Friday, October 16, 2020

Armenia and its Turkic neighbors

Armenia is much smaller than its Turkic neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan.  It has a population of 2.9 million compared to Turkey's 82.3 million and Azerbaijan's 9.9 million. In 2019, Armenia's GDP was about $14 billion compared to Turkey's $754 billion and Azerbaijan's $48 billion.

But Armenia is far more democratic with greater freedom of the press. Azerbaijan is near the bottom of the 2020 world ranking of press freedom (168), with NATO member Turkey slightly above it (154); North Korea=180. In contrast, Armenia is ranked at 61; USA=45. Also Erdogan of Turkey has been president since 2003. And Azerbaijan's Aliyev has been the president since 2003, a position he inherited from his father who ruled from 1993 through 2003. Being less autocratic, Armenia's prime minister was elected to office in 2018.

Even without bringing up past exterminations of Armenians, why would anyone expect Armenians to be safe and live under Turkic rule? 







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