– Will the Armenian economy benefit from developing relations with Turkey?
– Of course yes. For any liberal economy good relations are a condition for development. Armenia will benefit from it as it will have a door to the European economies. The history of developing of the economies of small countries shows that the small countries with big neighbors, which have been able to develop good relations with these neighbors, have succeeded in receiving development guarantees. Turkey is one of the biggest 20 economies of the world; its GDP is equal to Russia’s GDP and more than Armenia’s GDP by one hundred times. It means that we should realize the strategic opinion that now the economy which is not developed and does not have any domestic guarantees for development may get such new opportunities. It is about an opportunity only which may fail. There should be serious research to find out the potentials of our economy that can develop. For example, in 200 kilometers radius from the Armenian border Turkey does not have production of large construction materials, for example cement. If Armenia implements a correct policy it will meet this demand and sell cement there. The production sectors which developed rapidly during the soviet times are interesting as well. These sectors don’t exist now rather than memories only but this ground exists and it is possible to establish new factories to develop these sectors too. When we think that our products will be compatible in the world, it is a wish only because real competitiveness comes along with cooperation with other economic systems. From this point of view the most flexible and economically developing country in our region is Turkey. By the way, the Russian economy does not have such efficiency. We have a lot to do and we should reform the law to make the customs and other related laws correspondent to create equal conditions for the Armenian and Turkish producers. The most important thing is that in case of developing diplomatic relations we will have an opportunity for growth only if we are smart enough, otherwise it will be very dangerous. Thus, if the overall economic and political picture of the country does not change, we will lose and in 5-10 years will have a country, the economy of which is full of Turkish cheap and low quality products and we will not export anything. Even the monopolies that are in good conditions now will not be able to do anything and will solve out. It will be the same as it happened with the USSR economy when the monopolistic economy was deprived of privileged conditions and simple collapsed. It will result in a situation when the citizens of the country will have to rely on other countries and the others who stay here will have to live on the money received from overseas. If it does not happen as I said, we should not expect any positive results form the development of relations.
– Don’t you think that the most possible version is the one you said?
– No, I think it is the vice versa, because any party on the power, even if they don’t take serious steps, eventually will have to be accountable and understand what they should do. I think that the incumbent government, who are known with their ambitions to have money and power, and who cannot be praised at all, will eventually realize that they cannot continue this way as they will lose a lot. New generation is being grown up and they have new imaginations and new requirements. I also realize that the failure not to make reforms will deepen this situation and intolerance, thus resulting in an extremely polarized political situation, which usually does not have a long life.
– Do you see an improvement in this context?
– Generally yes. From the point of view of the society now Armenia is in a better situation than five years ago. Even though we had the incidents of March 1, I believe it was a result of the society’s development as well and rejection of unfairness and ignorance. We lived a period of ten years, during which all initiatives to discuss projects and ideas were ignored, and the March 1 was the result of that period. Now they are more cautious.