Yerevan keeps feeding its fellow citizens with empty promises

/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

Despite unfavorable forecasts issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Yerevan keeps feeding its fellow citizens with empty promises, which are just the opposite of reality.

Being frightened with the unstable situation in the country, Armenia’s authorities try to convince everyone – both citizens and the international community – that Armenia has been and remains one of the most ‘safe' countries. Thus, the newly appointed Armenian Economy Minister Artsvik Minasyan said, currently, the country is carrying out large-scale actions to attract foreign direct investment.

The IMF, a leading financial institution, worsened the forecast of growth of the Armenian economy from 2.2 percent to 1.9 percent in 2016. Moreover, the experts expect Armenian unemployment to increase up to 18.2 percent in 2016.

Armenia lost a million able-bodied citizens in a quarter century and this figure continues to grow.

Garik Hayrapetyan, the representative of the Armenian office of the UN Population Fund, said although a small positive migration balance was recorded in 2006-2007, after the 2008 crisis, the situation deteriorated again. “The migration balance became negative, accounting for about 30,000 people per year,” he stressed.

Moreover, 3,669 cases of divorce were registered in Armenia in 2015.

Vanik Babajanyan, head of Demography Department at the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, in turn, noted that migration and the formation of the so-called ‘remote families’ have become a major cause of divorces in Armenia.

"The situation is developing in two scenarios. Either families move to the migrants and this further improves migration performance, or they form new families, which leads to a large number of divorces,” Babajanyan believes.

Most of the Armenian population left their homeland looking for well-paid job or for job in general. For the first time in nearly 40 years, the population of Armenia fell below the level of 3 million according to the Armenian Statistics Agency. In 2015, the country’s population decreased by 12,000 people, while during the last five years it decreased by 35,000 people, and since gaining independence in 1991 by 634,700 people. Thus, based on the 2011 census, 2.9 million people live in the country as of January 1, 2016.

The phenomenon of emigration is systemic due to Armenia’s political, economic, social, moral and psychological state, some experts believe. Poverty, corruption, economic difficulties, social vulnerability, external debt and destruction are the main reasons that force people to leave their homes. In fact, labor migration is an ordinary practice for survival.

While the government has no action plan to improve the situation, high-level corruption and monopoly retain the economic development of the country. The regular protests staged in the capital and regions face brutal police treatment, leaving no hope for better life in the region’s poorest country.

Minasyan’s statements do not reflect a real situation that reigns over Armenia. Now every citizen in Armenian understands that this mendacious policy may lead to state power crisis when no one will take country’s government seriously.