Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The mass protests have been ongoing for more than three weeks in Yerevan and other cities of Armenia, but no positive result has been achieved yet from this unrest for the country.

The protesters do not go to work, they block the main roads and highways, buildings of the state agencies, and even the road to the main airport of Armenia, and this, of course, has a negative effect on the country’s already deplorable economy.

International experts have many times noted this fact, and the Belarusian economist Maxim Borisovets is one of them.

“The political turmoil in Yerevan will seriously undermine the already weak socio-economic balance in Armenia,” he told Day.Az in an interview on May 3.

The expert noted that the unrest can provoke growth of artificial inflation and a deficit.

“As a rule, political turmoil in any country negatively affects its economic state, and in the case of Armenia, given its vulnerable socio-economic level, it is an obvious fact,” he stressed.

Borisovets added that the Armenian economy has been in a deep crisis not one or two years, but over two decades.

“The main production, industrial enterprises of the country have long been closed, and most importantly there is no sign that the situation can somehow change for the better,” the economist said. “Of course, all this is a logical result of the illiterate management policy, of the off-scale corruption and a number of factors that drove the country’s economy into a deadlock.”

Borisovets noted that the current political crisis can have the worst effect on the country’s economy.

“Local economists have long warned that the situation is serious, but nothing changes. And given that there is still a struggle for power, this process will last long,” the expert said.

He further noted that decades will be needed to somehow restore the Armenian economy, and this will happen only if adequate people, who will be concerned not about their personal gain, but about the interests of the population, come to power.

Armenia has suffered much during the rule of the Republican Party, headed by the former president Serzh Sargsyan. The government was only engaged in pretending to solve economic and social problems in the country, while the decline in the quality of life of Armenian citizens was going even deeper.

The authorities were imitating fight against corruption, while the state budget and foreign loans were spent not on the well-being of the population but on the ruling regime’s own needs.

The Armenian population was well aware of all these dirty actions of the government, and therefore it has rebelled. The only hope for now is that the new prime minister of the country will not follow the path of Sargsyan.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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