Urgent Demand for National Defense Strategy

We cannot escape the urge to make a comparison with Israel, even as we are fully aware of the big differences in the scale of available resources. Even so, it must be noted that compared to Armenia in 1991, Israel was actually in a far worse situation when it became independent in 1948. It had then a meager population of hardly a million Jews in a poor and backward desert land, surrounded by many millions of well-armed sworn enemies, all deeply motivated by the perceived holy purpose of annihilating that fledgling newborn Jewish state.

Today Israel is unquestionably an internationally respected modern and first-rate model country, with a tenfold larger population than at its founding. It has a first-class economy and an industrial and scientific network wherein the defense-dedicated component is at such a high level that it is coveted by the biggest nations of the world. The one obvious lesson to be learned is that from its very first day of existence, Israel wisely made its defense preparedness a top national priority. Its entire population, male and female, is invariably trained and ready at the spur of a moment to take up arms and defend itself and its land against any aggressor. Israeli universities and institutions are prolific providers of the human resources that have turned their defense industry into the envy of the entire world.

Anticipating the usual protest and arguments of Armenian wisemen, every time a comparison of Armenia with Israel is attempted to be made, let us once more admit that Armenia is not Israel and Armenians are not Jews in terms of their numbers in the world as well as their comparative economic potential and resources. On the other hand, with the same concern for fairness, we must admit that Armenia and the Armenians have had, and still have now, enough potential to aspire to reaching at least a respectable fraction of the overall Israeli success.

Yet Armenia today is very distant from attaining even such a modest objective. The mistakes that have been committed, which continue in Armenia today, need to be pointed out loud and clear, and stigmatized, in order to pave the path for immediate effective measures for corrections to be undertaken as urgent national priorities.

In1991, post-Soviet Armenia had a population of over three million living in a fully developed country, inheriting as part of the Soviet world superpower an advanced industry backed by an educational and scientific network of institutions of high international caliber. Thirty years later, as a result of sustained emigration, its population is now reduced to well below its original level, instead of at the least doubling in size. The thirty long years of precious nation-building opportunity after independence was wasted. During that time, the steady plunder of Armenia’s intellectual and material national wealth was permitted and even encouraged.

The disdain shown by independent Armenia’s top leadership towards sciences, research and higher education, coupled with the associated neglect of any planned development of advanced technology and industry, has led to the catastrophic brain drain from Armenia, to the benefit of many advanced countries of the West. Nowadays it is quite common in Europe or in America to come across Armenian names among the top-level personnel of highly respected educational or research institutions and industries. Many of these individuals are immigrants from independent Armenia.