Armenia's hostile policy aggravates economic crisis
By Sara Rajabova
Armenia's ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani territory sidelines the country from the ongoing developments in the region, especially from major economic projects.
Thus, currently Armenia with a population of about 3.5 million people faces dire economic challenges, a high rate of inflation and demographic problems such as rapidly increasing migration.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told a local news agency while commenting on the issue that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has acknowledged that socio-economic situation in the country is aggravating. "This fact is a major reason why Armenian citizens are migrating to other countries," he said.
Inflation indicators recorded in the first half of this year were higher than the growth rate of the average wages in Armenia. According to Armenian media, inflation made up 4.1 percent over the six months, while the average monthly salary for the same period increased only by 2.1 percent. In other words, prices rose faster than the wages, which means that the standard of living in the country has gone down, and people have become poorer.
Abdullayev noted that Armenia, which continues its aggressive policy against neighboring states and territorial claims, is isolating itself and this has a negative impact on the Armenian population.
In the last three years 5 percent or about 160,000 Armenian citizens left their home country.
The exodus trend emerged in 2008, and about 200,000 people have left the country since then in search of a new start in their lives. Given Armenia's small population, if the dangerous demographic situation in the South Caucasus republic persists, it may soon have almost no labor force left.
"Azerbaijan has repeatedly urged the Armenian leadership to abandon their greedy goals and ambitions and to create conditions for the people. Occupying the territories of the neighboring countries, Armenia demonstrates that its main goal is not economic prosperity and regional cooperation, but militarism," Abdullayev said.
He stressed that Armenia is undermining the future of its people with such a policy.
"The president of this country has been giving promises of well-being to his people for years. The result is obvious: Armenia, according to Sargsyan, is experiencing socio-economic stagnation."
Abdullayev said that hundreds of thousands of people leave Armenia every year and this leads to a demographic crisis.
"The conflict has not been resolved and Armenia continues self-isolation that leads to the demographic crisis. It also has an impact on the country's economy and it will be accompanied by social cataclysms. Therefore, the leadership of the country should think well about the future, refrain from aggressive policy and territorial claims and start to cooperate with the neighboring countries," he said.
Abdullayev said Azerbaijan has repeatedly offered Armenia to use its economic potential if it refrains from militaristic policy and withdraws its troops from the occupied territories.
"The Armenian leadership should understand that borders can't be redrawn forcefully in the 21st century. Azerbaijan won't allow this as international law and international public opinion support us," he added.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.