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EXODUS REALITIES: RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR ASKS "WHY ARE PEOPLE LEAVING ARMENIA?"
Armen Arakelyan
hetq
19:16, October 9, 2012
In June of last year, Armenian President Sargsyan instructed his
government agencies dealing with migration issues to manufacture
data that would show that more people were entering the country
than leaving.
This manipulation of the numbers was doomed from the start. Average
citizens of Armenia daily see long lines of people waiting outside
foreign embassies in Yerevan to file their papers to leave.
President Sargsyan wanted to create the impression that the "rumours"
of thousands leaving Armenia were just a figment of popular myth and
a collective nightmarish dream.
At a press conference yesterday in Yerevan, Vaycheslav Kovalenko,
Russia's Ambassador to Armenia, presented irrefutable evidence that
the migration issue in Armenia is indeed a real nightmare.
Kovalenko stated that from 2007 till the present, 5,000 Armenian
citizens and their families have relocated to Russia via the
"Compatriots" program launched by Russia's Federal Migration Service.
Ambassador Kovalenko added that almost a similar number had left
Armenia during the same period under the U.S. Green Card lottery
system. He wanted to show that the Russian program was not worse than
what the Americans were doing.
Now let's extrapolate the numbers. If we accept that an average
Armenian family consists of three people, it then turns out that in the
past five years 10,000 families have left Armenia under the auspices
of these two programs alone - some 30,000 individuals in total.
Programs designed to maintain the demographic balance of those
countries aren't only conducted in Armenia. But their consequences for
Armenia specifically are tragic and painful. The problem isn't merely
the 10,000 families that have left, but those 20,000 citizens who
wrote petitions to avail themselves of that Russian program. That is
to say, the thousands of individuals who want to take their families
and leave Armenia for good and the countless numbers who annually
apply to the Green Card lottery in the hope of moving to America.
Last week RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan declared in parliament
that the government was concerned with the actions of the Compatriots
program and that consultations had taken place with various Russian
officials.
"Our position is clear to the Russian government. The "Compatriots"
program will cease to operate in Armenia. The operation of such
programs in Armenia is impermissible. Our Russian partners accept
our arguments. We will reach a general conclusion regarding the
operation of regular migration activities, but we regard the organizing
emigration from Armenia as unacceptable," PM Sargsyan stated.
This signifies that the Armenian government regards the best, or at
least one way, to resolve the emigration problem as the application
of administrative levers, which in our case is nothing more waging
a ferocious war against windmills.
First, if the best way to halt the contagion of whole families
leaving the country, for example, is to force Russia to close the
"Compatriots" program in Armenia, then why did the Prime Minister
only target that program?
Following the same logic, he should have gone after the Green Card
lottery and demanded that the U.S. halt it as well. In general, Armenia
should be targeting the all the foreign embassies and consulates in
the country and demanding that they no longer issues visas to those
who apply.
The Armenian government would also have to be close all its borders
since people wishing to leave employing every legal and illegal means
to do so.
But just like the Prime Minister once jokingly confessed, the
government can't afford to do so because what it fears even more is
growing numbers of discontented and alienated people remaining in
the country.
It would be like a pressure cooker waiting to explode. Thus, the
Armenian authorities regard emigration as a convenient release valve.
The government prefers to resolve the socio-economic mess it has
created by sending people abroad for seasonal work and to keep the
country afloat by the money remittances these people send back.
Second, it's not clear how the government would be able to ban such
programs in Armenia. The Russian ambassador in his last interview,
for example, where he touched on the "Compatriots" program, gave no
hint that an agreement had been reached on closing it or that Russia
was even aware of Armenian concerns.
This appears quite typical. If the Armenian government found it
necessary to raise the issue in all sessions of an intergovernmental
committee and if the program's office at the Russian Embassy hadn't
closed, it would mean that either PM Sargsyan wanted to confuse us
all or that the Russians don't give a damn about Armenia's concerns
and arguments.
