Ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Alfred Kokh, once again has appealed to Ukrainians, calling for an end to fighting for Lugansk and Donetsk, refuse Crimea and try to be integrated into the Europe without this “ballast”. He brings the following example.
Suppose you offer your friend a long way to go with terrible hardships, failures, starvation, cold and hunger. Your friend says, I agree, if you carry me along this way in a stretcher. Lugansk and Donetsk either want to pass the way in a stretcher, or, rather, not to go anywhere and wait for Putin to feed them constantly. Therefore, says Kokh, we should do as it was done with Mannheim, which gave Stalin the eastern and southern Finland, keeping the rest of the country. Or, as it was done by Adenauer, who eventually surrendered a part of Germany to the Soviets, but built his powerful country.
In one case, Karelia and Finland are not comparable by any indicator, on the other case, after the change of the situation, the poor and underdeveloped “socialistic” Eastern Germany on its own wanted to become a part of “capitalistic” Germany.
I do not know to what extent Alfred Kokh’s recommendations are applicable for Ukrainians, I know only that our, the Armenians’ task is much more complicated. Because there is a majority of population in Ukraine, who tends to become a sovereign European country by overcoming all obstacles, and a minority who still lives with the “Soviet” ideas. The latter is waiting for either Europeans or Putin to feed them. For Ukraine, citizens of this second type, mainly in a compact form, live in Crimea, Lugansk and Donetsk, who at least theoretically can be rejected. However, in Armenia, these “Soviet” people, first, are the majority, secondly, live everywhere, in all towns and villages of our small country.
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So, the “rejecting” option will not work here. It remains to convince the majority, which, also let’s agree, at this moment is quite a theoretical option. I visualize it as follows: a political party will face our citizens and will sincerely say, “We are unable and are not going to feed you. If we come to power, then you are going to face serious challenges, a greater poverty than you have now, perhaps so cold and dark that the years of 1992-1994 would see an entertainment to you. We are waiting for a possible war, which Russia will escalate by the hands of Azerbaijan. But this is the only way. Overcoming all these challenges, we can become a normal, modern and full state.” I also visualize what “people’s” reaction would be.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
