Having gained political independence in 1991 Republic of Armenia acquired a right to join the world economic system and thus became a part of the world economy. In the process of making and putting into life the strategic Program of Armenia's social-economic development it is necessary to take into account all changes and development vectors of the world market as one  whole whose parts are interdependent and mutually connected.  

 

Armenia is in close friendly relations with Russia and strives to make these relations better and deeper (whatever the reasons for this cooperation might be - economic, state security or others); to join the system of the world market Armenia has to make a choice from three main alternatives:

1. To join the European Unit and Western market. For this alternative Armenia has neither competitive advantage or material basis, nor goods that could meet the demands of this market and comply with its standards, or a real opportunity to occupy a steady niche in this market.

2. To tie the main perspective of Armenia's social-economic development with the market of the Customs Union, including Russia.

3. To keep on cooperating with Russia and the Customs Union and at the same time to look for some new possible vectors of economic development and cooperation by using her traditional historical ties and relations.  

By way of example of the latter alternative the relations of Armenia with Iran and China could be given. Such relations are complementary rather than contradicting the market relations with Russia and the Customs Union both in economic and geopolitical respect. The development of such cooperation will introduce into Armenia's economy a possibility of certain diversification, having in view the fact that Armenia has a log-lasting history of traditionally active trading relations with the above-mentioned countries. 

Development of Armenia's economic relations with Iran is made somewhat difficult for unfavorable and tense relations between Iran and the West which has got especially strained lately in connection with Iran introducing its nuclear program. Meanwhile the relations with China are rather friendly and favorable for cooperation.

For centuries-long period, in the times of the Great Silk Way (GSW),  Armenia had trading relations with  China and made a considerable contribution in the development and functioning of the GSW.

The GSW makes its start from the Chinese city of Sian from which it made two branches - one to the North, the other - to the South. The Chinese called their  country Chzhun Guo, which means "the centre and the universe". China is known to the world as a birthplace of silk, paper, gunpowder and tea. The GSW is one of the seven wonders of the world. The wall has been preserved in its original state. By the way, the principle of building the GSW was widely used by ancient Armenian builders. The   GSW started to be used as a trade way as early as the second century BC, in the reign of the Emperor U-di. A person in attendance, Djan Tsyan by name, suggested to the Emperor that they should export silk out of the country and change horses, fruit, wine and other goods  for silk.  In the hot Asian climate silk was a comfortable and beautiful commodity owing to which it was in great demand. Besides silk China exported porcelain, metal dishes, rice, tea, cosmetics etc. and from Asia and the Caucasus to China a number of goods were imported such as horses, military uniform, gold, silver, half-precious metals, leather, wool, cotton clothes, lions, tigers, hunting dogs, etc. The GSW was a powerful impulse for Armenian trade: the volume of commodity circulation increased, market got enlarged. The Armenian Tsar of all Tsars Artashes with his own means built a wide road leading to Armenia's capital - Artashat and called the road "Tsar's Road".  The caravans of Armenian merchants consisted of around 200 camels, as a rule merchant caravans  had  guides - armed people who accompanied the caravan and saw to its security. Among the guides there were clergymen, singers, cooks, doctors, craftsmen and other service staff. The process of goods exchange and sale  could last for several months.   Armenian merchants carried on negotiations with their clients at the table with ample food and refreshments which gave them certain competitive advantage in the process of selling and buying. To secure the process of non-stop trade the merchants returned to their country to take some more goods while some people from the service staff   stayed in the market places to receive extra profit; in this way a kind of "small business" was established.  The merchants married and had their own families, for whom they built new settlements with developed infrastructure: schools, churches, hospitals, etc. they established publishing offices to print books and papers. The book of the well-known Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsy "The History of Armenia" (the 5th c. AD) tells that Armenian merchants built a lot of churches and spread Christianity among the Chinese people.

Millennial history of Armenian-Chinese relations is reflected in different spheres of life of the two ancient peoples - economic, cultural, national, etc. thus, etymology of many words is connected with China. For example the Armenian word "chnashkharhik" contains a Chinese element, the root of the Armenian word  for porcelain "chenapaky" also contains a Chinese element, this word means "the glass brought from China". Two tsar dynasties in Armenia - the Mamikoyans and the Orbelyans - have Chinese origin. The first translation of the Bible into the Chinese language was made by an Armenian clergyman and teacher of the Chinese language Hovhannes Kazaryan, a citizen of the town of Kanton, the sponsors of the translation being Armenian merchants.  

