The respondents were offered ten options to choose from, including the terrorists from Jirair Sefilian’s Sasna Tsrer who now hide behind the colorful name “National Democratic Pole”, Aram Sargsyan’s Republic, Robert Kocharyan’s Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan’s I Have Honor, Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s ANC, Nikol Pashinyan’s Citizen Contract, etc.
Not surprisingly, none of them received the necessary number of votes, and the opinion poll had to be held for a second time, with the majority choosing “None of the above”. In both cases, Sefilian’s NDP received more votes than the others, but Armenians often refuse to support it too, because Sasna Tsrer is radically anti-Russian and, once in power, intends to break off all relations with Moscow, not giving much thought to the fact that Armenia is completely dependent on the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, despite the information war launched by Kocharyan against Pashinyan’s party and despite the fact that such polls are organized to get the results of influence on the population, the Civil Contract won many votes, which means that the revanchists failed to properly handle the propaganda against the present authorities.
As for Kocharyan, it’s very simple: Armenians hate him because of his numerous crimes and are afraid of him coming back to power. This is more about something else. According to 2020 data, there are 84 officially registered parties in Armenia, but no one can quite rally the people around themselves. Any political chaos leads to a destabilization of the country’s economy, because people’s participation in mass rallies simply takes them away from productive work. This is why Armenia’s economy suffered a very serious blow; its macroeconomic indicators plummeted.
Seeing how everyone chooses “none of the above”, it is clear that dozens of parties think only about putting down roots at the top and pocketing the budget. No one is thinking about making life in Armenia better. Very few people think that there is actually a way out—signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, but the zombified revanchists are constantly trying to thwart these efforts.
The political chaos that is still raging in Armenia has long exhausted Armenians, but they are always willing to voice their hatred for Kocharyan. What other explanation can there be for Pashinyan’s re-election despite his resounding defeat in Karabakh? Of all the evils in a country where most political parties accuse each other of betrayal and do not dare to unite, Armenians simply chose the least, because they want to live in peace.
Pashinyan has also brought the situation in the country to a complete deadlock. Instead of outlining a clear, detailed rescue plan and taking concrete actions, his team is dragging its feet, not realizing that sooner or later it will stumble and fall flat on its face. Armenia is going downhill even faster, and Armenian experts themselves are predicting an imminent collapse.
They can, of course, set up provocations on the border with Azerbaijan in order to somehow distract the population from the urgent problems; they can make contradictory statements. Armenian citizens are somehow used to the fighting taking place somewhere far away from their homes, in the occupied territories. It is a different matter entirely when the threat is on their doorstep, and the instability in Armenia has brought this threat right to the citizens’ homes. It is no secret that there is a massive ongoing impoverishment of this country’s population, and the constant verbal squabbles and staged protests will soon lead to even greater frustration in the society.
Many are well aware of this, but instead of dealing with the day-to-day routine matters to address the socio-economic problems in their country, Armenian politicians continue to look for “traitors” and put spokes in each other’s wheels. It is a known fact that it is the socio-economic sphere that has fueled the discontent of Armenian citizens all these years and drew serious criticism of all authorities.
Armenia’s total collapse is obvious and unquestionable. It has gotten to the point where people in Armenia earnestly believe that the beginning of the end is nigh; they have failed to cope with the third artificially created republic. According to Armenian analysts, the situation in the country leaves much to be desired. No one there has been able to pursue a balanced policy, to carry out at least some reforms in the economy and social sphere, to reduce the unemployment rate and to stop the mass outflow of able-bodied population from the republic. Without concrete actions, which imply peace with Azerbaijan, delimitation and demarcation of the borders, Armenia will disappear from the political map of the world.
Mehdi Ahmedzade
Translated from Day.az
