Bagratyan has also mentioned that everything is getting better in Armenia, however there is no competitive grounds for that and the society adapts to this whole process. Today’s’ challenges create necessity to develop. If the society doesn’t develop it gets demoralized. “It’s necessary to overcome the current plight,” says Bagratyan. “We claim we want to go to Europe but our geopolitical and macro-economic tendencies don’t take us there. Our geopolitical system collided with the limit and development. It’s possible to always draw 10% economic growth but it doesn’t change the situation.”
Years ago the amount of an average salary was higher in Armenia than in Georgia or Azerbaijan. It’s the opposite now. Armenia occupies the third place among the three. Bagratyan believes that Armenia lags behind its neighbors in many sectors and indexes. The former prime minister believes that economic growth is a non-stop product-exchange. If you want to grow you must also give besides taking. Armenia has turned into a room full of books. All the books are read now inside the room. However, there is now opportunity to read more. And others demand Armenia to provide academic result. Thus, we need more books and rooms, cooperate with neighbors, learn new things and give new things. And we don’t have economic, political relations with none of our neighbors. We slightly cooperate with Iran. Our relations cannot be complete with this country because of America’s jealousy. We also communicate with Georgia but it also has its inner political issues – Russia’s blockade and the issue of Javaghk. We don’t have any relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey because of well-known reasons. And instead of establishing relations with Turkey we scream in Europe saying we oppose Turkey’s entrance to EU.
“Why don’t we want Turkey to enter EU. Why don’t we want it to live well? Why don’t we want to be part of EU as well? We don’t have any problems with Turkey. There is no issue with Western Armenia. These are adventurous intentions, which will in the end bring to the failure of Karabagh conflict resolution on our part,” thinks Bagratyan.
He thinks that the political field is not an enough space for opposition and government. It is only enough for the governmental parties to fight among each other. In order to change something in the country Bagratyan offers to get rid of monopolies especially for imported products. The gas pipeline Iran-Armenia must have been constructed with 1200-mm diameter. It would enable the pipeline to be a transit one. Compared to 1995 the shady economy still stays 50% in 2006. Thus Bagratyan believes there is no fight against black economy. Everything is deteriorating in Armenia. Speaking about this we should also mention the devaluation of the USD and the fault of the Central Bank. “Protecting inflation is only one of the functions of the CB. It is also supposed to organize a decent monetary-credit policy. Means we have the opposite in our country. There is hardly any other country like this in the world,” says Bagratyan and adds that 20% of the CB decisions are unconstitutional and that the Bank has turned into some totalitarian power. He thinks that the banking sector of Armenia is facing serious issues, the solutions of which exist. However the CB doesn’t apply those. The CB also has serious issues and it’s surprising why the Ministry of Finances and the Government don’t complain of the AMD revaluation. In fact the revaluation slows down the economy rates, decreases the state budget and hinders inner industry development. “No one makes the government accountable. No one punishes them. It’s not only about saying smart things. Facts are needed. We have 1.3 billion USD transfers in Armenia. Use this money somewhere else. Make sure people don’t suffer,” he says.
Shortly said, we need a new course, to help the country overcome the current situation.