From Absolute Victory to Absolute Deficit

On these summer days, the citizens of Armenia were challenged by the lack of passports. A citizen applies for a new passport and is told there are no new passports. The situation is so outstanding that the police had to admit the deficit. Later, the police stated that the issue had been solved but people reported the same situation in passport units of the police.

What is the cause?

It is nonsense to tell an applicant there are no passports and ask to come later. A passport is an ID document and it is a state symbol, it is not butter, sugar or oil, car fuel or something like this to run out of stock.

This is an extraordinary case for a state when there are no passports and someone needs to explain why.

On these days, Vladimir Pozner of Russia’s ORTV, posted an interesting story on his Facebook page.

Pozner who lives in Russia but is a citizen of the United States tells that once he lost his passport in the U.S. and once arrived there, he was given a new passport in half a day.

When Pozner went to the passport unit employee to thank for quick action, the employee told him: “Sir, you pay taxes for that.”

What for do the Armenian citizens pay taxes - to meet bored faces, to be shouted at in passport units instead of hearing apologies for being unable to provide passports?

But the issue is not only apology. The issue is the responsibility which is to be borne by government agencies which create trouble for citizens. Who is guilty for the lack of passports? Which official? Which structure? Why is no detailed explanation provided to the citizens who pay taxes, including for having passports in time?

Is the big passport manipulation which was rumored to during the parliamentary elections, when hundreds of thousands of voters were allegedly invented for the Republican Party to win majority in the “best” elections connected somehow to this story?

Or is the lack of passports a matter of lack of money, in other words, the money allotted for passports has been spent so the new passports are late.