On June 13, a group of Armenian intelligentsia representatives protested to the recent murders of Armenians in Russia. It’s a good thing they didn’t do that on June 12 because that day was Russia’s day and it was celebrated in Armenia and Russia. They sent letters to the Russian authorities where they explained to them that the current events in Russia will undermine Armenian-Russian ties.
We are happy that this time they didn’t write “a letter to the Russian king” like in the past; we are grateful for that. In spite of this, it is very strange that in their letters they wrote about the “historical ties between Armenia and Russia”. As a matter of fact, they are not only referring to the recent cases.
Generally, we don’t discuss Armenian-Russian policy and relations. This subject is framed in a taboo. Usually we say that these relations go way back and that’s all; end of subject. Besides that, we also don’t discuss what those relations are really about and those who try to discuss the relations in detail are considered to be almost betrayers. We understand that the reason for that are Armenian-Turkish relations. We will not discuss those relations in details either. I will simply write about the fact that Russia has never been ambitious when implementing its foreign policy and the territories with Armenian population have always been used either as bridgeheads for them (if they want to attack) or outposts (if they want to protect themselves). I mean, there weren’t any problems like disliking Armenians or liking them in Russia. They don’t have such problems; we are the ones that have such problems and say, “Why don’t they like Armenians? Why do they kill only us and not others?”
In fact it is clear that these movements against Armenians in Russia are not organized “by foreign special services” to undermine the relations between Armenia and Russia. If it were so, the Russian police would stop that at once. It is clear that by implementing this policy the Russian authorities can solve certain political problems, and the governmental policy of Armenia supports them to do that. Now let’s clarify the abovementioned.
Armenia is almost officially declared as Russia’s outpost in the region. In fact, Russia is now preceding it legally and making documents, i.e. they are privatizing the main strategic fields of Armenia with the purpose of improving its status in the region. But this program is undermined: the population of their outpost is leaving from the country day by day, and in several years they may have nobody in their outpost to implement their policy. Why do they need an outpost without people? So, they have to populate their outpost. How can they do that? The only way for them is to force Armenians out of their territory. I.e. in that way they can explain to Armenians living in Russia that they should leave their country, a part of those people will come back to Armenia, thus they will reach their goal and populate their outpost…
Russia has always used such methods to solve its demographic problems. Back in the 30s and before that, the main strategic goal of Russia was not to reduce the number of crimes in their country, but rather to populate Siberia and other remote regions. When Armenians were forced out of their territories to Altai in 1949, the reason was not the fact that they disliked Armenians, but the fact that they wanted to populate those territories with Armenians.
The same is happening now. As for us Armenians, we are surprised as to why they don’t kill Georgians since they have serious problems with them, but they kill us, when we are their strategic neighbor. There is nothing to be surprised about. If Georgia was their outpost they would pressure Georgians in Russia and make them leave their country and make them go back to Georgia to populate the country.
In other words, the fact that Armenians are pressured in Russia still doesn’t mean that Russians don’t like Armenians. Russians have never been better than they are now, of course if we may use such classifications in politics (good or bad). We should simply understand one thing: the reason for the mentioned problems is the foreign policy implemented by the Armenian authorities.