Armenian-Chinese relations were praised in songs and were described in fiction. One of such pieces is the poem of a well-known Uzbek poet who lived in the Middle Ages - Alisher Navoyee. His poem "Fakhrad and Shirin" is devoted to the love story of Fahrad, a Chinese hero, the heir of the tsar Dynasty,  to an Armenian beauty Shirin. In the name of his love to the girl Fakhrad built a road through the mountain chain, constructed a magnificent palace decorated with sculptures and beautiful fountains     and gave it to his beloved Shirin as a present. The poem  glorifieslove and is translated into many languages of the world. 

The Chinese notion "syaokan" which means "a society of people of  average well-being" is in harmony with the Armenian saying "one who is not satisfied with little will never achieve much". 

Armenian-Chinese relations are the object of contemporary study of Armenian scholars. Thus, in 2011 the Institute of history by RA National Academy of Science arranged an international forum "Civilizational contribution of Armenia in the history of GSW". In the framework of the forum some issues related to civilization interrelation of Armenian and Chinese cultures  were examined. A lot of scientific treatises devoted to Armenian-Chinese relations have been published since the 4th  century AD.These works or documents that confirm their existence are kept in Matenadaran - Institute of ancient manuscripts after M. Mashtots. The famous germane organization "Max Plank" in cooperation with the teacher Garret Gellenthal from Oxford University in 2014 having carried out a scientific research introduced an on-line map on which they marked genetic ties of the  peoples from different countries of the world. According to the data presented in this research, the Armenian gene in the Chinese gene pool makes 3.9%, while the gene of the neighboring Japanese people makes 0.6%. According to the same source, the Armenian gene is present in the gene pool of 33 world nations, including the gene pool of  Lezgins (13.8%), Georgians (12.4%),  Iranese (7.5%), etc. 

 GSW played a great role in the process of formation of mode of life as well as religious, economic, cross-cultural relations between states and nations and thus contributed to the process of interpenetration  and fusion of cultures and values of different civilizations. It is noteworthy that all the countries through which GSW passed provide security for merchants and their goods irrespective of their religious or racial status. 

Subsequently, English "East Indies" company in its pursuit to win Chinese market brought to China and spread there a large lot of opium by which act England kept the country in the state of slave dependence for 200 years. Numerous barbarian invasions brought to the fact that in the 15th century the GSW stopped functioning. 

 

Politics of Oceanian States Against Eurasian Axis. However, later on, in the beginning of the 20-th century with the aim to obtain the sources of cheap raw materials and to seize new markets the oceanic states (US and England), which were at that time at the peak of their economic development, made an attempt to seize rich in natural resources Euro-Asian countries. 

For this purpose the above-mentioned countries in the end of XIX - the beginning of XX century undertook special research of economic development of Russia and the countries of Euro-Asian axis.

The Russian economist Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) in his book "Development of Capitalism in Russia" and the English economist Zelford Mc Kinder in the book "Geographic Basis of History" presented their assessment of economic potential of these regions. In the above-mentioned book wrote that the then Russia holds a leading position in Europe by the  level of capital centralization and production concentration while Germany with her technological potential can pass ahead of England and together with Russia leave   England behind in the European competition for the world market. Z. Mc Kinder in his work assumes that 30-35 %  of the world human and natural resources are located on European axis which spreads from Europe to China; to his mind,  the central role among the countries located on this axis belongs to Russia. This author considers that the country which is able to rule over Russia   will possess the pivot of the whole Europe, while the owner of European pivot will rule over the world.  

The perspective outlined by Z. Mc Kinder implied in itself a deathly challenge for the USA and England. To avoid the realization of this prediction the oceanic countries adopted the main strategic program of the century. England that at that time was holding 25% of the world market in her hands had a great experience in settling contradictions by economic methods and by way of evolution.Both US and England began sponsoring and spending huge sums of money on distribution and spreading in Russia Marxist revolutionary ideas created in their own countries.

They believed that this course of actions would generate chaos in Russia and thus make their major rival - Russia weaker.  According to Marxist theory, the proletariat will shake off the slave chains and establish its dictatorship in the whole world. Vladimir Ulyanov, the main generator and developer of these ideas, came to the conclusion that revolution can be realized in one single country, this country being Russia. This strategy of theirs in fact meant  liquidation of the Russian Empire.

Thus, in 1917 England and the USB with financial support of German banks realized in Russia a project whose aim was  by way of revolution to inflict three powerful blows to Russia - political, religious and social-economic. The political blow meant liquidation of tsarism as a system of state management in Russia, and establishment in the country dictatorship of the proletariat. The religious blow was directed against Russian Orthodox Church (ROC); religion was replaced by atheism, by which act the Russians  as a people was torn off its spiritual and historic roots. The  social-economic blow was aimed at creation of chaos  in the economic system of Russia by liquidation of private ownership to means of production and land and by land nationalization. In this way originally human and progressive ideas of socialism and communism were actually misinterpreted and distorted in the course of Russian 1917 revolution. The dictatorship of the proletariat established in the revolution generated in the country terror, starvation and civil war. In Russian society the seeds of class hatred were sewn and a new principle was established: "those who are not with us  are against us." Before the World War II millions of people died of starvation and in exile; a greater part of intelligentsia emigrated to the USB and Europe to contribute to the development of economy in those countries (the USB owe their powerful development of submarine fleet, aviation and economy to such outstanding Russian scientists and scholars as I. Sikorsky, Leontyev, Kantarovitch and many others).  

