Escape from the ecumene: Youth turns away from Armenia

“I have such a personal dislike towards the injured party that I cannot even eat,” says Rubik Khachikyan, a driver performed by inimitable Armenian actor Frunzik Mkrtychyan in the wonderful comedy “Mimino” directed by renowned Georgian film director Daneliya. However, one cannot help but feel sorry when this quote becomes the the authorities’ motto towards their own people.
 
Unfortunately, this is what is happening in Armenia. Armenian former Prime Minister Dallakyan cited statistics according to which 80 percent of Armenia's economy is concentrated in the hands of 44 families. The rest are disliked and can hardly eke out a living.

This is particularly apparent at election times, when driven to despair by the miserable situation the injured party begins to actively protest, not even caring that they spoil the appetite of the Armenian oligarchy. Fortunately, the latter is surrounded by armed troops, who regularly “sort out” negative actions.

Armenian oligarchs are perfectly aware of their own impunity and permissiveness.

For example, it will not surprise me if the local oligarchy proves its commitment to Europe through resuscitation of the “right of first night.”

Although it has not happened yet, officials call for a return to Armenia’s past. For example, a Prosperous Armenia deputy and Chairman of the Standing Committee of Parliament on Economic Affairs Vartan Bostanjyan advised his countrymen to go back into time, “million years B.C.”

One of the brightest representatives of the Armenian oligarchy is Prosperous Armenia Leader Gagik Tsarukyan who has admitted that he feeds his pets in his mansion “ten kilograms of fresh beef a day.”

Apparently, Armenia’s ordinary citizens should return to their villages and burn dung so that Tsarukyan and his ilk Armenian oligarchs will be able to feed their animals with ten kilograms of fresh beef meat a day. This is the Armenian oligarchy’s vision of the country. In the meantime, the oligarchs are not aware that the number people living below the poverty line have increased with 107,000 last year.

More likely, representatives of the Armenian oligarchy will be surprised at the dissatisfaction of ordinary citizens with the existing realities. A recent survey conducted among senior Armenian pupils by People in Need, a Czech organization, and Armenian U.N. headquarters as part of the “Strengthening management of migration flows in Armenia” program revealed that 70 percent of young people want to leave Armenia and settle abroad.

These figures show that many young Armenians are aware of the hopelessness of their own future in the country, which promotes national hatred towards other nations and regularly puts territorial claims to neighboring states.

They do not only indicate that young Armenians realize that the power in their country belongs to a handful of oligarchs, who resent the rest.

The outcome of the survey proves the truth we have said many times: the Republic of Armenia is not a homeland for Armenians, but just a territory of residence. Therefore, most of the population lives so badly that they openly announce that they want to leave their ecumene.

A similar situation dominates in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. It also has its own oligarchy and its victims. The only way to stop these processes is a return of Azerbaijanis to these lands because these lands are not ecumene, but homeland for them.

A. Hasanov