It means that Armenia is still regarded by nations like Russia and
the U.S, as in the past, as a cheap supplier of bodies to resolve
their own demographic problems. This is all the more the case since
the authorities of Armenia themselves have turned the nation into an
object, a commodity.
Thus, it is not at all surprising that the Russian ambassador could
not only skirt the concerns voiced by PM Sargsyan, but that he could
clearly show, in an indirect manner, that Sargsyan doesn't speak the
truth and make it understood that the program will not be shut.
Essentially, PM Sargsyan wants to transfer the burden of responsibility
for the existing deplorable migration situation off the shoulders
of his government to that of a foreign country. This is quite
understandable. It's much easier to argue that you can't resolve the
problem due to conspiracies being directed against you rather than
confessing your own shortcomings. In this case, the government is
following the easier way out of assuming its share of responsibility.
But it seems that the Armenian government has forgotten the flowing
words uttered by the president himself back in 2011.
"The only factor that can utterly rule out the negative balance
between those entering and leaving Armenia would be to create such
conditions in the country to compensate for those conditions that
make them leave."
So far during his tenure, President Sargsyan has only convened one
advisory council or debate on migration and emigration issues. And
even that was to essentially promote a juggling of the figures to
soften the psychological impact of the exodus.
And what has been done in the past year? No one really knows. The
authorities have been engaged in the more serious issue of ensuring
their "re-election". And this, as we all know, means it is vital
to have as large a list of citizens living outside the country as
possible.
"Is anyone forcing Armenians to move to Russia? Do you really believe
that if we close our agency people will stop going? Is the agency
the real problem?" Russian Ambassador Kovalenko asked the other day.
"Why are people leaving Armenia? They leave because they have objective
reasons that have nothing to do with the Russian Migration Service. If
we close the mission the emigration will not stop."
Despite the level of cynicism in Ambassador Kovalenko's statement,
it contains the simple truth.
The real question is whether the Armenian government is at all
interested in hearing it.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Armen Arakelyan
hetq
19:16, October 9, 2012
In June of last year, Armenian President Sargsyan instructed his
government agencies dealing with migration issues to manufacture
data that would show that more people were entering the country
than leaving.
This manipulation of the numbers was doomed from the start. Average
citizens of Armenia daily see long lines of people waiting outside
foreign embassies in Yerevan to file their papers to leave.
President Sargsyan wanted to create the impression that the "rumours"
of thousands leaving Armenia were just a figment of popular myth and
a collective nightmarish dream.
At a press conference yesterday in Yerevan, Vaycheslav Kovalenko,
Russia's Ambassador to Armenia, presented irrefutable evidence that
the migration issue in Armenia is indeed a real nightmare.
Kovalenko stated that from 2007 till the present, 5,000 Armenian
citizens and their families have relocated to Russia via the
"Compatriots" program launched by Russia's Federal Migration Service.
Ambassador Kovalenko added that almost a similar number had left
Armenia during the same period under the U.S. Green Card lottery
system. He wanted to show that the Russian program was not worse than
what the Americans were doing.
Now let's extrapolate the numbers. If we accept that an average
Armenian family consists of three people, it then turns out that in the
past five years 10,000 families have left Armenia under the auspices
of these two programs alone - some 30,000 individuals in total.
Programs designed to maintain the demographic balance of those
countries aren't only conducted in Armenia. But their consequences for
Armenia specifically are tragic and painful. The problem isn't merely
the 10,000 families that have left, but those 20,000 citizens who
wrote petitions to avail themselves of that Russian program. That is
to say, the thousands of individuals who want to take their families
and leave Armenia for good and the countless numbers who annually
apply to the Green Card lottery in the hope of moving to America.
Last week RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan declared in parliament
that the government was concerned with the actions of the Compatriots
program and that consultations had taken place with various Russian
officials.
