If we believe the statistics publicly provide by Armenia’s customs agencies, Armenia is doing a brisk trade…with itself.

For example, Armenia allegedly exported US $6.2 million US in products to Armenia. And, according to the stats, that amount was an increase from the previous year.

At the same time, Armenia imported $1.5 million from Armenia.

The main export was alcoholic beverages, but the range of exports was quite diverse, including passenger automobiles.

Even if we accept for a moment that such Armenia to Armenia trade includes Artsakh, the question arises why the Republic of Artsakh (NKR) can’t be specified in the stats as a trading partner.

The breakaway ‘republic’ of Abkhazia has its own code, and that unrecognized country traded with Armenia in 2012, albeit in a very tiny amount. But the quantity isn’t as important as the fact that Abkhazia is specified as such in the official Armenians statistics while Artsakh isn’t.

In 2013, Armenia’s trade with Abkhazia was halted, probably due to the rise of Bidzina Ivanishvili as prime minister of Georgia and a certain warming of Armenia-Georgian relations.

But the peculiarities of Armenia’s trade picture do not end here.

It turns out that there is a code for an “unknown country” when it comes to Armenia’s trade partners.

Armenia sold that mystery nation US$2.8 million in goods. And get this - most of what we allegedly sold it was natural gas.

It would appear that this is another way to conceal our trade with Artsakh. But what isn’t clear is who we are concealing this from.

Everyone knows that Artsakh has no other foreign trade route other than Armenia. If the issue is to conceal the amount of trade, allocating a code to Artsakh shouldn’t create much of a problem.

This is especially the case since there are a number of faraway places, not recognized as independent states, which Armenia trades with and which have been given their own codes. I’m referring to the Christmas Island (Great Britain), Pitcairn Islands (Australia), and others.

In 2013, Armenia is said to have imported ten pieces of clothing worth $400.

Even more incredible is the stat that Armenia imported 80 kilos of aluminum sheet metal from Pitcairn in 2012.