NEW YORK TIMES

For Young Armenians, a Promised Land Without Promise

By SUSAN SACHS

Published: December 9, 2004

EREVAN, Armenia - In a smoky corner of the Red Bull bar, a favorite hangout for university students, Zara Amatuni mulled over the reasons she would leave her homeland.

"It's poor, it has no natural resources, it has an undeveloped economy and it's unlikely to be developing in the next 10 years," she said with a small apologetic shrug.

Ms. Amatuni, 21, imagines herself in London or perhaps Moscow. Her language skills might land her a well-paying job, and plenty of Armenians have marked the trail before her.

"We can fit in anywhere," she said. "The only place we can't is Armenia."

For young people who have come of age in an independent Armenia, a country the size of Maryland with a population of barely three million people, it is an awkward paradox.

Their parents grew up in a captive republic of the Soviet Union. Their grandparents escaped the massacre of Armenians by Turks in the years of World War I. For them, and for the four-million-strong Armenian diaspora, the creation of a sovereign Armenian homeland 13 years ago was the fulfillment of a dream.

Yet the promised land has proved too constricting and its promise too distant for the next generation's ambitions. Those who want to leave and those who want to stay are all trying to reconcile what it means to be Armenian.

For some, no longer being part of the empire that was the Soviet Union means a loss of significance in the world. Then there were opportunities for well-educated Armenians to work in Moscow and elsewhere. Independence, they had hoped, would propel Armenia into the wider world, important on its own. Instead, they find themselves in a backwater with a double-digit unemployment rate and where most of the decent-paying jobs are with international aid organizations. "Let us build Armenia here," said Artyom Simonian, an acting student in the struggling town of Gyumri, 75 miles northwest of the capital, where residents are still recovering from a devastating 1988 earthquake.

He is one of those nostalgic for an imagined past. Like many of his fellow students, Mr. Simonian, 21, was uncomfortable with what seem to be the country's choices, integration with Europe or tighter bonds with Russia.

"We are trying to love foreigners too much," he said.

He and some other students, gathered around a small table in the chilly cafeteria of the Gyumri Arts School, understand they have fewer opportunities than did their parents, who learned to speak Russian and assimilated Russian culture.

So they long for a bigger, more muscular Armenia, a land that would embrace what is now southeastern Turkey where their ancestors lived a century ago. The snowy crest of Mount Ararat, now on the other side of the border, floats on the horizon beyond Gyumri as a reminder of that phantom homeland.

"I won't consider myself Armenian until all of sacred Mount Ararat is in Armenia," said Alexan Gevorgian, a theater student. He saw the world as essentially hostile and neighboring Turkey, just 15 miles to the west, as "an animal waiting for its prey to weaken."

His bitterness was too much for Ludvig Harutiunian, the student council president.

"We young people should leave this hostility behind," he protested. "I'd like Armenia to be known for good things, not genocide and wars and victims and mourning."

Mr. Harutiunian had evaluated his prospects. His father was already working in Russia, his brother was working in Spain and he was resigned to finding a chance for artistic expression elsewhere.

"Leaving the difficulties aside, Armenian culture is not developing and you have to go out," he said.

Mr. Simonian interrupted, chiding, "It's wrong to leave the country." The other students fell silent.

The insular views of some of these young people dismay older Armenians who have a sharp sense of how their own horizons have shrunk since independence.

"For 70 years we lived in a different country, where we were open to Russian culture and history," said Svetlana Muradian, a mother of six in Gyumri who used to work in Russia but now supports her family with odd jobs. "Kids now see nothing beyond Armenia. My only hope is that my three sons will grow up and leave."

The students gathered in the Red Bull bar in Yerevan were struggling with a different facet of the same predicament. Fluent in English and Russian as well as their native Armenian, they were impatient with the growing pains of a post-Soviet state and cynical about politics.

To Gevorg Karapetian, a doctoral student in computer engineering, the ideal leader would be a businessman, "someone educated and clever enough to make relationships with the neighboring countries."

The present crowd of politicians did not measure up. "Our president and all the presidents before him just want to be president," Mr. Karapetian said.

Unlike the less privileged students in Gyumri, he and his friends in the capital have reached out beyond Armenia's borders. They get their news from the Internet and use the Web to chat with English speakers from around the world. They regularly meet Armenians from the United States and Russia who come to visit Armenia, to teach at the universities, plant trees or to set up charities.

But their relative sophistication also makes them keenly aware of the contrast between their aspirations and their country's opportunities.

Victor Agababov, 22, earns the princely sum of $650 a month working as a computer programmer in Yerevan, making him the best paid member of his university class. Yet he tends to mock his own achievement because his job involves doing outsourced work transferred from the United States and Japan.

"We are a cheap work force," he said. "We're cheaper than Indians and probably 10 times cheaper than Americans."

