Armenian Public Television broadcast a report on Sunday evening about the discovery of poison in maternal milk in the Ararat Valley. According to the reporter, the poison could have penetrated the milk as a result of the misuse of false pest-killers. Experts were expressing their opinions on the issue. Then Minister of Environmental Protection Vardan Ayvazyan appeared on the screen and said that the ministry has checked the components of the pest-killers imported to Armenia last year and there is no such substance in those chemicals as found in the milk of the child.
That’s it…? But what was the Minister of Environmental Protection supposed to do? He is a minister and as a government official, he is called for showing a global approach to issues.
I would rarely remember this Sunday report and refer to the minister’s global approach if I hadn’t known two days later that the mayor of Yerevan had left for the U.S. with the extremely important mission of turning Yerevan into the sister city of Los Angeles. The mayor has done all that he needed to do this winter-he solved the issue concerning parking, he didn’t sign any contracts for construction of deformed buildings in green areas and decided to fulfill his long-anticipated dream of turning Yerevan into a sister city of Los Angeles on the threshold of spring. Parallel to the process of turning the two cities (incomparable in size and everything else) into sisters, the mayor of Los Angeles persuaded U.S. Congressmen to defend the Armenian Genocide recognition bill and added his name to the list.
What do you think the mayor of Yerevan will talk about when he returns to Yerevan? He will talk about his efforts to make the U.S. recognize the Armenian Genocide because the Armenian official doesn’t lower himself to talk about minor issues; he has to have global approaches and get involved in global issues. For example, if he isn’t able to solve current issues, if he doesn’t make an effort to prevent the destruction and deformation of the capital city, he most definitely buckles down to the work of reconstructing the Shushi that was liberated fifteen years ago and is still unpopulated.
“So that nobody will suspect,” as the Russians would say. But I, on the contrary, do suspect.
Years ago I used to work for a state-run organization where the vice-director on economy used to hate small jobs just like Armenian government officials and only talked about global issues. When you entered his office to ask for, let’s say, ten liters of petroleum (there was limited petroleum during those years) or to say that not all of the rooms of the company building are heated, or even if you reminded him that there is no more paper, he would look you in the eye, get up from his seat, approach the door, lock it with the key and whisper in your ear: “My brother, what are you asking me? I (I am only talking with you) just called Moscow yesterday, talked to my friend and I am going to send four military helicopters to Karabakh”.
After this confidential conversation, the person with mental problems would continue talking about gas, the rooms with no heating and the lack of paper, especially when there was a war going on in Karabakh during those days and each technical device could have had an influence on the process and outcome of military operations. Now that I remember how many times I used to go to the office of the vice-director on economy and how many questions I used to ask, I realize that the Armenian Army has not become the most efficient during the past fifteen years, rather it has always been like that; because with the helicopters, armored cars, “Ural” trucks sent by the memorable vice-director, it would be possible to seize not seven, but seventeen regions of Azerbaijan if, of course, there are that many regions in the neighboring country. I am not even mentioning the fact that there could have been more memorable heroes sitting in the offices of other companies or many other institutions and people who would turn the vision of having a sea to sea Armenia into a reality by circumventing little problems like lack of writing paper, heating and gas.
I would probably not remember this either if I had not met the villagers of the Barekamavan border village located in the Tavush region of Armenia and finally realized that the Armenian authorities are exclusively occupied with global issues. There is a 440 hectare land in the village and none of the villagers cultivates that land. The reason for that is because that land is near the weapon emplacement of Azerbaijan and is full of mines. While talking with the villagers, I asked them:
“Haven’t you tried to negotiate with the neighboring village? After all, you say that you have many acquaintances”.
“Who will let us do such a thing? They have a minister, deputies and a president. If they want, they will do it,” said the villagers.
One of the more prepared villagers made a correction: “It’s a matter of foreign policy.”
Did that person know what foreign policy means? Perhaps he did for saying that. But he definitely did not know that at a 200 kilometer distance from where he was standing they understood foreign policy as paying foreign visits to different countries, interstate cultural events, efforts for genocide recognition, they only understand “give-won’t give” negotiations processes that are further from the real needs of these people than the residents of Barekamavan are from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. The welfare of the people living on the border does not fit in the doctrine of Armenia’s foreign policy, not to mention the “Armenia-Diaspora” conference which is incompetent to solve any issue if the villager only dreams of cultivating his land.
I recently saw the vice-director whom I mentioned earlier. He had changed, had grown old and there were wrinkles on his face. After talking to him for a while, I told him: “Listen, those helicopters did a hell of a job”. “What helicopters?” the former official asked surprisingly. “The four helicopters that your friend had sent in from Moscow,” I replied. “I don’t remember, brother,” he said once again surprised. He was so honestly amazed that it seemed as though I was the one confused.