However desperate you are, you would not sell the walls of your home, yet we have sold them to Russia for thirty years — Arbak Khachatryan

First Informational’s interviewee is expert Arbak Khachatryan.

— Mr. Khachatryan, for several days there has been active discussion of the Belarusian ambassador’s statement that the Union State lacks a third country and that his “Armenian brothers” support him on this. Who are these brothers, and what dangers does this proposition contain?

— I consider discussion of this subject untimely in general, because we now face far more complicated problems. I also think subjects like this are deliberately introduced to divert attention from the main issue. The world faces the danger of elimination if nuclear weapons are used. The Union State has no meaning anymore; look at Russia’s problems—what union are we talking about? If Armenia’s authorities, afraid of losing power, even take such a decision now, it will occupy a very small place among the global problems. The world is not divided: create whatever you want with whomever you want. Wars will continue until there is a new division of the world. And that new division will come after a nuclear explosion. The foundation should be that small countries retain their language, culture and independence.

Everyone knows those brothers’ names; I would not even want to discuss that. Danger is hanging over our heads. Someone who plundered for thirty years continues to own enormous businesses. Whose authority we fall under no longer matters; independence has been absent for a long time. Any grouping like this will lead to destruction.

— Armenian officials do not conceal that Armenia is under pressure to join that structure and that we are still resisting increasingly frequent provocations.

— Clearly, Russia has its own interests, particularly amid today’s problems. Central Asian states have never spoken to Russia as they do today. Naturally, it needs allies on this path. We are accustomed to blaming everyone, but are we doing enough to preserve our independence? Our country is now being destroyed, yet they continue trading; why do we blame someone else? Look at the state of the borders, look at Azerbaijan’s actions: after all that, we want to sign a peace treaty? And when it does not work, we say Russia is to blame?

— Several forces in Armenia promote Russian interests and, even at the hardest moment, continue speaking of going as far as joining the Russian Federation…

— They talk of Russian interests, of going under Russia, because they know no other interests. If they knew others, they would pursue other interests and lie under someone else. They saw plunder in Russian interests. For 30 years, they plundered splendidly together with Russia. That is their security; they know it. Now they stand and say: we plundered, but in return we were secure. They no longer say that plunder created this turbulence. There is no country in the world that has been plundered and has not faced war. The political majority of today’s generation grew up in those conditions. They saw whom it was good to be under. Since most of Armenia’s people are connected with Russia, that is where they strive to go.

— And it does not matter that this comes at the expense of Armenia’s sovereignty.

— Who said these people know what destroying a state means? What would someone who measures everything in money know about family and state? These people do not understand such values. For 30 years, the whole nation entered the trading market. You do not sell the walls of your house, however hard things become. You do not hand them to other countries, but we did for 30 years. Today’s authorities also do not understand we are losing Armenia. The greatest danger is that we might become the point through which global geopolitical issues are resolved.

For a moment, you may be pleased that the US Congress or France’s parliament adopted something in your favor, but the next moment you must act. For 25 years, the world did not recognize Artsakh’s self-determination, yet none of those countries, despite being Muslim countries, said: I will join Azerbaijan and attack you. For 30 years, former Azerbaijani citizens who were elected presidents in Armenia were occupied with plunder; was it really impossible to work with the world? And finally, when their citizens were elected presidents here, why did Aliyev not put them on a wanted list?

Because it suited Russia. They resolved an issue through one person’s plundering. Today we are in an even worse situation because of these irresponsible fools. They enter a home and cut up a family member, while we spend days thinking whom to blame for it.