"Our position is clear to the Russian government. The "Compatriots"
program will cease to operate in Armenia. The operation of such
programs in Armenia is impermissible. Our Russian partners accept
our arguments. We will reach a general conclusion regarding the
operation of regular migration activities, but we regard the organizing
emigration from Armenia as unacceptable," PM Sargsyan stated.
This signifies that the Armenian government regards the best, or at
least one way, to resolve the emigration problem as the application
of administrative levers, which in our case is nothing more waging
a ferocious war against windmills.
First, if the best way to halt the contagion of whole families
leaving the country, for example, is to force Russia to close the
"Compatriots" program in Armenia, then why did the Prime Minister
only target that program?
Following the same logic, he should have gone after the Green Card
lottery and demanded that the U.S. halt it as well. In general, Armenia
should be targeting the all the foreign embassies and consulates in
the country and demanding that they no longer issues visas to those
who apply.
The Armenian government would also have to be close all its borders
since people wishing to leave employing every legal and illegal means
to do so.
But just like the Prime Minister once jokingly confessed, the
government can't afford to do so because what it fears even more is
growing numbers of discontented and alienated people remaining in
the country.
It would be like a pressure cooker waiting to explode. Thus, the
Armenian authorities regard emigration as a convenient release valve.
The government prefers to resolve the socio-economic mess it has
created by sending people abroad for seasonal work and to keep the
country afloat by the money remittances these people send back.
Second, it's not clear how the government would be able to ban such
programs in Armenia. The Russian ambassador in his last interview,
for example, where he touched on the "Compatriots" program, gave no
hint that an agreement had been reached on closing it or that Russia
was even aware of Armenian concerns.
This appears quite typical. If the Armenian government found it
necessary to raise the issue in all sessions of an intergovernmental
committee and if the program's office at the Russian Embassy hadn't
closed, it would mean that either PM Sargsyan wanted to confuse us
all or that the Russians don't give a damn about Armenia's concerns
and arguments.
It means that Armenia is still regarded by nations like Russia and
the U.S, as in the past, as a cheap supplier of bodies to resolve
their own demographic problems. This is all the more the case since
the authorities of Armenia themselves have turned the nation into an
object, a commodity.
Thus, it is not at all surprising that the Russian ambassador could
not only skirt the concerns voiced by PM Sargsyan, but that he could
clearly show, in an indirect manner, that Sargsyan doesn't speak the
truth and make it understood that the program will not be shut.
Essentially, PM Sargsyan wants to transfer the burden of responsibility
for the existing deplorable migration situation off the shoulders
of his government to that of a foreign country. This is quite
understandable. It's much easier to argue that you can't resolve the
problem due to conspiracies being directed against you rather than
confessing your own shortcomings. In this case, the government is
following the easier way out of assuming its share of responsibility.
But it seems that the Armenian government has forgotten the flowing
words uttered by the president himself back in 2011.
"The only factor that can utterly rule out the negative balance
between those entering and leaving Armenia would be to create such
conditions in the country to compensate for those conditions that
make them leave."
So far during his tenure, President Sargsyan has only convened one
advisory council or debate on migration and emigration issues. And
even that was to essentially promote a juggling of the figures to
soften the psychological impact of the exodus.
And what has been done in the past year? No one really knows. The
authorities have been engaged in the more serious issue of ensuring
their "re-election". And this, as we all know, means it is vital
to have as large a list of citizens living outside the country as
possible.
"Is anyone forcing Armenians to move to Russia? Do you really believe
that if we close our agency people will stop going? Is the agency
the real problem?" Russian Ambassador Kovalenko asked the other day.
"Why are people leaving Armenia? They leave because they have objective
reasons that have nothing to do with the Russian Migration Service. If
we close the mission the emigration will not stop."
Despite the level of cynicism in Ambassador Kovalenko's statement,
it contains the simple truth.
The real question is whether the Armenian government is at all
interested in hearing it.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress