The leaders of the Armenian community in Crimea, still a week before the referendum, called on Armenians to vote in favor of joining Russia. It is logical that ethnic minorities, as a rule, are trying to maintain good relations with the management of given region. If, initially, it was obvious what decision will be passed in the result of the referendum, it makes no sense to oppose it. When we are talking about the community, it should be the way. Why should we create problems from nothing? The leaders of Yezid community in Armenia would always protect all the authorities, it is an instinct of self-preservation. But when it comes to the state and its citizens, subjugating the winds blowing from different sides and considering them “irreversible”, is not so justified. It is clear that Armenia fell into “the Customs trap” because of the wrong foreign policy of our authorities, and now they, first and foremost, the government should quietly implement the instructions coming from Moscow. In case of failure, Armenia and Karabakh should really be at stake. Those who are in power today or tomorrow should patiently wait when this non-prospective project will approach its logical conclusion. And what about the remaining political forces that seem not to be constrained. Should they also be guided, “if something was happened and gone? What does it make sense to speak against it?” This is a formula for stagnation. In my understanding, the opposition (or, using the terminology of modern politics: the non-government), in addition to the traditional requirements of changing the power and justifying its necessity, sometimes should also speak about the values. Is the political choice that Russia compels on us is correct? Is the policy that this country is implementing in Ukraine correct? There are political and economic European standards, and there are Russian (seems to me, of taiga) standards. And which are the Armenian standards? This is, in my opinion, one of the most important elements of society to offer an alternative. Of course, we should not be excessive here, too. Yesterday, I was listening to the former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili over the Skynews. He again was talking very excited, emotional, radical, and was comparing Putin with Hitler, and so on. It is no coincidence that the current Georgian authorities are regularly calling on everyone to disregard the former president’s opinion, because they know that Saakashvili’s “emotions” had resulted in territorial losses. “I think enmity against both Russia and the West is as much absurdity as relying on them. I wonder, why we think that any western country or Russia should protect and support us. What a silly attitude is this! We forget that every nation, and every state has its own interests. Why should a state sacrifice its interests for the sake of Armenians? No smart state will go for such sacrifice,” wrote Rafael Ishkhanyan in his famous article “The Law of Excluding the Third Force”. This article should be reread at least once a year.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
