Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

There is not population migration, but the phenomenon of depopulation in Armenia, head of the Armenian Sociological Association Gevorg Poghosyan said at a press conference, armenianreport.com website said June 17.

According to Poghosyan, the phenomenon of emigration is normal, and the question is to what extent it occurs from a particular country.

"What is happening in Armenia is properly characterized as depopulation, which represents not only migration, but also reduction of the population," Poghosyan said.

A survey conducted among 1,000 respondents in Yerevan on May 15-25 revealed that 46 percent of respondents are potential emigrants who have sought opportunities to leave Armenia.

"It is about half the population. Notably, the rate for men is higher (about 50 percent) than women (42 percent)," Poghosyan said. He also said the potential emmigrants make up 52 percent among young people.

Poghosyan highlighted the main reasons for emigration, saying 32 percent of the people linked it to unemployment, 30 percent to the lack of prospects for the future, 20 percent to injustice, and 17 percent to poor living conditions.

Poghosyan added that there is a defined relationship between happiness and migration.

"70 percent of respondents in Yerevan considered themselves happy, and surprisingly, about 41 percent of those who consider themselves happy people want to leave Armenia," he said. "It is revealed that neither patriotism nor happiness is an obstacle to leave the country."

Earlier, on June 9, some 700 Armenian citizens from around the country boarded buses and left for Russia, hetq.am reported.

They were heading to Moscow, Donetsk, Rostov, Krasnodar and locations further afield in Russia.

The reasons forcing people to leave the country included recent presidential elections, unemployment, low wages, and a heavy debt burden.

Many admitted that there was little chance of them returning to Armenia any time soon, if at all. In fact, the majority argued that the Armenian government was doing everything to force them out. They said that the money gambled away by certain government officials in a day at some casino could, if properly spent, resolve the problems of any given village in Armenia, hetq.am said.

The total amount of foreign passenger turnover through the border checkpoints of Armenia in January-March 2013 totalled over 826,000, according to data published by the National Statistics Service, 1in.am reported.

Over the first three months of 2013, the number of people arriving in the country totalled 394,825, including 223,710 citizens of Armenia, whereas the number of departures was 431,923, including 259,210 Armenian nationals.

Thus, the overall balance of arrivals and departures is negative 37,098, including 35,500 Armenian citizens, compared to 25,394 in January-March 2012.

According to data obtained through a pilot program of an electronic information management system over Armenia's borders, external passenger traffic through the country's border checkpoints in January-March of this year included 657,045 people, compared to 524,914 in the same period of 2012.

Armenia can be soon left without population soon. This opinion is voiced by a number of influential international organizations. According to UN data, 2.8 million people lived in Armenia permanently in 2011, however, the number of people living in the country was more than 4 million in the 1990s.

Given Armenia's small population of less than 3.5 million, if the dangerous demographic situation in the country persists, it may soon have almost no labor force left.

The exodus trend emerged in 2008, and about 200,000 people have left the country since then. About 60 percent of the total of 8 million Armenians live outside Armenia in 60 countries, with one million in the U.S. and Russia each. There are also large Armenian communities in Georgia, France, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina, and Canada.

The Armenian public blames the government for the country's challenges.

The Armenian government appears to lack an intention to change the challenging situation for the sake of its people by leaving the country sidelined from regional projects because of the invasion policy against Azerbaijan, occupying the country's Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other regions, and fueling tension with neighboring countries.