At last, the Cabinet has dealt with my issue during its circuit session. Well, not mine personally, but ours, the residents of the region of Kotayk. Probably, the Prime Minister cooperates with some sociological company (the name of which he never reveals) and he finds out through it what we, citizens, think about this life. For example, it turned out that, although Garni-Geghard and Tsaghkadzor are in the region of Kotayk, we don’t really care about tourism development. And why should we, if the prices in not so high-quality restaurants of Tsaghkadzor and Aghveran are the same as in some 5-star hotel inEurope. Instead, we are interested in employment and road problems. As a man who at least four times crosses the Yeghvard highway every day, I confirm the latter claim. The head of the neighborhood of Davitashen who wants to become an MP has filled the holes up to the border withYerevan; no well-doer has shown up after that. By the way, that highway is not a country road at all, but if it goes on like this, it will become worse than a country road.
The Prime Minister talked about the problem of independence in his speech, stating that there is no such thing as a resident of Kotayk, as there is a resident of Lori or a resident of Syunik. Mr. Sargsyan explains that by the fact that the towns in the region are far from each other and different. I don’t know how accurate this explanation is, but I think it is not right to mention the lack of local independence as a negative factor. For example, the most part of my ancestors are of a Karabakh descent, but it is not a source of either shame or pride for me – they are grandfathers; they had to be born in some region ofArmenia. There are only two right ways of “geographic” identification, the nationality and the citizenship – I am an Armenian and I am a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and regardless of everything, I am proud of those two facts. Emphasizing any other local groups just hinders us, drawing meaningless and incomprehensible “demarcation lines” between us.
Certainly, there are also funny things in the public opinion poll conducted by the Cabinet. For example, it is mentioned that, although the socio-economic data are not good as compared to other regions (so, are they better in the region of Shirak?), “the region is the most optimistic, i.e. citizens are full of optimism about the future” (the Prime Minister’s words are quoted, according to www.gov.am). Well, it is nice to live among optimists. However, unfortunately, the head of the Cabinet did not clarify what was the source for that “regional” optimism. Probably, the reason is that the governor of our region is Koval.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
Resident of the region of Kotayk
