The idea of independent Armenia based on constitutional law dates back to 1788-89, the settlement of Armenian merchants in India. On the eve of the French and shortly after the American Revolutions a statesman, representative of the Armenian national liberation movement, founder of the bourgeois-enlightenment ideology and writer Shahamir Shahamiryan published a book "The Snare of Glory"(Vorogayt Parats), where the idea of a blueprint for the Armenian Constitution was first put forward.
Why were the Armenian merchants the first to come up with the significant idea of founding an independent republic based on the Constitution? In order to understand it, we have to take a short tour of the 80s and 90s of the 18th century, flipping through the pages of history of those turbulent times.
King Shah Abbas of Iran transplanted the Armenian merchants of Jugha town in Nakhijevan, which was located on the Persian Gulf-Trapizon trade route, to Isfahan providing them with 70 thousand tumans at the initial stage, in order to "invest" that amount in international trade and provide him with income. And as a guarantee, he kept their families hostage in Isfahan so that they didn't "cheat" him.
Armenian merchants were, in fact, the commercial agents of the Shah, whose "patron" was the Persian state, and the initial money was the capital. belonging to Shah's palace. The model of conducting commercial activities in India was very popular at that time, particularly in the format of various British-Indian companies. Earlier, there was a similar south Dutch India Company, in which the Jewish merchants of Amsterdam had a major role. For a long time, these companies were essentially independent, moreover, they had their own government and military units.
Later, when Persia began to decline, and the French, Dutch, Portuguese, and others appeared in India, Armenian merchants were left without a state "patron" and, of course, realized that the continuation of commercial activities was no longer possible. Along with the fall of Persia, the role of Armenian merchants also declined.
Armenian merchants of India and Persia were also skilled diplomats who had a significant place in international politics. The independence of commercial companies at that time was comparable to the weight of today's transnational companies, maybe even more. What does this history lesson show? The demand for their own state among Armenian merchants was dictated by the need to keep their capital safe somewhere. Such a place could be their own state.
The Armenian capital in Russia and Ukraine is now faced with such a need. The same can be said, in general, about other modern business-oriented, technologically leading companies in Russia. In that country, especially large and medium-sized capital has started to be controlled by the state, and this trend will continue to grow. Capital requires a stable state where property rights are respected. This also applies to Armenia.
A political system is democratic if the rules of the game are defined and private property does not depend on the whims of the government at the moment. The state serves the property and security of its citizens and ensures political and economic stability, a predictable future, as well as the reliability of the national capital.
However, as we can see, the modern Armenian capital is not yet in such a reliable condition as it was in India three hundred years ago. It was more independent, did not participate in national political initiatives and, most importantly, became an impetus to create its own state formation.