
ArmInfo. European leaders, condemning corruption in various countries, have once again presented Armenians with a carrot in the form of visa-free travel to the European Union. This was stated by Stanford University professor and political scientist Artur Khachikyan.
The expert recalled that the Encyclopedia Britannica defines corruption and bribery as "promising, receiving, giving, or agreeing to receive money or anything else of value for the corrupt purpose of influencing a public official in the performance of his or her official duties." Webster's dictionary defines bribery as "the giving of money or favors to influence the decisions or behavior of people in positions of trust."
"And what about bribing an entire society and its political leadership, especially just before elections?" European leaders, condemning corruption in various countries, have once again presented Armenians with a carrot: visa-free travel to Europe. This carrot, dangled over our heads for 25 years, was once again shown to us just a few months before the Armenian elections, to help the Armenian dictator deceive his people and remain in power. In other words, the visa-free travel issue couldn't be resolved for 25 years; it had to be discussed again before the elections, without guarantees of a specific date, simply as an action plan. And only after Armenia's third capitulation," Khachikyan stated.
He also recalled that there was a time when European NGOs condemned the distribution of 5,000 drams for Armenian votes. The political scientist added that in Armenia, the regime prosecutes bribery in all forms (except for those it itself accepts, of course). "But promising visa-free travel to support its traitorous agents several months before the elections for selling out Armenia is entirely acceptable. Visa-free travel is a wonderful idea in itself. But using people's desire to travel in Europe as a weapon of blackmail-that is, if you want to travel visa-free, sell out your homeland, piece by piece, renounce your history, your compatriots, sell the lives of your children, forget your dignity, and endure any terror and repression, but vote for our protege, a dictator-is vile manipulation and bribery. This is the very corruption of an entire nation that European leaders so love to condemn in other countries," the professor asserted.
Khachikyan pointed out that Brussels doesn't demand that other countries give up their territory, history, or betray their own in exchange for visa-free travel. "But for Armenia, this visa-free regime has a specific price. Under European pressure, a group of traitors surrendered Nagorno-Karabakh, for which 12,000 Armenians shed their blood. Then they surrendered villages in Tavush, then the Zangezur Corridor and Syunik. They attacked their own church, called for the Genocide to be forgotten, and for the rejection of historical memory and the symbol of the Armenian people-Mount Ararat. All this with the tacit consent of the European masters of Armenia's satanic regime," the political scientist believes.
According to the expert, European integration and visa-free travel have become an official European election bribe, a price for betrayal, and aid to this authoritarian regime, helping it stay in power and continue its reign of terror and the process of Armenia's surrender, piece by piece.