Armenians leave homeland for better future

By AzerNews

A growing number of Armenians are leaving their homelands without a wish to return.

Some 71.000 people who left the country during the last two years have not yet returned to their homeland.

The main destination for the Armenian migrants is Russia, which has recently simplified the process of getting Russian citizenship by Russian-speaking compatriots.

More than half million of the Armenians are living in Russia, the Russian Federal Migration Service reported.

Some 587,069 Armenian citizens were registered in Russia in 2013, 145,122 of whom were granted a temporary residence permit and 16,550 were issued a Russian citizenship.

The post-Soviet country continues to face an increase in the number of families leaving the country with their school-age children.

More than 15.300 schoolchildren have left the country for the last three years, the statistics show.

The Armenian farmers are also in desperate search of ways to leave the country.

The farmers sell their only source of income -- agricultural lands, and emigrate abroad.

"More than 29,000 agricultural lands were sold over the last five years," the data on sold agricultural lands for the last years show.

Mainly, poverty and unemployment are the main reasons behind the migration of Armenian citizens. About 30,000 to 35,000 people left their homes each year from 2008 to 2013. The government is still incapable to resolve the country's top social problems. The economic development can lead to social prosperity, but Armenia's economy has no ground for development.