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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
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