Epress.am News from Armenia
Up to Sept. 15 of this year, within the frames of Russia’s immigration program, 4,808 people have left Armenia for Russia, said Sardarapat Movement member Jirayr Sefilian, while speaking to journalists today, explaining that Russia approved this resettlement program by law in early July.
“Our concern is that through this Russian program, it becomes incomparably accessible to live and work there. And this is really alarming. Within this program, those who go to Russia are provided with a house, loans, citizenship; they’re even ready to take on the relocation costs. Those who go [however] are in a hostage situation: they’re not allowed to leave Russia until they pay back the funds to the state that have been spent on them. They take those people to [the Russian cities of] Chita and Khabarovsk,” said Sefilan, adding that already 5,000 people are involved in the program.
“There’s about 2 million people left in Armenia, imagine, if, by the way, European countries offer such programs, such as, for example, the Eastern Partnership program, what situation will they cause the country to be in, if Armenians are considered the fastest integrating, accommodating people,” said Sefilan.
He said that in such a situation, the Sardarapat Movement has decided to accelerate the timetable for their activities and calls on people to live “by a Sardarapat mood.”