On April 25 two non-governmental organizations protecting the rights of Armenian consumers organized a press conference dedicated to food security. We would not write about this if one of the participants didn’t say that buying Turkish goods harms the dignity of Armenians…
The reporters, Abgar Eghoyan and Armen Poghosyan, slowly changed the subject from the security issue of the food sold in Armenia to the relations between Armenia and Turkey and patriotism. In fact the date wasn’t chosen by chance and it was the appropriate time to say that “Armenians shouldn’t buy Turkish products. They shouldn’t buy it not because these products have low quality or are dangerous, but because these products are made in Turkey”. This was what Armen Poghosyan said. He says that his NGO protects the rights of consumers.
Of course Turkish products don’t have good quality, but nationalism is not always good. They also said that when France brought up the issue of the Armenian Genocide and condemned it, Turkey boycotted the products imported from France. It turns out that we should do the same with Turkey. But those who protect the rights of consumers should be the first to be interested in protecting the rights of consumers than in their moral and psychological issues. As for these rights, they have to do with material interests as well.
Today the border between Armenia and Turkey is closed, but there are a lot of Turkish products in the Armenian market. According to the information of the National Statistics Service (STS) the capacity of Turkish products imported into Armenia from Turkey in 2005 is about $57,89 million. Please note that Armenia has imported this much when the border is closed.
According to specialists, Georgia benefits from this most, because importers transport products through Georgia to Armenia. As a result of this importers spend more money on transportation, thus they sell these products at higher prices in Armenia. Even in these conditions these products have a high demand in Armenia, besides that no one makes consumers buy these products. They buy these products themselves. As a rule Turkish products have better quality than Chinese products.
By setting limitations on the import from Turkey we will first harm our consumers, because by cutting down this import consumers will not have an opportunity to make a choice as to which products to buy. By boycotting Turkish products (but it hardly can be successful) we do not harm their production much. According to the information of the Turkish statistics institution, the export of Turkey in 2004 covered $63 billion. In the same year the export of Turkey to Armenia covered $39,8 million. This means that the export of products from Turkey to Armenia covers only 0,06%. Does this mean that by boycotting their products we will harm their production a lot?
What about us? Besides the interests of consumers we should also consider the interests of those small and medium businessmen that sell Turkish products. As Mr. Poghosyan says these people are doing a job which harms their “dignity”. Doesn’t it harm their dignity when they try to take the sources of income from many people?
Of course our consumers and government don’t do what NGOs say. I just think that it is not good to make such announcements without any serious analysis and calculations.
Head of the “AEPLAC” advisory company, Tigran Jrbashyan agrees with us. “Boycotting products of a country is a political approach. As for the policy of Armenia, it has chosen a policy of liberal economical relations. On the other hand they may boycott those products that don’t have good quality”, says the economist.
Please note that the participants also agreed that Armenian products don’t have good quality either. So why do consumers have to buy our products instead of importing? First producers should produce good products and then petition people to buy their products instead of importing from abroad.
Please note that many people say that the economical relations between Armenia and Turkey are very important. Back in 1997 an Armenian-Turkish committee was founded, and the purpose was to develop business relations between Armenia and Turkey. Even Armenians and Turks met to discuss possibilities of implementing joint programs. For instance, Armenian and Turkish businessmen were interested in cooperation in banking services, producing tomatoes, etc. They also discussed issues concerning founding a free economical zone in Armavir region. This is still just an idea. Besides that Turkish specialist Nazmi Gyuli says that now Armenian and Turkish businessmen cooperate well too. There are Turkish companies in Armenia, but they are registered in the name of Armenian companies. The marks of the economical turnover between Turkey and Armenia are twice more than the official marks given by the RA IRS.
In spite of all this, one sweet day the Armenian-Turkish border will be opened one day and Armenia must be ready for competing with its largest neighbor. To this day there has only been one general analysis on the results of opening the border between Armenia and Turkey, which was done by the AEPLAC. According to this analysis that was done on the basis of econometrical methods, after opening the border the GDP of Armenia will grow by 0,67% within one year, as for the export, it will go up by 5,23%. According to Mr. Jrbashyan there will be more positive results during the first phase of five years. After opening the border, the real GDP will increase by 2,7%, as for the real export, it will increase by 17,73%. The main change will be stipulated by cutting down the transportation expenses. According to Turkish specialist Nazmi Gyul businesses spend 37% more on transportation through transit countries. Many people are afraid that if the border is opened with Turkey, Turkish products may press Armenian producers out of the market. According to T. Jrbashyan, the prices for Turkish products will go down, but this will not harm the domestic producers seriously. “I don’t think it will have catastrophic results. Besides that we shouldn’t be afraid of competition. If our producers are afraid to compete with Turkish producers in Armenia, how are they going to do that out of Armenia?” says T. Jrbashyan.
According to him this will not harm our production, on the contrary, it will turn our production modern and will support the competition.