A World Bank Crisis for Armenia

The media has been reporting on the Armenia crisis as it has been unfolding, through the pre-election period, on Election Day, and particularly since the subsequent bloody events of the 1^st March. Irrespective of political leanings, all agree that Armenia is going through a crisis period. Blowing the World Bank Whistle has been reporting on Armenia’s crisis for more than a year, not as it unfolds, but through the latter period of its development. Armenia is not going through a crisis period; it is just coming into a crisis which is destined to last and worsen through many coming years.

The Kocharian / Sargsyan team now feels confident enough in their new illegally self-imposed Presidency to put the final pieces of the jigsaw into place. With the more independent sector of the Armenian media subjected to a virtual blackout, the state media continues to pump out such unbelievable propaganda, that only the state’s sturdier stalwarts are ashamedly prepared to agree to its authenticity. Parliament’s former Speaker, adorned by his recently adopted morals, has been reincarnated by Armenia’s new President Sargsyan, the very person who created him for a previous election fiasco, and together they are feverishly passing resolutions which on the one hand give Karabakh independence, whilst on the other take away any independence Armenia may have hitherto enjoyed.

The UN General Assembly has suddenly and unexpectedly adopted an Azerbaijani motion reaffirming territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and demanding withdrawal of all Armenian forces from the occupied territories. Moreover, the resolution refers to a UN fact-finding mission of 2005, which confirmed an outrageous Armenian policy of massive illegal settlement in the territories. Sargsyan has announced his eagerness to meet at the earliest possible occasion with his Azerbaijani counterpart, which happens to be next month, immediately after his inauguration, to talk about a final settlement. By now, I trust that followers of the Blowing the World Bank Whistle campaign will understand that Sargsyan will not only be talking about a final settlement, he will return to Armenia with that final settlement miraculously signed and sealed and well and truly tucked under his Presidential belt – right next to his sword. That will be the starter for stage two of the World Bank’s crisis for Armenia. The Armenian settlers will flee the occupied territories, many to Yerevan, where their new apartments have awaited them for the past several years, thanks to Armenia’s ever-caring authorities who have been laundering their ill-gotten gains in Yerevan’s booming construction sector. Karabakh will not only have lost its security belt, but Armenia’s unique acknowledgment of Karabakhi independence will relieve its recently inaugurated President of any responsibility he may have had to his kinfolk. Karabakhi inhabitants will therefore join the exodus, fearful of an Azerbaijani assault, many to the apartments and the secure future which have long been under preparation for them in Yerevan. The international finances have no doubt long been agreed, and in recent months Armenia’s leaders have been putting into place the real-estate support services needed to reap the billions of dollars rewards of their years of patient money laundering.

The World Bank / International Monetary Fund crisis program for Armenia will soon be finally and successfully completed, and whilst it is hard to imagine what may be the fate for those who remain in Karabakh, the future for the people of Armenia is inevitable - less independence, less freedom and many years of increasing oppression.

That is why, for the past year the World Bank’s investigatory unit, the Department of Institutional Integrity, has refused to carry out an investigation into rampant fraud and corruption in World Bank Armenia projects, despite repeated requests from me and from the influential international group that supports my claim.