Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenians’ perceptions of history have not yet risen to a scientific level and represents the accumulation of so-called “scientific facts,” which, at best, are subject to emotional and moralistic interpretation.
Instead should be analyzed those repetitive essential historical trends, due to which during 3,000 years of Armenian history, there has been no more than 700 years of statehood, and on the basis of which it can also be understood why the attempt to create a state fails and what must be done for it to succeed, said Armenia’s former prime minister Hrant Bagratyan, speaking on a report titled “Historical-Legal and Economic Pledges for Statehood” on Saturday, upon a invitation by the Women’s Charity Center who were having their regular meeting at the Armenian National Congress (HAK) office.
Bagratyan noted that the first reason for failure is periodically eradicating “owners, landowners, and free peasants” by one Armenian authority or another, who steal ownership from small landowners and hand it over to big landowners: to ministers, to the church and now, to oligarchs. With this, the state shook loose from its foundations, since first, people refused to live in a country where nothing belongs to them and emigrated en masse from Armenia, and second, large-scale property owners became unruly and served the central government, as a result of which it just disappeared.
In Bagratyan’s opinion, this is the reason for the rapid collapse the First Republic of Armenia (1918–20). Further, he said that those that are able to achieve statehood and welfare are those societies which
(a) are guided by law and not tradition
(b) establish equality between women and men, the lack of which, for example, the Armenian ruling nobility was interrupted three times because of the inability to perceive having a female heiress and the country lost its independence. Little has changed today when woman’s work is considered to be child rearing, while men are engaged in socioeconomic activities
(c) eliminate legal and economic privileges, establish a uniform taxation policy, which historically and especially now the Armenian church sought to avoid. Economic activity is virtually impossible where there is economic inequality, and people actively engaged in economic activity move to countries where a balance of economic and legal fields has been achieved.
(d) have a system that provides a universal way of thinking. In the Middle Ages, this was the church (though not in the case of the Armenian church), and now it’s the political system and state institutions, though in Armenia their mission is not being carried out, being, at best, the bearer of small-town and tribal (ethnic-religious) ways of thinking.
Bagratyan also touched upon the macro-economic situation in the world today; in particular, noting that foreign investment almost never serves as a stimulus for economic growth in developing countries, but rather mainly tend to the economies of developed countries. The global economy Bagratyan described as a process of cooperation of capital, human resources and natural resources, saying that Armenian government policy relies on non-existant natural resources and capital, making it impossible to develop the only real resource, people, by forcing them to leave the country.
Next Saturday, upon an invitation by the Small Council, Hrant Bagratyan will participate in the discussion of the “100 Steps” HAK program in the context of the concept developed by the HAK committees on culture, science and education, and healthcare committees.