Time has come and $1,4 million out of the $236 million to be provided to Armenia in the framework of “Millennium Challenges” program will be transferred by the end of this year. By the way, the head of the Armenian representation of the mentioned program has expressed their concerns about the electoral violations of 2005 and noted that they hoped the upcoming elections would be organized in transparent, fair and democratic conditions. In fact, the hint is the following: they are giving us 0,6% of the mentioned support sum, however, if the upcoming elections are not organized in the democratic manner they want, they will revise their decision.
Does this mean that the authorities will do their best to make sure that the upcoming elections are organized in transparent and democratic conditions? Of course it does not. It is supposed that the elections of 2007 will be organized in the same manner as all the previous elections. The technical forms of violations may be different, but anyway at the end of the elections it will turn out that the voters that dislike the work of the existing authorities have given 70-80% of votes to them.
Maybe the reason is the fact that the money to be provided by the “Millennium Challenges” program ($236 million) is not so important for them. Notwithstanding, the mentioned sum is big enough to fight out the poverty in the regions even if most of that money is grabbed (the main purpose of that program is fighting out poverty in villages).
The problem is the fact that the “Millennium Challenges” will give that money to Armenia anyway (of course if the authorities don’t fire during the elections and the percentage of victims does not exceed 3% of the number of voters participated in the elections). By the way, the authorities understand it very well and as well as they understand that “democratic standards” are not accepted in the West in the same manner as represented in Armenia. The problem is the fact that the West “does not care” about democracy in Armenia. In fact, they say that it is important for them, but it doesn’t mean yet that they really care about the situation in Armenia and actually it is the same for them whether it is democracy or dictatorship in Armenia.
This does not mean that democracy is not important for the West at all. It is very important for them, but only if it is dangerous for their security. For them it is really very important to develop democracy in Russia, Iran or China. The purpose is clear; democratic societies are more predictable and are formed by people basing on their free will. In other words, if states are democratic there is no danger coming out from them.
As for Armenia, Armenia is not included in the list of such countries. Armenia doesn’t have nuclear weapon, it doesn’t have energetic resources and it is not a transportation crossroad either. There may be only one danger coming out from Armenia; if the life and social conditions become worse in Armenia refugees will go to Europe and the US to work there. This means that in fact the West is not interested in developing democracy in Armenia, but it is interested in improving the life standards and economic conditions in Armenia. In order people don’t go there from Armenia, they need to have good living standards here.
By the way, it is a long time that they are trying to manage this principle since they have calculated that they spend more money on immigrants than on developing the domestic economies where they come out from (if those countries are not developed, the developed countries will have to pay their living expenses, for deporting them from their countries and other expenses). They have calculated and come to a conclusion that it is better for them to spend half of that money to develop the economies of the third class countries then paying the mentioned expenses of immigrants. It is an easy way for them to keep their countries “clean” since usually most of the extreme actions are organize by recent immigrants. This is the reason why they spend money on developing economies, especially village economies, which are the main place that immigrants go out from.
This does not mean yet that it is impossible to develop the country by using the financial support provided by the “Millennium Challenges” program. It is possible. Notwithstanding, they should understand that the easiest way to fight poverty (and develop economy) is strengthening democracy and economical independence; as for that money, it can just support and fasten that process. When usually parents say to their children that they will not give them anything to eat if they don’t do their homework, children understand that they will be given their meal anyway. Nevertheless, it does not mean yet that they should not do their homework. On the one hand, if the most important thing for the child is the meal, he/she can ignore the homework, on the other hand, if the most important thing is his/her future, it is very important to do the homework.
Anyway, even if we are sure that the money to be provided by the “Millennium Challenges” will be given to Armenia, it doesn’t mean that we can ignore the problems that should be fight out and organize the upcoming elections in the manner like the previous ones. At least, the West is not our relative and they don’t have to worry about our future.