Armenia Has Lost 1 Million of its Citizens to Emigration: WikiLeaks

For those Armenians who have long considered emigrating abroad to pursue a brighter economic future, the current political crisis appears to have finally moved some to action, writes former US Charges d’Affaires in Yerevan Joseph Pennington (pictured) in a May 2, 2008 cable recently released by WikiLeaks.

 

“Besides the twenty or so asylum seekers who approached the Embassy after the fatal Mar. 1 clashes and state of emergency, an increasing number of intending immigrants from Armenia’s middle class have also come to our attention… These successful, middle class citizens tell us that the crisis has played a consequential role in spurring them to finally emigrate, saying it has dashed any remaining hopes they had for a stable, post-independence Armenia. Many say the political instability from the crisis has added yet one more disturbing element to their long list of concerns that include economic uncertainties and a worsening environment in which to raise their kids. Some also say they see an ongoing moral decay in society, where rich, well-connected, law-breaking elites run roughshod over ordinary Armenians’ rights,” writes Pennington in the cable summary.

 

The US diplomat cites several examples of men with successful, well-paying jobs and their families who “stuck it out” through independence, but have now lost hope and are pondering emigration. The reasons these men gave were economic and political uncertainties, and in one instance, a belief that the moral decay of Armenian society had accelerated and a better future for their children abroad.

 

Pennington also notes that the US embassy has been contacted by prominent members of the opposition seeking asylum — most notably, Levon Ter-Petrossian’s nephew, Tigran Ter-Petrossian, who LTP’s confidants said was hiding out in the United Arab Emirates:

 

“LTP’s confidants have asked the Embassy to help with a tourist visa, and insist that Tigran has no intention of applying for political asylum once in the United States. (NOTE: We’ve explained to LTP’s representatives that since we cannot establish the bona fides of Tigran’s case, we cannot intervene to issue a visa, and that he would have to apply at our consulate general in Dubai like everyone else.) LTP’s son David went to Los Angeles before the election at the urging of his father, again presumably out of concern for his son’s life. To our knowledge he has yet to return.”

 

“Emigration from Armenia is nothing new. It has been estimated that since its independence from the USSR, Armenia has lost 1,000,000 of its citizens to emigration — almost one third of its 3.5 million pre-independence population. What appears to be a new development, however, is the hemorrhaging of successful middle-class citizens who decided to stick out post-independence growing pains only to see that their wait has been for naught. The loss of these individuals is significant: they would stay if they thought the country was headed in the right direction. But their decision to pull up their tent stakes now, after one of modern Armenia’s gravest political crises to date, suggests that a serious malaise has taken deep root in society. Disillusioned, the once-committed appear to have lost faith that their government cares about improving their welfare or moving the country forward,” Pennington notes in his concluding comments.