Armenians protest: The poor don’t want to die
By Gunay Camal
Anti-government rallies in Yerevan see no end, as Armenia, experiencing difficulties in almost every sphere, tries to lay the heavy burdens on people's shoulders.
The government hardly does anything to improve the situation while the population is starving, buried in poverty and lawlessness. Those, who were fed up with the country’s economic failures and tax “surprises” such as “1,000 dram” law, took the streets on December 1.
Under the law, each working Armenian citizen will be obligated to contribute 1,000 drams (about $2) per month so that those, who have suffered while serving in the Armed Forces of Armenia, fulfilling the will of the aggressive authorities and occupying lands from its real owner - Azerbaijan, receive a small compensation for the crippled health and life. For the Armenian worker earning minimum wage, $2 is a significant amount to be passed out in a monthly tax, for which the person has not had a chance to budget.
With slogans “The poor don’t want to die” the protesters, who gathered in front of the Armenian parliament, announced that the Sargsyan regime has come up with a new idea to rip off the people in the name of soldiers, Epress.am reports.
“The soldiers of our army (and their families) after the fighting, will receive decent wages in case of a certain status (death or disability). Our goal is to encourage the soldiers and to make military service more attractive.” –was the announcement of the Armenian government for the law.
“Some 5-10 million drams ($10,000-$50,000) in exchange for the life and health”- this is how the Armenian authorities see everything.
“We offer a counter initiative” reads a message disseminated through the social networks.
“Let’s collect 5,000 drams ($20) from everyone, who have a monthly salary, and send MPs, ministers, generals of the army, police, national security services, judges, prosecutors, investigators, tax officials, employees of the presidential administration and members of their families to the front. We promise a decent compensation, five times more worthy - 25 and 50 million instead of 5-10 million drams. They better know how to defend the homeland! They had more free time for thought about the fate of the nation and the motherland. They clearly and distinctly explained to us that war is inevitable and peace is impossible. Let us adequately evaluate the life and death of people, who tried in offices, private residences, holiday resorts and cottages, to the idea that the only way is to die on the front. Everything must be decided on the battlefield, and now their place there.”
The aggressive policy of the Armenian authorities brings a number of sacrifices among ordinary citizens. Bad news for the people is that "coincidentally” mainly the victims are the poor. Long before the bill, serving in the army has not been honorable any further in Armenia and conscript-age young people are obliged to find new ways to escape it. Some “pay”, others leave the country, and even commit suicide just not to be in “the hell” of the Armenian Army.
Most of the soldiers and the vast majority of those, who serve at the border, and sent to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and attached areas of neighboring Azerbaijan, are the children of the poor families. The Sargsyan regime is sure that if someone should be sacrificed, then why it should be the poor?
The Armenian authorities, instead of refusing from the aggressive policy towards its neighbors, especially Azerbaijan, does everything possible to worsen the situation and ready to stage a war if their being in power requires it.
Meanwhile, Armenia has become the third most militarized country in the world after Israel and Singapore for the fourth consecutive year, according to an annual survey conducted by a German think-tank promoting peace.
In its Global Militarization Index (GMI) released this week, the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) rated “the weight and importance of the military apparatus” in the world countries. Armenia occupies third place in the latest GMI, giving it a higher “level of militarization” than any other country in wider Europe.
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