It may seem strange, but Armenians have always made the same mistakes and created problems in their relations with other countries and the international community. These mistakes and problems have led to losses. Armenians can’t negotiate well because they don’t have concrete issues, goals, resources to help reach those goals and financial background… Armenians don’t understand the meaning of being a state, just like all the countries that have just declared their independence. Moreover, when their military capacity is weak, they start to panic.
If Armenia is in the same situation as in Georgia [numerous conflicts inside their country, ethnic conflicts, lack of Diaspora and its support, lack of a strong army (they are not used to serving in the army and this tradition comes from the Soviet era)], we will lose everything. As for Georgians, despite the issues, they continue being, as they say, an independent and democratic state. They can even use those factors and have political and economical benefits. Even some American and European experts believe them. Armenians should get used to such things too. Azerbaijan almost has the same problem too.
I’d like to point out the failures of Armenia because I am concerned about the short-term security concept that the Armenian government is discussing now.
Why can’t Armenians, being the only nation in the Southern Caucasus region with a formed self-consciousness and aimed towards Europe, clearly set the goals and try to get closer to Europe? Armenians have always had the consciousness of being Armenian, even back in the days of Hellenism and that is what served as a base for Armenians to get a world outlook.
I’d like to bring up several facts that prove the history: founding of ancient theatres, constructing cities based on municipal construction projects, adoption of Christianity as a state religion, etc. All this enhanced Armenia and made it stay closer to the genesis of the Christian ideology and have its part in its development. Besides that, Armenia has had many achievements in sciences. Anyway, Armenians live in the East and some Armenians have different western or other kinds of outlooks. Our culture and lifestyle contain some traditions from Eastern countries (Caucasian, Persian and Arabic). Alas, currently, the group ruling in Armenia are headed by people, who control the ideology of others. In order to make it clearer, I can say that in our political field we need a new figure such as Komitas to clean the field of foreigners and make it stable enough to be able to let the international community know about our interests and establish good contacts in the world. This is the reason why Armenia understands Russian policy very well- the policy that it is implementing after the collapse of the Soviet Union and is trying to develop its interests in a best way between the interests of East and West. It is very hard to understand Russia.
Being educated, rich, integrated in world processes, informed and active, Armenians still lose all the time.
Let’s bring up an example. For instance, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgians and Azeri got very good positions in the South Caucasus parliament of Tbilisi, but Armenians didn’t have any places there. Accordingly, Armenians had many losses because of the decisions made by that parliament. For example, that parliament made a decision to hand over the Kars castle.
Armenians have a huge experience in survival, but at the same time, we fail to build our state in a good way. For instance, Azerbaijan was still young after the collapse of the Soviet Union and didn’t take the idea of constructing their state so badly. I mean, they were faced with such an issue for the first time in their history. As for Armenians, who lost almost 90% of their territories during the last ten centuries, saw Genocide perpetrated by the Turks, and could only survive in a very small peace of land, they don’t consider that easy and speak about that all the time.
Armenians should gather according to a selected criterion based on a common ideology. The Armenian state can only be strong if each citizen is protected. A nation and Diaspora (Armenians live with their Diaspora and worry about their problems, for instance, the war in Lebanon) that has seen Genocide and a war recently should understand that the Armenian state can be strong, only if it is united as one. The Azeri state should and can be strong only if their state ideology is built on a leadership charisma, i.e. if they have an “eastern type leader”.
How do Armenians, Georgians and Azeri people treat foreigners in and outside of their countries? For instance, Azeri people get surprised when they see a foreigner in their country. In the Azeri army the weakest ethnos that fight bad are considered Talishes, whose troops are allocated along the borderline of Karabakh. In spite of all things, Talishes respect Armenians much because the first world cultural summit of Talishes was organized in Armenia. Azeri people are more simple and tolerant when it comes to establishing contacts with others, compared to the Georgians. Georgians haven’t had someone like Stalin protecting them, letting them do whatever they like.
In Armenia, most people have always been of Armenian origin. This is the reason why everyone uses the term “Armenian people” when speaking about Armenians. It is not so right to use that term. First, there are Armenians in over 80 countries worldwide; secondly, Armenians living in Armenia cover only 20% of the total number of Armenians around the world. Armenians have never treated other ethnicities in Armenia badly, they haven’t even treated the Turks bad. Furthermore, Armenians want to open the Turkish border themselves. Armenians can easily be integrated with other ethnicities in spite of many problems there because they treat everyone with respect.
People speaking in Georgian are called Georgians despite the fact that they have neither a common ideology nor outlook. In fact, the Georgian flag does not reflect the current situation in Georgia; for instance, Ajaria, which is a part of Georgia, is not Christian. Georgia got huge territories during the Soviet era, including three states. It didn’t become a federation. In spite of all this, Georgia inherited the bad sides of the Soviet system and used the fact that their governmental institutions were not formed to “oppress” people. Even though Georgia is a democratic state now, citizens don’t want to stay in the country. In fact, they don’t believe that Georgia may be democratic.
Georgians could establish very good contacts with the metropolis and have benefits due to the fact that Tbilisi has always been an important center for Russian institutions and has always had representations of important Russian institutions there. They had these achievements during Stalin’s term too. In fact, Stalin has had a lot of influence on Georgian mentality.
All nations create their “own specific hospitality”. From this perspective, Georgians are more hospitable than Armenians and Azeri.. We deal with two things: first, the interests of Georgia, second, their praiseworthy relations with their guests and their interests. As we can see, even if they don’t have any guests, they still treat everyone with respect. This is what makes them differ from Armenians and Azeri. They are professionals in dialogues that have developed during the past centuries. Georgians know how to treat each representative of a foreign country. They have different “tools” that they use to attract guests. This specific type of hospitality during parties and making toasts is very interesting and perfect. Sometimes this may be boring, but they help with new bottles of wonderful wine and forget everything very soon, thus making the time enjoyable, and later their guests feel some kind of pity as it always happens after drinking a lot (alcohol). Playing “honest” is one of the main ways to show Georgian hospitality. Nowadays, Georgians tell their guests about how they used to be a democratic land, how they obeyed the former Soviet authorities during the Soviet era and simply praise themselves.
Azeri hospitality is not better than Georgian hospitality because the Azeri always follow traditions and don’t care about being “honest”. Azeri and Armenians are not as professional as Georgians when it comes to making good toasts and telling jokes. They have good efforts in their hospitality, which shows their guests that they are ready to serve them. Generally, they are more “hospitable” and “honest” than Georgians.
Why do I speak about parties? The reason is the fact that parties are an integral part of diplomacy of Southern Caucasus nations. During such parties, guests get acquainted with the history of the nations. It may seem strange, but this method is very effective. Georgians are the best at that. Russians have always been treated the best way during such parties and they miss the days. As for Europeans and Americans, they are starting to understand what hospitality is all about and are helping the three abovementioned nations come up with new toasts, create new traditions, new symbols and new customs.