Repatriation and Repopulation

[transience]

Any diasporans thinking of repatriating? I hope to do it one day. By the way, if you live in the diaspora, you should at least work towards bettering Armenia economically/politically/socially and working towards Armenian causes. If you don't then you're just a waste.

Visit these websites for more info:
http://www.yerkirusa.org/ (USA)
http://www.yerkircanada.org/ (Canada)
http://www.francekarabagh.org/ (France)

http://www.knaravan.org/

http://www.armeniafund.org/

[Armenian]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

Any diasporans thinking of repatriating? I hope to do it one day. By the way, if you live in the diaspora, you should at least work towards bettering Armenia economically/politically/socially and working towards Armenian causes. If you don't then you're just a waste.

Bravo. Living as Armenians within the Diaspora is living a lie.

If an Armenian, for whatever reason, can't live in Armenian they should at least buy a vacation home there and/or spend their free times there. An Armenian without a physical connection to the homeland is useless waste.

[Che_Ka]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

Uh okay.

[alphacarbon]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

Just as a curiosity ..can Armenians from the diaspora buy property in Armenia?
land, house, etc....

[Armenian]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

Just as a curiosity ..can Armenians from the diaspora buy property in Armenia? land, house, etc....

Apartment yes, land no. In order to be able to buy land and you must be a legal resident.

[HayotzAmrotz]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

If an Armenian, for whatever reason, can't live in Armenian they should at least buy a vacation home there and/or spend their free times there. An Armenian without a physical connection to the homeland is useless waste.

The only problem is that some of the Diaspora Armenians are engaged in a real estate business. Basically, they buy very cheaply a property from an impoverished local then sell it, in some cases up to 20 times what they paid for it initially, to another Diaspora Armenian and obviously make a huge profit. On the surface all this is fine, and you might say “it’s called business, what is wrong with that?” And I’d say – everything is wrong with that. Our land belongs to all Armenians regardless where they live BUT our land should not be viewed and used as a money making opportunity because, to put it short, it’s unethical and unpatriotic. For our brothers and sisters in Diaspora who’d like to live in Armenia permanently or who’d like to have just a summer/winter vacation house – the only right thing to do is to go and make that happen in Artsakh.

[Armenian]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

The only problem is that some of the Diaspora Armenians are engaged in a real estate business. Basically, they buy very cheaply a property from an impoverished local then sell it, in some cases up to 20 times what they paid for it initially, to another Diaspora Armenian and obviously make a huge profit. On the surface all this is fine, and you might say “it’s called business, what is wrong with that?” And I’d say – everything is wrong with that. Our land belongs to all Armenians regardless where they live BUT our land should not be viewed and used as a money making opportunity because, to put it short, it’s unethical and unpatriotic. For our brothers and sisters in Diaspora who’d like to live in Armenia permanently or who’d like to have just a summer/winter vacation house – the only right thing to do is to go and make that happen in Artsakh.

Ethically, I agree with you. But to tell you the truth, besides the Hovnanians and Fesjians I have not come across any Spiurkahais who are in the real-estate business in Yerevan. Besides, how can you legally stop this from occuring. This is what fee market is all about. I just want the native to wake up to the new world in front of them, most are still somewhat stuck in the Soviet years.

[aray]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

There is nothing wrong with what Hovnanians do in Armenia. The land where they build the subdivision was an empty ‘desert’ and may not been utilized in million years. Plus, I know that they do a lot of charity work, something that other business people in Armenia can learn a lesson from. I see them all the time on Armenia TV and really appreciate what they do for Armenia.

[Armenian]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

There is nothing wrong with what Hovnanians do in Armenia. The land where they build the subdivision was an empty ‘desert’ and may not been utilized in million years. Plus, I know that they do a lot of charity work, something that other business people in Armenia can learn a lesson from. I see them all the time on Armenia TV and really appreciate what they do for Armenia.

I dont think anyone said anything bad about what the Hovnanians do in Armenia.

[HayotzAmrotz]

Re: Repatriation and Repopulation

Ethically, I agree with you. But to tell you the truth, besides the Hovnanians and Fesjians I have not come across any Spiurkahais who are in the real-estate business in Yerevan. Besides, how can you legally stop this from occuring. This is what fee market is all about. I just want the native to wake up to the new world in front of them, most are still somewhat stuck in the Soviet years.

It looks like because I posted “real estate business” it was understood as THE real-estate business, a clarification is needed and I suggest anyone who starts reading this reads all of it. Thanks.

First of all, the names you have mentioned are involved in the REAL real-estate business, and for the record - I like their efforts since they create employment and build houses and units, these people are genuine businessmen and they are always welcome to invest in Armenia.

But what I was talking about was the average Jack spyurqahay, the type that has worked hard all his life in a development country, owns a house or even two in that country and now looks at the independent Armenia and sees an opportunity to make a quick buck in an easy and safe way.

And this is how Jack does it.

Let’s bring in a character and call him Aper a young yerevantsi with a wife and couple of kids. Aper is trying to raise some minimum funds enabling them to travel and settle in some god-forgotten Russian town where he is confident to find a job to at first basically feed his young family and then hopefully save some money, which will allow him to return to his country and establish something that will create a stabile income.

I’d like to note here something that a lot of people simply don’t understand. The VAST MAJORITY of Hayastantsis currently living outside Armenia will return home, make no mistakes about it.

Now back to Aper and Jack.

The only way for Aper to raise these funds is to sell their unit despite the fact that the real estate prices were dirt chip it is the only thing that can give him funds, so he has no choice but to sell it. Spyurqahay Jack comes along and offers the current market price, say 5,000 (five) thousand dollars (this was a reality for example in 1996). Jack can’t believe his eyes he just bought a whole unit with two bedrooms in a Yerevan suburb for some miserable 5 grand.

Then Jack’s greed completely takes over his brain and he starts actively searching for more deals like that and ends up buying 5 other similar units all over the place paying for them anywhere between 5 and maximum 12 grand each. All of sudden Jack, who worked his ass off for 30 years to pay for just one house say in Montreal, has become a significant landlord in Armenia and already thinks of selling his other house in Spyurq to get some more funds to go back to Yerevan and grab some more bargains from some desperate fellow Armenians, which he does.

What does he do with all these properties?

Well, he keeps one to himself, (and hardly ever lives there). He lets the other one to a migrant family from villages for a very high rent. The third and all other ones he slightly renovates and sells them to anyone who will pay the price, which is unaffordable for the locals but an attractive one for the foreigners of all kinds including for former residents of Armenian SSR of Azeri Turk origin who after leaving Armenia went to Azerbaijan participated and in most cases organized massacres against Armenians there, then he went to Iran and through some fairly simple manipulations got a legal Iranian passport then travels back to Yerevan disguised as an Iranian businessmen while on the payroll of the Azeri government.

You are asking how this can be legally stopped from occurring. I will simply say this: A section of the free market that threatens our national security will be dealt with by using the laws of the Republic of Armenia. In other words everything will be done legally, my friend.

As for your wish for some locals to “wake up to the new world” let me just say that in 15 years we have learnt a lot more about the free market than some believe we did. Take a look for example at Russia or Greece and you will see how successful our small and medium business owners are. And I don’t even want to mention about our very own oligarchs in Moscow and Europe. All them, basically knew nothing about market economy 15 or so years ago.