Life in Armenia

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Armenia plane tickets are cheaper – statistics
May 05, 2014 | 15:12

YEREVAN. – Over the course of twelve months, the interurban and international transport fares have reduced by 7.1 percent in Armenia, National Statistical Service official Gurgen Martirosyan said at a press conference on Monday.

As per Martirosyan, the aforesaid is primarily due to cheaper airplane tickets.

The plane ticket prices in Armenia dropped substantially as a result of the introduction of the “open skies” policy in the country in October 2013.

At the same time, however, the public transport fares in capital city Yerevan had increased on July 20 of last year, but this decision was implemented for solely five days. Yerevan Municipality suspended this decision as a result of a strong public protest.

http://news.am/eng/news/207662.html

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Migration rate in Armenia is comparable with global rate, expert

YEREVAN, April 29. / ARKA /. According to demographer Aram Vartikyan, who spoke today at a conference on migration in the globalized world in Yerevan, the migration rate in Armenia is a little over 3% which is comparable with the global rate. He, however, added that it does not mean that there is no reason for concern.

The bulk of Armenians leaving for other countries are labor migrants and the most popular destination is the Russian Federation. The reason is that they do not visa for visiting Russia and besides they are fluent in the Russian language.

According to a survey conducted in January - September in 2011 and 2012 by the Caucasus Resources Research Center (CRRC) in Armenia’s urban and rural areas, when asked what country they would prefer to leave for to work 80 % named Russia and only 9% named European countries.

Only 6 % of respondents left Armenia for other countries to get education and only 7% of them could confirm it by certificates or other documents. Some 35% of respondents said they did not gain skills while staying outside their home country.

Some 18% of respondents reported negative experiences of working abroad, related to language or other type of discrimination, and 1% reported cases of violence used against them. However, despite this, 68% of respondents said they were ready to leave for abroad as labor migrants.

According to official figures, Armenia’s population as of January 1, 2014, decreased by 9,500 people, compared with the beginning of the previous year. Its permanent population stood at 3, 017,400 people, of which 1.9 million lived in urban areas and the rest in rural areas.

According to Armenia’s electronic system of border control, around 5 million people entered and left the country in 2013, by almost half a million more than in 2012. The number of arrivals and departures was almost equal.

See more at: http://arka.am/en/news/society/migra....1wXd1hbA.dpuf

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

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.

Ya I realized the first issue after posting, and the second one has some merit too.

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Minister: some 1,280 families in Armenia’s quake-stricken area to get apartments in 2014

YEREVAN, February 19. /ARKA/. Some 1,280 families in the area stricken in 1988 by Spitak Earthquake will be provided with apartments in 2014, Armenian Urban Planning Minister Samvel Tadevosyan said Wednesday at a news conference.

“In 2013 apartments were provided to 3,800 families and in 2014 other 1,280 families will have their housing problem solved,” he said.

Tadevosyan also said that the ministry continues implementing the social housing program. “Ten apartment blocks have been built in the towns of Maralik and Tsakhkahovit as part of the program, and in one month the settlement process will start,” he said adding that 195 families will get apartments in these ten houses.

The minister said that social houses will be built also in Yerevan. In his words, top-priority categories are socially unsecured and homeless families as well as those having the refugee status and temporary accommodation.

Orphans, socially unsecured families with underage children, single unemployed pensioners anf families with one parent are eligible to receive social housing.

http://arka.am/en/news/society/minister_some_1_280_families_in_armenia_s_quake_stricken_area_to_get_apartments_in_2014/#sthash.TAqxGGYV.dpuf

[londontsi]

Re: Life in Armenia

People have the impression that fighting ( guns and bullets) against a bad system brings better things.
Ukraine is a good example of it. We will not talk about Syria.

You cannot beat the change through democracy.

To achieve that you need democratic leaders and an (applied) democratic system.

Here is the front line.

[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.

[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!

[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

[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.

[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.