Yerevan /Mediamax/. Former President and Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian stated that in 1996-1997, he believed that the key to Armenia’s development was an “open model.”

In an interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles, Armen Sarkissian said:

“The model is to have Armenia as a core, as a place, where you put your whole national interests and economic interests of Armenian nation. 

Armenia should have been like Luxembourg, a place where you accumulate money, Armenians keep money, the right rules of taxation, a global hub for Armenian interests, education, talent, and all of that stuff. 

I had that vision, I was young, the sky was the limit, I had the plans of buying assets, oil and gas assets. Why on earth Armenia, being a small state, could not have an oil field? Britain doesn’t have oil fields, it has BP. Holland doesn’t have oil fields, they have Royal Dutch Shell. France doesn’t have oil fields, they have several, not one, oil big companies. So, in my vision, Armenia should have been owning interests in other countries, oil fields and become an international hub. But for that, in 96-97 we needed to have peace. 

And that time was the best time, historically, for Armenia to make peace. Why? Armenia became independent, the first war was won by the Armenian side. Azerbaijan had a very pragmatic leader, Heydar Aliyev, the father of the current president. The international interest was focused on Caspian and the oil. So Armenia, being a part of the peace deal, could have been benefiting from international interest and investment. And we had the best position for negotiating, because we were victorious. When you negotiate, you have to negotiate from the strength. That was the peak of the strength of Armenia. We should have done peace then. And in fact, I was here in US visiting as prime minister, Zbigniew Brzezinski invited me to make a speech at his center. And the title of my speech was, “Armenia is a Caspian state”, indicating that if anybody wants to develop the Caspian oil and gas, we are there. People think that we’re an obstacle because there is a war. No, we are a solution. 

We should have done that peace then. It did not happen because among other things, I had cancer in 97, I had to retire. Of course, there were conspiracy theories, but the reality was that I was very sick.”