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ARMENIA BUILDS A NEW ALEPPO
EurasiaNet.org, NY
June 11 2013
June 11, 2013 - 8:16am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
To make sure exiles from Syria feel at home in Armenia, the government
has commissioned the construction of an entire settlement called
New Aleppo.
Located 20 kilometers shy of the capital, Yerevan, the residential
project will accommodate some of the thousands of Syrians of Armenian
descent, who escaped the war in Syria.
New Aleppo, named in honor of the wartorn northern Syrian city that
houses most of Syria's ethnic Armenian population, will sit on 4.8
hectares (some 11 acres) of land in the industrial town of Ashtarak.
Armenia's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs reports that some 600 families
have expressed willingness to move into the development's apartments.
They will be expected to pay half the cost of the flats; the
authorities and charity groups are expected to pick up the rest of
the tab.
With some 7,000 Syrian-Armenians now seeking residency in Armenia,
the government says that more Syrian quarters will be popping up
across the country as well.
The Syrian Diaspora, estimated to be over 100,000-strong, descends
from ethnic Armenians who fled World-War-I-era massacres in Ottoman
Turkey. Now, a century later, the bloody rebellion in Syria has driven
the community back to what is considered their ancestral homeland.
Some commentators say that preserving the Armenian community in Syria
should be the main priority for Yerevan. Fears exist that the Diaspora
exodus could reduce Armenia's ability to exert any influence in the
Middle East, long seen as an important Diaspora outpost.
But as long as Aleppo is not safe, the Armenian government is likely to
continue building New Aleppos. The Armenian Diasporas are considered
part of a larger Armenian family, even if they have been continents
and centuries away from the Armenian state.
Yerevan has been fast-tracking visas and residency permits,
facilitating employment and social adaptation for the arrivals from
Syria, often described as returnees. The projects pose a financial
burden for the cash-strapped country, but the authorities hope that
the influx of ethnic Armenians will help boost Armenia's shrinking
population and contribute fresh entrepreneurial ideas to its economy.
After all, in Armenia, as elsewhere in the South Caucasus, blood ties
are everything.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67100
EurasiaNet.org, NY
June 11 2013
June 11, 2013 - 8:16am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
To make sure exiles from Syria feel at home in Armenia, the government
has commissioned the construction of an entire settlement called
New Aleppo.
Located 20 kilometers shy of the capital, Yerevan, the residential
project will accommodate some of the thousands of Syrians of Armenian
descent, who escaped the war in Syria.
New Aleppo, named in honor of the wartorn northern Syrian city that
houses most of Syria's ethnic Armenian population, will sit on 4.8
hectares (some 11 acres) of land in the industrial town of Ashtarak.
Armenia's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs reports that some 600 families
have expressed willingness to move into the development's apartments.
They will be expected to pay half the cost of the flats; the
authorities and charity groups are expected to pick up the rest of
the tab.
With some 7,000 Syrian-Armenians now seeking residency in Armenia,
the government says that more Syrian quarters will be popping up
across the country as well.
The Syrian Diaspora, estimated to be over 100,000-strong, descends
from ethnic Armenians who fled World-War-I-era massacres in Ottoman
Turkey. Now, a century later, the bloody rebellion in Syria has driven
the community back to what is considered their ancestral homeland.
Some commentators say that preserving the Armenian community in Syria
should be the main priority for Yerevan. Fears exist that the Diaspora
exodus could reduce Armenia's ability to exert any influence in the
Middle East, long seen as an important Diaspora outpost.
But as long as Aleppo is not safe, the Armenian government is likely to
continue building New Aleppos. The Armenian Diasporas are considered
part of a larger Armenian family, even if they have been continents
and centuries away from the Armenian state.
Yerevan has been fast-tracking visas and residency permits,
facilitating employment and social adaptation for the arrivals from
Syria, often described as returnees. The projects pose a financial
burden for the cash-strapped country, but the authorities hope that
the influx of ethnic Armenians will help boost Armenia's shrinking
population and contribute fresh entrepreneurial ideas to its economy.
After all, in Armenia, as elsewhere in the South Caucasus, blood ties
are everything.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67100