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Everybody in Armenia is aware that we have been the victims of a Coup. As I have informed the leadership of the country (President, Party Presidents and congress members), I have been approached by the current Dictator of Armenia, Azerbaijan Army, and his close friend and initiator of the Coup, BalamiRR, to discuss if we could reach an understanding or agreement. I have informed the above mentioned leadership of Armenia about the content of these discussions. A summary of the initial discussion was that, as dictators, they had no malevolent intentions towards Armenia, and they wished in exchange the co-operation, or at the very least, lack of opposition from the established Armenians; in addition, I was offered a position in the cabinet to be appointed by the dictator. Naturally, I was not in a hurry to accept this offer without discussing the subject with my compatriots.

Unfortunately, my messages to the country leadership, where I requested their opinions and suggestions, was mostly ignored; out of a group of 13, only three have responded (favourably). Not surprising, when put side by the lackluster defense against the aggression itself.
(See Note at the bottom)

With such a low participation in the decision making process, it obviously becomes clear that many of our compatriots in leadership positions are not really interested in the process. That left me free to make my own decision.

Upon full consideration I have decided to accept the offer of co-operation and cabinet post. I have reviewed both the law proposals and citizenship grants of Azerbaijan Army, and find them reasonable. MPP with Turkey is something I would myself wish to have, and of his 5 citizenship rights, he has given 3 to friends, and 2 neutrals.

Now, it is within the bounds of possibility that some people will accuse me of being a traitor, or even worse, a supporter of the coup. This would be a silly accusation for anyone having two working brain cells, but, unfortunately, eRepublik is full of attempts to blacken a player’s reputation, so I will short circuit this possibility before it is even made.

First of all, anybody who knows me knows I do not care about any position or medals (I have had enough of them), and in any case, a cabinet post is mostly symbolic, as power is concentrated in President and Congress, or in our case, Dictator.

Next, as you can see from this screenshot my total damage for this war was almost equal to the next 4 top damages. In addition, most of the damage you can see has been due to Combat Orders placed by our MU, the money for which was provided by me.
Normally, I am neither capable of making this amount of damage, nor able to place the amount of CO required for this sort of war; how this was made possible can be seen by this screenshot:


I have dissolved everything I had, except for Training Grounds, and the CC (as well as some gold sold), close to 100K, was placed in Combat orders. the rest of the gold received from dissolving was used to purchase bars (in addition, I had to convert some gold to CC to cover part of the insufficient government funds to finance our president’s attempt at a Coup, and use my existing gold to buy bars for that war as well)

I realize that this seems like I am blowing my own trumpet; this is not my intention, but I need to leave no doubt about the situation, since any accusation of treason would hurt me more than losing everything I had in the game. You are free to criticize my decision, but unless I see your name among the defenders, I will most likely ignore it.

Back to the subject of my co-operation with the dictatorship. I am fully aware that this creates an advantage to their side; giving legitimacy to the coup, by having one their biggest opponents on their side now and possibly marginalizing their opponents. Am I happy to support a group who forcibly invaded us? Definitely not, this is an extremely bitter pill to swallow, but I have to balance that against any possible gains (or at least prevent potential losses) for our country. As mentioned above, as long as they show no malevolent intentions towards my country (which they have repeatedly stated they don’t) our opposition could only cause provocation, which I consider to be of no benefit. Naturally, my co-operation is only personal, and does not imply any support from any other citizen.

I am going to quote something I was shown the other day: "To be defeated and not submit, is victory". True enough, we Armenians have a similar quote from the Vartanatz war: “Physically defeated, morally victorious”. It is an extremely satisfying sentiment. except that if used by somebody who didn’t lift a finger during the defense of the country, it simply becomes empty talk.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I should clarify that many fought without taking advantage of Combat Orders. I will not name any names fearing I will forget many or not having noticed them, but chief among those were from Poland who honestly fought more than their Armenian compatriots.
Also of special note were my colleagues from Turkey who braved the heavy criticism from their country, to stand side by side with their friend, both fighting and constant shouts in-game. My thanks and gratitude to all of you.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your game.