In 1928 the USB saw by far the deepest in the capitalist world crisis, the so-called Great Depression. To overcome the Depression the English-American financial capital passed to the next stage on the way to winning Euro-Asian market. The main target at this stage was to initiate a military collision between the two countries - Russia and Germany which would lead to weakening of their economies and their subsequent dependence on the oceanic states. 

In 1933 an Austrian  failure-painter and subsequently a political schizophrenic Adolf Schiklegruber was admitted to the citizenship of Germany and in some time became a leader of  Nazism under the nickname of Adolf Hitler. The goal of Nazism was to achieve world supremacy, but its first-priority task was to win Russia and to hold possession of her huge natural resources. England and the USB contributed to the program of restructuring German economy along military lines by rendering financial assistance and scientific-technological support. 

Similar support and assistance was rendered by the USB and England to the USSR during the World War II for restructuring the economy of this country along  military lines. In Russia and in Germany the policy of ideological hostility was consistently carried out on the part of oceanic states in the result of which in 1941-1945 the most powerful European states   turned out to be in the state of war with each other. More than 1.5 billion people of the world were involved in this war.     

The United States which had enormous debts after 1928-1933 crisis and England which gained super-profits in the process of war filled their state treasury at the expense of European and other countries of the world. The USSR and Germany which had been at war with each other got destroyed economies and dozens of millions human sacrifices. 

Political assessment of these events is a prerogative of politologists. As far as economic analysis of the results of military collision between fascist Germany and communist USSR  is concerned, we must admit that World War II was to the interests of the world financial empire for whom hundreds of millions of people's lives were of no value.

Thus, the most humane ideas of civilization - the ideas of socialism and communism - were actually distorted in the USSR. As a result of the proletariat's dictatorship establishment all market relations and market mechanisms were completely abolished. Total liquidation of private ownership brought to disappearance of real conditions for the country's economy development. The process of imposing distorted ideology had a self-destroying force: as shown by further historical events, the USSR being a  nuclear power after 70- year-existence got collapsed without a single shot.

In the same historical period China which was one of the most powerful countries of the socialist countries properly evaluated the role of private ownership and market and having realized the idea of "socialist market", used its economic potential and national values accumulated in the past years and by developing small, medium and large entrepreneurship restructured its economy. Having preserved its economic potential created during the time of socialism and having introduced innovational science-oriented technologies and new methods of management, China in a very short time confidently entered world market system and became one of its leading members. Contemporary China takes the first place in the world in manufactured goods output volume and in the rate of consumption per capita.

The China od today is trying to reanimate its great historical capital, the worldwide famous GSW, which was the most global cross-cultural phenomenon of  its time and which has preserved its economic attractiveness up to now. 

Contemporary China in cooperation with Russia, India and the countries of Asia by using worldwide known GSW regenerates Euro-Asian axis which may become a powerful economic barrier to the intervention of  the oceanic countries' financial empire. 

Thus, Euro-Asian axis whose main leading countries are China and Russia in the third millennium can become a new epicenter of economic development strategy.

In the end of the 20-the century, after the collapse of the USSR, China was the first country to evaluate in due time the first-priority role of private ownership in social-economic development of the country. It remained devoted to socialist principles of country management and without perceptible loss and following the principles of Chinese ancient wisdom restructured the country's economy along the market lines. Thus it is not only the GSW but also China itself with its modern state policy that is one of the world wonders.

The Russia of today also carries out an active policy of strengthening national statehood and gets successfully integrated into the world market system. In modern competition for markets Russia and China established Euro-Asian Unit by taking advantage of their natural, technological, communication and demographic potential, Armenia being one the Euro-Asian Unit's members. 

We can but admit that Chinese economic and political development national program is designed in harmony with Euro-Asian axis and has become its organic part. Realization of the program in the nearest future will enable these two countries and the countries that joined them to gain in the market competition a complete economic and political independence and real warrants for stable social-economic development.

Regeneration of GSW will open new serious perspectives for Armenia, the perspectives for development of all branches of economy. Armenian-Chinese trade- and other types of relations nowadays may be developed as mutually  beneficial with many-century positive experience taken into account. By integrating into Chinese-Russian Euro-Asian Unit Armenia will get an opportunity to use advanced experience of these countries and to expand her trading relations which may become one of the main ways out of  today's social-economic crisis.