia in the 1990s. But that’s not all. It turns out that a descendant of Armenians who survived the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire believes that it is Armenia that should be interested in opening the borders with Turkey. It was Istanbul that secured a military victory for Azerbaijan and provided full-fledged support in the de-Armenianisation of Artsakh. Moreover, in his opinion, the only factor that impedes peaceful and profitable Armenian-Turkish trade is ‘strengthened’ Azerbaijan, which is now difficult for the Turkish neo-Sultan Erdoğan to ignore. The eminent researcher of colonialism and concurrently Turkish Armenian does not mention any Turkish plans to colonise Armenia. However, the Turkish economist of Armenian descent is not indifferent to the fate of the country where he was born.

He has repeatedly sounded the alarm about the state of the Turkish economy and even called on the Turkish Government to avoid a complete collapse. Moreover, this happened even after he agreed to act as a consultant to Erdoğan’s opponent in the last elections. Constant reminders from Turkish nationalists that he is a stranger to the Turkish nation, second-rate and untrustworthy, did not dull his interest in his ‘homeland’ country.

This is what happens when, to be called an Armenian, it is enough to have a last name ending in ‘-ian’ or to tell a legend about an alleged Armenian mother. For many, the ‘-oğlu’ ending last name immediately becomes sufficient, too. There would be no complaints about this, for it is the legacy of the Armenians Genocide, should such people direct their resources to prevent such imbroglios in the future, and therefore, to contribute to the formation of the Armenian state. To do so, one needs to be able to separate Us from Them, to understand who you are, what responsibility you bear for the preservation of Us, and to take a stake herein. Until we establish Armenian national aristocracy and Diaspora, we will continue to deal with famous celebrities of Armenian origin or political scientists/economists/musicians/directors of Armenian descent from any corner of our planet, etc., who give unsolicited advice to Armenia on how to befriend with enemies, while helping this very enemy to develop, building up its international reputation and influence, and aiding the enemy to make profits. Tomorrow, our enemies will shell Yerevan, Garni, and Geghard with bombs purchased from those profits, the only Armenian places that Armenian-ish individuals know.