Armenian blogger highlights missed economic opportunities with Azerbaijan

REGION  27 March 2024 - 11:56

In a recent Facebook post, Armenian blogger Vahe Aghajanyan delved into the economic ramifications of missed opportunities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, particularly in the realm of transit agreements.

Aghajanyan's commentary sheds light on the potential economic gains Armenia could have enjoyed had certain historical events unfolded differently.

“Georgia is one of the states that opposes the start of the work of transport communications in Armenia, and the reason for this is purely economic,” Caliber.Az quotes Aghajanyan as saying.

He argues that if Armenia had pursued closer economic ties with Azerbaijan, as proposed by former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan over 30 years ago, the situation could have been markedly different.

“Let's go back 30 years or more. What did Levon Ter-Petrosyan say? He stated that it is necessary to resolve the conflict with Azerbaijan as soon as possible, improve relations, including economic ones, and open communications.

What would have happened if there had been no coup and Ter-Petrosyan’s plan had been implemented? Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan simply would not exist if all oil and gas pipelines passed through the territory of Armenia, and the billions of dollars that Georgia received and receives as transit would have been received by Armenia, and it is not difficult to imagine what our country would have instead the current poor and impoverished state,” he added.

Aghajanyan reminisced about Ter-Petrosyan's vision, highlighting the former president's call for resolving conflicts with Azerbaijan swiftly and fostering improved economic relations, including the opening of communications.

“I have said many times that Ter-Petrosyan is a politician misunderstood by society, but he is a real politician. The real figure never says anything directly, instead everything is hidden in deep footnotes. When he spoke about economic relations with Azerbaijan, he was accused of wanting to do something wrong, but the funny thing is that those who make these accusations cite and cite Georgia as an example of a successful country, the key to its success is that it was proposed by Ter-Petrosyan for Armenia.

Those who carried out the coup in 1998 and failed the peace plan served exclusively the interests of the enemy, because only the enemy of Armenia could leave the country on the rails of an eternal war, excluding it from large regional economic projects,” the blogger stated.

Quoting Ter-Petrosyan's foresight from 1997, Aghajanyan warned against the dangers of rejecting opportunities in the present, as they may not be available in the future.

“I’ll end this post with one of Ter-Petrosyan’s words spoken in 1997. What we reject today, we will ask for in the future, but will not receive, as has happened many times in our history,” the blogger writes.

Caliber.Az