The Russian Reporter, which is the Russian counterpart of the Wikileaks, has published new articles on Armenia, which contain the messages and letters of the US charge d’affairs in Armenia Joseph Pennington sent to the American administration in 2008. The mentioned message is rather large and covers issues concerning the social, economic and political situation in Armenia following the elections in 2008, as well as the growing emigration. In the end of the message, which contains examples and his observations, Pennington concludes: “Emigration from Armenia is nothing new. It has been estimated that since its independence from the USSR, Armenia has lost 1,000,000 of its citizens to emigration – almost one third of its 3.5 million pre-independence population. What appears to be a new development, however, is the hemorrhaging of successful middle-class citizens who decided to stick out post-independence growing pains only to see that their wait has been for naught. The loss of these individuals is significant: they would stay if they thought the country was headed in the right direction. But their decision to pull up their tent stakes now, after one of modern Armenia’s gravest political crises to date, suggests that a serious malaise has taken deep root in society. Disillusioned, the once-committed appear to have lost faith that their government cares about improving their welfare or moving the country forward.” Unfortunately the observations expressed by the American diplomat are more evident now.
