It would be one thing if this were done by a government under which, say, a McDonald’s had at least opened in Yerevan—let alone across Armenia.

It would be a different matter if this were a government under which public service operators were entering the country, not leaving it—unlike the two (if not three) mobile operators that have already exited.

It is not surprising that the ambitions of a single man could lead to such destructive consequences. What is surprising is that there are still people who applaud all this and political forces that support these actions.

If this trajectory isn’t stopped by the 2026 elections, then Armenia will become indistinguishable from backward countries where there are no investments, and the few that do exist are leaving one by one—turning the country into an unattractive and regressive state.