Life in Armenia

[Chubs]

Re: Life in Armenia

Quick question. I heard that the average salary in Armenia is 135-138,000 drams a month. Does that seem correct?

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Quick question. I heard that the average salary in Armenia is 135-138,000 drams a month. Does that seem correct?

someone currently in Armenia would be better suited to answer, but it seems about right to me

[Mher]

Re: Armenia

Maxx HyeJeans, Made in Armenia clothes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gvehcCzc0s#

a Syrian-Armenian started a company of promoting made in Armenia clothes, employing 25 people

A little something for the typical:
(1) It's hopeless in Armenia, start a business in Armenia and the mafia will come asking for its cut/burn down your business/ [Insert bullsh*t statement]
(2) Conditions are horrid in Armenia for Syrian Armenians, they are ill treated, they can't wait to leave
(3) Armenia has no self-pride, and the market is sure to be dominated by Turkish made goods

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

To the Moderators of the Forum:

Would it be possible to combine this and the Current Condition of Armenia thread since they discuss the same topic

http://forum.hyeclub.com/showthread.php/19175-Current-Condition-of-Armenia/page45

[Haykakan]

Re: Life in Armenia

Mher you are operating under the misconception that mods visit this forum, read what we post, and care about making this a good place for people to communicate...you really gotta work on getting rid of your false assumptions.

[Federate]

Re: Life in Armenia

To the Moderators of the Forum:

Would it be possible to combine this and the Current Condition of Armenia thread since they discuss the same topic
http://forum.hyeclub.com/showthread....Armenia/page45

It would not be a good idea due to timeline issues given the large size of both threads. But besides that, I guess the difference between the threads is "Life in Armenia" is about what it's like to live there VS "Current Condition of Armenia" discussing more political & economic concerns regarding Armenia.

[Haykakan]

Re: Life in Armenia

Yay Fed to the rescue and i agree that they are different in nature. I was starting to think mods had gone extinct.

[Chubs]

Re: Life in Armenia

There is this guy on Youtube. He has dozens of videos where he just complains about life in Armenia. I do not think he is Armenian though. He complains about how is fridge is soviet and how its loud. He complains that the stove is old. He complains about how not everyone drives nice cars. He says "No one should come here" He had a point though. It seems as if only the Mafia and Diasporan Armenians live in luxury. I am not someone who is really into that stuff. I know alot of people who can live with these things. I know I can. It seems as if the lack of jobs and the poor value of the currency keep the everday Armenians from living well. Idk, I am planning on going this summer, just to see what life is like. Hopefully, the government will do something about these problems

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Life in Armenia

There is this guy on Youtube. He has dozens of videos where he just complains about life in Armenia. I do not think he is Armenian though. He complains about how is fridge is soviet and how its loud. He complains that the stove is old. He complains about how not everyone drives nice cars. He says "No one should come here" He had a point though. It seems as if only the Mafia and Diasporan Armenians live in luxury. I am not someone who is really into that stuff. I know alot of people who can live with these things. I know I can. It seems as if the lack of jobs and the poor value of the currency keep the everday Armenians from living well. Idk, I am planning on going this summer, just to see what life is like. Hopefully, the government will do something about these problems

If everyone was in it together, such as during the early days of the ROA and the height of the fighting against Azerbaijan, less than perfect living conditions would be easy to live with. Then there seemed to be a sense of communal solidarity. However, now there are those who think that they, through their criminal activities or government positions, have a right to live in the lap of corrupt luxury. Their parasitic activities make for the lack of jobs and industry, and the Dram is actually overvalued because it is supported by the remittances sent by Armenians working abroad. But silly complaints about noisy fridges and old stoves are probably encouraged by the mafia to divert the public from ever targeting what the real problems are. The youtube videos of the oligarch weddings or church consecrations or private zoo activities show the real problems are not noisy fridges!

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

There is this guy on Youtube. He has dozens of videos where he just complains about life in Armenia. I do not think he is Armenian though. He complains about how is fridge is soviet and how its loud. He complains that the stove is old. He complains about how not everyone drives nice cars. He says "No one should come here" He had a point though. It seems as if only the Mafia and Diasporan Armenians live in luxury. I am not someone who is really into that stuff. I know alot of people who can live with these things. I know I can. It seems as if the lack of jobs and the poor value of the currency keep the everday Armenians from living well. Idk, I am planning on going this summer, just to see what life is like. Hopefully, the government will do something about these problems

The system in Armenia is certainly flawed. Though having a car is an unaffordable luxury for a sizable portion of the population, you sometimes see supercars in the city center. I don't care if these conditions exist in other places, or what justification someone else has; its a horrible site to see when most of the people get by on less than 10K a year. The Armenian system definitely needs a change, change of those in power. There is really one party that has some legitimacy, the Heritage Party, and they have zero competence. Now you will see some people here go on about "CIA infiltrated/western/traitor" about he Heritage party, but I ask you this: Don't you think the all mighty CIA would have picked someone more competent that that sideshow to back up? There really needs to rise a new political force of some competence. The problem is, and this is the central problem to most of Armenia's issues: there is a serious lack of will amongst the people to bring about a change. Poll after poll shows people in Armenia are amongst the least hopeful and optimistic in the world. People's negativity about their situations is extremely disproportional to how bad life actually is. It's unbelievable that people in bloody dictatorships and war zones have better outlooks than Armenians. Overall life is not that terrible. Honestly with a decent education, especially form the West, you can have a very solid job in Armenia, and a pretty comfortable life. I'm not saying this based on what I read on Repat Armenia, or Asbarez, etc. I'm saying it based on my friends who've moved there and have landed pretty solid jobs. As far as currency, it doesn't matter THAT much. In Iran the currency was worth half of the Dram, but people were pretty well off until recently. The Azerbaijani Manat is worth 1.27 American Dollars, and yet the people's lives are complete sh!t. A more important indicator would be inflation and Armenia does fine when it comes to that. It's value versus the dollar hasn't changed in a couple of years. It's actually improved v. the dollar compared to 10 years ago, when each dollar was ~500 Dram.

If everyone was in it together, such as during the early days of the ROA and the height of the fighting against Azerbaijan, less than perfect living conditions would be easy to live with. Then there seemed to be a sense of communal solidarity. However, now there are those who think that they, through their criminal activities or government positions, have a right to live in the lap of corrupt luxury. Their parasitic activities make for the lack of jobs and industry, and the Dram is actually overvalued because it is supported by the remittances sent by Armenians working abroad. But silly complaints about noisy fridges and old stoves are probably encouraged by the mafia to divert the public from ever targeting what the real problems are. The youtube videos of the oligarch weddings or church consecrations or private zoo activities show the real problems are not noisy fridges!

What you say is partly true. People where more optimistic about their situation after independence when things were exponentially worse, but that's true everywhere. People come together in tough times, i.e Bush had the highest presidential approval rating in American history right after 9/11. A big part of the problem is the people's lack of trust. But that's not entirely driven by the realities of the situation. A lot of it is due to a incomprehensible negativity that is not justified by the realities of the country.