Opinion: Armenia risks becoming an "Administrator" rather than a  sovereign actor

ArmInfo.  These days, Yerevan has become a place where foreign voices are louder than its own. Leaders have come here with their programs and ready-made  interpretations of the future. And almost imperceptibly, the most  important question fades into the background: what is Armenia's place  in this future? Political scientist Vahe Davtyan addresses this issue  in his article.

According to him, the Armenian authorities seem to have chosen the  most convenient path: not to formulate, but to join; not to shape a  line, but to move between lines, hoping that movement itself is  already a strategy. Meanwhile, this is simply drifting. "Armenia  remains a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian military  presence remains on its territory, and at the same time, Yerevan  hosts the European political community  to discuss a security  architecture that leaves little  room for former alliances. The  authorities call this flexibility. In reality, it means avoiding  choice under the guise of multi- vectorism. Yes, in politics,  refusing to choose is also a choice. But usually in favor of the  force that sets the rules. Armenia accepts, organizes, and  accompanies, but it does not shape the agenda. This is the behavior  of an administrator, not a sovereign subject," the political  scientist believes.

In his opinion, the state thus loses its ability to be a source of  meaning and becomes the bearer of alien semantic structures. It  ceases to independently determine what is valuable to itself and even  begins to borrow evaluation criteria. "It seems the authorities  operate on the assumption that the more external attention, the  greater the international subjectivity. Meanwhile, attention isn't  recognition. It's a resource that's used as long as it's needed. Then  it's forgotten. History has repeatedly shown that small states  survive not by the number of connections, but by a clear position.  When that position is blurred, a country becomes not a bridge, but a  passageway. And the most dangerous thing is the illusion that you can  simultaneously exist in several incompatible systems without paying a  price. There's always a price. It's just never announced in advance,"  the political scientist concluded.