Armenian economist Tatul Manaseryan, at a meeting with reporters on Wednesday, spoke of struggle against import and sale of Turkish products in Armenia.
“Many of our citizens are seasonal migrant workers and send hard-earned money to their families in Armenia. They, in turn, buy Turkish goods thus sponsoring Turkey’s war industry,” Mr Manaseryan said.
He calls for “coming to senses” and saying “yes” to Armenian goods.
“A country that was more dependent on Turkey, severed its economic ties with Turkey for moral reasons and applied sanctions against it. I am speaking of Russia,” Mr Manaseryan said.
Armenia could do the same.
Mr Manaseryan points out the role of both the government and private sector, as well as that of civil society. Success is impossible if one of them fails.
“We must do way with the enemy within. Those buying Turkish goods are actually sponsoring terrorism,” the economist said.
As to what situation the Armenian businessmen importing Turkish goods will find themselves in, Mr Manaseryan said:
“We should not make a poor mouth and ask about what the people are going to do. We are a sovereign state and creating jobs for those people must be number one task for our country. Our country must encourage self-employment, exempt micro-businesses from taxes, and we applied to the government for that long ago. We have to launch an import substitution policy. We should be ashamed of not manufacturing the products we are importing.”