In the three quarters of 2021, 103,000 more Armenians left the country than entered it, according to official data. Armenia's population is 2.963 million people, so this is an extremely alarming figure, because that amounts to about 3.5% of the country’s entire population . In other words, every 29th resident of Armenia has left the country since the beginning of the year.
Why does emigration from the country reach such a catastrophic scale?
First, it should be noted that some of 103 thousand people are separatists and illegal settlers who fled to Armenia from Karabakh and Zangezur last year during and after the Patriotic War of Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that they had Armenian passports, there was no place for them in Armenia, because the republic doesn't have enough work and money even for local residents, so they were forced to leave. At the same time, they are displayed in the statistics as Armenian citizens who emigrated, without specifying that before that they lived in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Second, after the Karabakh war, Armenia simply did not have any means of subsistence. War is an expensive business, especially for small and poor states. The republic spent too much money to maintain the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, as a result, the government has nothing to invest in revitalizing the national economy. So, along with the Karabakh Armenians, residents of Armenia also leave the republic.
Third, it is important to pay attention to the fact that the Armenian authorities do not abandon plans for a military revenge, pumping up the Russian peacekeepers' zone of responsibility with weapons and building there new military positions. Yerevan is looking for sponsors to rearm Armenian troops (since they don't have money for this). Armenia remains both unattractive for foreign investment and dangerous for living. People have not forgotten how they were forced to go to the war last year, and they do not want it to happen again. They emigrate not only because of money, but also because of war.
There is a fourth reason, according to the opposition politician, representative of the Prosperous Armenia party Naira Zohrabyan. The ex-parliamentarian told Vestnik Kavkaza that many were forced to leave due to the results of early elections to the National Assembly.
