Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best. However, it can be entertaining at best and disastrous at worst when the people who talk about politics have no idea about reality. "The possible" varies according to the given country’s population number, age structure, natural resources, psychological preparation to address challenges, quality of management, value system, etc.
The abovementioned criteria refer to the internal capacity of countries, but there are also measures assessing the external environment, which are perhaps more decisive: the geographical position of the country, its access to sea routes, water resources, access to international commercial communications or their control system, or to put it simply, the geopolitical and geoeconomic position, as well as the quality of relations with neighbors. It is clear that geopolitical and geoeconomic factors cannot be changed, they can only be improved or worsened.
We had to enter into details regarding all these, following the political debate in Armenia, which is mostly far from reality. Now the topic of changing the geopolitical orientations of Armenia has become the latest trend. Some dream of turning Armenia into Europe, since they are disappointed with Russia as an ally, which is unable to ensure our security, and therefore they rely on the USA or NATO.
People's desires and motivations for such thinking are quite natural, they try to find ways out of the situation. Reasons for disillusionment with a strategic ally are also understandable, nonetheless what is incomprehensible is pinning hopes on another strategic ally. Meanwhile, the problem here is not the good and bad of the ally, but the misunderstanding - it is impossible to find some ally which is ready to act based not only on its own interests, but also on its ally’s.
It is not the strategic ally but this type of thinking should be changed, which will help to more soberly assess the situation and understand the so-called international politics, the basis of which is interest, not ideology. It will help to understand another important fact that it is impossible to change the geographical position; and our main, natural partners are Russia, Turkey and Iran and, first of all, we need to build relations with them. There is no other option, no matter how powerful NATO and the United States are at the moment, in the next moment, they may focus on other issues, and our region will be out of their interest. And the neighbors, no matter what happens, will stay in their places - geography is destiny. So, whether we like it or not, we have to build our security system with them.
This will in no way limit our opportunities to go out to the four corners of the world and freely interact with any country based on the simple rule of common interests. The rest are dreams, asleep or awake.