Սեռժեմբերիկներ

The retreat from the promise of an independent Armenia is gathering pace. It all started with the unlimited presence of the Russian garrison in Gyumri. While the excuse for such terms was the national security of Armenia vis-a-vis the Turkish threat (a quite realistic threat to the very existence of Armenia), contracts that do not have termination clauses usually leave you without any levers of control.

The Russification of Armenia then continued with the infamous Debt for Property deal where $100 million debt was written off in exchange for public properties such as the Hrazdan power station. The encroachment of the Russian ownership of assets in Armenia continued and completed where the land-line telephone market, the internet gateway to the rest of the world is owned by the Russians, the #1 and #2 largest cell phone service providers are Russian, the power grid is owned by the Russians and the nuclear power station is managed by Russians, too. Effectively, all that remains under Armenian ownership are low tech, low value added agriculture based industries and the tourism industry.

The result was a resurgence of the class of people during the Soviet era who were educated in Russian schools and were the carriers of the Soviet/Russian mindset. These were people who looked down the Armenians who spoke Armenian and considered them uneducated villagers. While Robert Kocharian or Serj Sargsian were Russian speakers, it was not entirely their fault - in NKR, where these two grew up, you either spoke Russian or Azeri if you wanted to succeed and have a career.

This class of the society now wants to reopen the Russian language schools. Their leader is a person called Ashotian - the minister of education. This man used to be the most foul mouthed parliamentarian when he started his political career but was quickly promoted to a minister when Serj Sargsian inherited the presidency from Robert Kocharian after the March 1 massacre.