If we learnt it somewhere in a parallel universe, one of the latest news would appear very optimistic. The government of the Republic of Armenia has announced the ‘nationalisation’ of the Electric Networks of Armenia. The yellow journalist Pashinyan’s favourite headlines include big words about sovereignty, independence, control and development.
In reality, in our universe and in the Third Republic, we are not talking about the return of property to the Armenian state and the citizens of the Republic, but about straightforward seizure and redistribution of the colony’s ‘property’, which is eager to change the status of gubernia to that of vilayet. The reshuffle has been going on since 2018: first, between new and old oligarchs, and now, that the oligarchs have become inextricably fused with the vicious system, it has moved to the international level. The collaborators have found it more beneficial to their survival to replace the Russian flag with a Turkish one – and occasionally with British and Chinese ones. There is nothing else to expect from the anti-national leadership, namely – genuine nationalisation and return of vital infrastructure under the nation’s control to pursue national interest.
Telecommunications, energy, mineral wealth and its mining infrastructure, the financial ecosystem, the health and future of the Armenians of Armenia – all these benefits and resources rightfully belong to the Armenian people and/or are supposed to serve them, and the regime of Pashinyan cannot but resell them again, following the ‘fathers’ of the Third Republic – from Levon Ter-Petrosyan to Robert Kocharyan. Air is the currency in which Pashinyan trades with the Armenian people and with both old and new masters. In return, he receives a mandate from Armenians to continue trading, as well as guarantees of this mandate from his masters.
We have already missed the bus on how the government received shares in the largest telecommunications operator Viva (formerly Vivacell-MTS) and in the once largest taxpayer – the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine. As always happens in such cases, negligence and connivance have led to complete permissiveness. One vote in the tame parliament – and the ‘Electric networks of Armenia’ are placed at the disposal of the Turkish commandant Nikol Pashinyan. By the way, thanks to the elimination of a competitor in Samvel Karapetyan – now behind bars, the newly ‘nationalised’ Viva (but in fact registered to an offshore company) will soon acquire the former Rostelecom. This is what the fight against monopolies and economic development in Pashinyan’s Armenia looks like.
Public repression, accelerated approval of deals on the sly and through legislative mayhem are “encouraging” signals to potential investors. However, this is also the calculation: Pashinyan and his Turkish masters do not need extra bidders at the sellout “auction” of the Armenian state.
Let us repeat the idea expressed at the very beginning. In other circumstances – if a meaningful Armenian state existed – the news that the Armenian state is taking control (in a fair manner) of the infrastructure that ensures the livelihoods, security and future of the Armenian people would have been unequivocally supported by us. Moreover, it was and will be the subject of our struggle. However, in the absence of this – and therefore in the absence of a coherent, transnational Armenian world to protect it – merely having people with Armenian surnames at the helm of critically important companies is not a sufficient guarantee of their reliability in threatening circumstances. Ownership by citizens exclusively of the Republic of Armenia is not such a guarantee either, as long as this citizenship does not prevent some of them from being Turkish servants in essence.
The question here is not about trust in Samvel Karapetyan and other representatives of the Armenian business elites – local or foreign. The problem is lack of institutions, which would ensure that these people serve the interests of Armenia. Finally, as long as the holders of the ethical qualities and the resources necessary for a truly independent Armenia do not determine the future of the country and are not engaged in state-building, no national interests are formulated or pursued. Therefore, of course, Pashinyan can easily cover up the Turkish control with another Armenian surname, if he considers that we are worthy of at least a sweet lie. This will only change the situation only in one way: if earlier there might have been concerns about Armenia’s energy security in the event of a divergence of interests with Russia (or France, the United States, Australia, Israel or any other country, where an ethnic Armenian owning such a company could come from), now there are guarantees of complete absence of this very energy security – or any other kind of security. It is also obvious – although it is unlikely that this will awaken Armenians, who are shaking treacherous hands – that there is no place for Armenians in the new, ‘real Armenia’, even in its colonial ‘economy’ – and even for initially quite reliable and comfortable ones.
We are being sold a new Turkish colonisation under the guise of withdrawal from under the Russian influence, diversification and even sovereignty. Well, some diversification may even happen (for example, after Turkey gets its hands on critical infrastructure and security, Great Britain may take control of the financial architecture and partly the mining industry, while China would take over ‘logistics’ and ‘transit’). However, all this would make at least some sense, if only we had the luxury to continue talking carelessly about finances, our own territory, our own benefits from extraction of natural resources, etc. in circumstances, where the key – security – is at the mercy of the enemy that considers the Armenian state a key threat to its own existence and intends to destroy it. This is how ‘independence as a dependence on many’ looks like according to Pashinyan and his young janissaries.
Once upon a time, at the dawn of the state coup, Pashinyan promised to take away the property of the rich and distribute it to the poor. Apparently, the rich are us, the Armenian people, and the poor are Turkey and the Turkish world, their henchman Khachatur Sukiasyan (Grzo), global corporations, etc. It is also possible that this was one of those rare times, when the Turkish commandant did not lie. We were indeed rich and did not realise it. We gained the long-awaited independence, liberated the Armenian Artsakh and secured mainland Armenia, we had an influential and wealthy Armenian world backing us, while Turkey could only resentfully block our country – limiting itself rather than us.
Now we are paying the price for our own wastefulness, greed, and laziness. We have allowed the embodiment of weaknesses of small traders to come to power, who do not want to take care of our heritage in a responsible manner, who want pawn it or rent it out in order to use the proceeds to engage in primitive self-enrichment. The end result is always the same: the lender gets tired of paying the rent (transit fees through the ‘crossroads of peace’ or royalties to the intermediary) and expels the lazy and complacent ‘bourgeois’. The jungle of realpolitik does not forgive those, who do not know their own power.
There will be nationalisation of the Armenian assets and mineral resources. The question is – which nation and state will become its beneficiaries?
