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Reports: Russia Stops Converting Armenian "Compatriots" Into Russian

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  • Reports: Russia Stops Converting Armenian "Compatriots" Into Russian

    REPORTS: RUSSIA STOPS CONVERTING ARMENIAN "COMPATRIOTS" INTO RUSSIANS
    by Giorgi Lomsadze

    EurasiaNet.org
    Dec 5 2012
    NY

    If Armenia ever decided to adapt "A West Side Story," it's conceivable
    that "I Like to Be in America" might well be changed into "I Like to
    Be in Russia" to describe the choices faced by thousands of Armenian
    migrants each year.

    But those choices are slightly less tempting now. A controversial
    Russian state program that grants jobs and citizenship to foreign
    nationals from former Soviet republics has stopped accepting
    applications from Armenians, Armenian news sources report.

    Grappling with the double whammy of a low birthrate and a population
    exodus, Yerevan repeatedly has urged Moscow to stop the program,
    called Compatriots, which Armenian officials say has become a floodgate
    for emigration.

    "We have a serious demographic problem in Armenia... and the organized
    outflow of the population is a blow to our national interests,"
    Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said of the program last
    month.

    According to official numbers, some 26,000 Armenians have applied
    for the program since its start in 2007; 2,500 have actually left
    for Russia.

    Moscow reported recently that, all told, some 30,000 "compatriots"
    have moved to Russia since the program's launch in 2006. The numbers
    are way short of the annual 300,000 settlers that Russian President
    Vladimir Putin expected, but the fact that more than eight percent
    of the inflow came from Armenia was enough to unsettle Yerevan.

    Before, Russian officials shrugged off Armenian concerns. "We are
    not dragging Armenians to Russia by force,"said Russian Ambassador
    to Armenia Vyacheslav Kovalenko. "The reasons for them leaving are
    elsewhere."

    As may well be the reasons for stopping the acceptance of Armenian
    applications for the program. No official reasons could be found in
    Russian-language sources.

    Given Moscow's past indifference to Armenian officials' complaints,
    sourly noted the opposition-minded daily Haykakan Zhamanak, the
    suspension of the program in Armenia might well prove to be only
    "temporary."

    http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66254

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