The Third Republic will soon turn 35 years old. And one of its main news of the past few days is the grain import through Azerbaijan for the first time in its history.
Well, the country’s food security is one of the key elements of its security architecture as such. Therefore, our reader will hardly be surprised to learn that the Young Janissaries in Yerevan have about the same approach to securing it as they do to strengthening the Armenian borders: first to aggravate the problem, and then to report on its solution on Facebook.
So, Pashinyan surrenders Artsakh in order not to defend the borders, and then suddenly finds out that almost the whole of Armenia becomes the front line without Artsakh. His way of dealing with the now longer border is to give Azerbaijan everything they require, and surround its remnants with an expensive equivalent of the Maginot Line, which is defenceless in modern realities. The situation is similar with grain. First, the Turkish satrap surrendered Artsakh, where a significant part of the Armenian grain was grown until 2020; as a result, the country became even more dependent on imports from Russia. Now, in order to ‘diversify’ Russian grain supplies, Pashinyan receives it (!) not only through Georgia, but also through Azerbaijan. Moreover, his team presents it as one of the first messages of a wonderful ‘era of peace’.
We do not forget that now they promise to import grain from Kazakhstan through Azerbaijan, but due to the distance and initially higher cost, this plot is not so significant. Even the most shameless collaborationists (in particular, Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan) are hesitant to promise that the Azerbaijani transit will allow to reduce the final prices of bakery products.
A logical next step in such ‘diversification’ would be the purchase of Artsakh’s grain from Azerbaijan. It is a symbolic political outcome of the Third Republic’s existence, which was born in the struggle for reunification with Artsakh. However, it is unlikely that Azerbaijan will have a surplus due to the exploitation of the Armenian fields. In the long term, the occupation of Artsakh and the creeping occupation of Armenia are not just a whim for the terrorist state, but an imperative of political and economic survival. Of course, the Turkish satrap does not recognise this, for his task is to convince us of the unconditional greatness and omnipotence of Azerbaijan and the complete helplessness of Armenia. If this task is not completed, then the mission to turn this false belief into reality will fail.
However, let us return ‘to earth’ – to food security. It is clear that the latter is not limited solely to supplier diversification, logistics and pricing. Superficially, it is clear that we risk being left without bread in the following cases: 1) problems on the supplier’s side (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan); 2) refusal of transit countries to allow goods to pass through their territory. Unfortunately, over the past 5 years, all three countries in the first category have somehow proved to be not the most stable and reliable ones.
The risks are all the more obvious with potential transit countries (Georgia, Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey). First, the Turkish collaborationists are unable to remove obstacles to the Armenian transit in a timely manner, even through Georgia. Secondly, they consider Azerbaijan’s ‘goodwill’ to be their achievement, while the price of this ‘goodwill’ includes Armenia’s actual loss of access to Iran, and in the future – to Georgia. And this is less than 3 years after the beginning of the gruelling blockade of Artsakh, which forced tens of thousands of Armenians to remain without the taste of wheat bread for a long time. Cynical, as we have got used to, but really reckless.
After all, ‘not by bread alone’, you might say. Artsakh stood up and fought its last battle even without bread. According to statistics that the Ministry of Economy has not updated since 2019, Armenia can easily feed on its own vegetables, eggs, berries, and red meat. But, unfortunately, there are serious problems with both real self-sufficiency and product safety here too.
Firstly, Armenian agriculture relies on imported machinery, fuel, seeds, fertilisers, etc. This means that without modernising agriculture and switching to more energy-efficient, organic, alternative production methods, we still remain dependent on the ‘goodwill’ of our neighbours and the stability of global supply chains.
Secondly, due to the lack of proper control, the proportion of pesticides in Armenian vegetables and fruits is significantly exceeded. In addition, as of 2024, 65% of residents of Armenia cannot afford a healthy diet. Given the general trends in public health and the state of the environment (especially in Yerevan), Azerbaijan and Turkey will soon not have to starve us or harass us with shells. We are engaged in self-destruction, as befits a true colony.
We are not the only country in the world, which depends on the import of certain raw materials, technologies, and products. No one is completely immune from the consequences of global disasters such as pandemics, floods and droughts. However, only those objects on the map are worthy of being called states that minimise the possible consequences of such tragedies and are able to at least protect their citizens from lawlessness, both from neighbouring states and domestic producers.
Any security is always a choice. Israel chose to ‘green the desert’, create a knowledge-based and productive agriculture, and not to justify its inconvenient geographical location and the fact that there are enemies around. The leaders of the Third Republic of Armenia left the Armenian village to its fate, desertified Armenian forests and fertile fields, and allowed their citizens to be poisoned with toxic chemicals. Therefore, today the Turkish satrap is looking forward to the opening of the Turkish border in order to close the issue with the Armenian village once and for all. They say, what can you do: the neighbours have both money and petroleum products. No one wants to figure out how to reduce the cost of production and how to do without petroleum products.
The last example, of course, is not only about agriculture. It is convenient for the time-servers to convince us that without oil there is only one way out: surrender to the Turkish world. And not only because they are ordered to do so: this is their scale and planning horizon. The satrap of the colony cannot even have tomorrow – only today’s instructions. Only the national aristocracy is able to think strategically, plan and carry out major reforms without fear of offending the interests of an external enemy and internal oligarchs.
Whether a true aristocracy can emerge quickly will determine whether, in a year or two, we end up importing death from Azerbaijan — be it poison in our food, hundreds of thousands of saboteurs, or a decree dissolving the last Armenian state.