Mr. Agababov is considering moving to Moscow to find a technology job that might promise advancement and independence.

As far the Armenian-Americans and other diaspora visitors who say they yearn to come to the new Armenia, Mr. Agababov and Zara Amatuni, the linguistics student, have a suggestion.

"We can swap," Mr. Agababov said.

"Right," said Ms. Amatuni. "They can come back and we can go there."

Today I was amazed from the news my cosmetologist Satig shared with me.

It seems that a year and a half ago, her father-in-law had a heart attack and had to be taken to Yerevan for emergency treatment.

Since she and her husband didn’t have the money needed for the treatments ($1,500), she barrowed it at 5% interest per month.

Until now all they have been able to afford was the interest which they have practically paid $1,500 in.

The other day, the woman who lent them the money, came to Satig and requested that they repay her immediately. The problem is that they don’t have $1,500 to repay her with, since what her and her husband make collectively just barely covers the $75 a month they pay in interest and basic living expenses for her family and husband’s parents.

I mentioned this situation to the mayor yesterday, to which he said that it is a shame they were put into a compromising situation beyond their control where they had to barrow money and that the person who lent them the money charged them an unreasonable amount of interest.

The mayor added that by law, they don’t have to repay the money, as charging interest for money lent is illegal without registering the loan with the tax authorities (something that was not done), as the interest that the lender receives is taxable. This means that legally, all they have to do is repay $1,500, which they have already done.

The mayor also said that during the hard times here, when there were people lending money at 10% per month for people doing business, he helped out a friend by lending him money to repay his high-interest loans and charged him only 2% (the amount the banks were paying on savings accounts). He said that obviously the person who lent the money to Satig was no friend and just someone who took advantage of the desperate situation they were in.

During this conversation at the salon, there was a hint of concern coming from Manoush, our hairdresser, who last year was in need of 100,000 dram from a gambling debt that her younger brother Arsen had ran up at a casino in Martuni (which has since been closed down). It seems that she too barrowed money from that same person at high interest, but has since paid her back.

What made me feel somewhat bad about this situation is that the person who lent the money to my employees charging such high interest is my former accountant/general manager Sweta.

It seems that my paying her $150 a month gave her the ability to “invest” that money in illegal, high-interest loans to people in desperation. On top of this, while recently reviewing the books, it seems that our deal of paying $150 a month was not followed, as what it appears she did was fix her salary based on the exchange rate of when she first started working for me and as the exchange rate began to drop, her salary began to rise, with her last paycheck being $174, twenty four dollars more for her to use for loans.

What baffles me the most about this is that she was supposedly friends with Satig and Manush and a strong bible toting God fearing believer.

I don’t know what Satig is going to do, but once I finish reviewing the books, I may send her a bill for the amount that she over charged me for her services, just because this is the right thing to do.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS OF ARMENIA / HETQ ONLINE

http://www.hetq.am/eng/

8 December 2004

Not even National Security can stand up to Gagik Tsarukyan’s bodyguard

November 5, 2004 was a historic day for the officers of the National Security Service: their boss, Karlos Petrosyan was dismissed from office “at his request”.

“That day, a deplorable and shameful event occurred. We were not able to defend the honor of a fellow officer. For me, it was the death of our institution,” said one NSS officer, whose name we cannot make public, for obvious reasons.

What happened on November 5th?

NSS officer Ararat Petrosyan was driving his Lada from Nor Nork toward the city center, with his wife and son in the car. Petrosyan's father-in-law, Hrach Utukyan, was following in his car. A Jeep Range Rover, accompanied by a Chevrolet, was driving at high speed down Miasnikyan Avenue (toward Water World) and suddenly attempted a U-turn from the far lane. There is no place to make a U-turn in this part of the road. There is a concrete divider running from the beginning of the road to Nork to the beginning of the Avan district, with only one spot for U-turns in this segment – near the Yerevan Zoo. In the stretch where
Petrosyan and his family were driving, no one makes U-turns, or expects them. The Jeep, license plate #008SS08, hit the NSS officer's car, denting the doors. Gagik Tsarukyan's bodyguard/driver, known as “Arjuk (little bear)”, got out and began shouting. As Ararat Petrosyan was examining the damage, Ardjuk hit him from behind, in the presence of his wife and child. He then hit Ararat's father-in-law, who had pulled over and was walking toward them.

Hrach Utikyan fell, striking his head on the pavement. At the point, the drivers of the jeep and the Chevrolet got into their cars and sped away.

When the other officers of the National Security Service learned about the incident, they determined to punish the bodyguards. It is a point of honor for them; no one can be allowed to raise a hand against a fellow officer.

Our source told us that the head of the department of special operations of the National Security Service, Misha Tadevosyan, informed the number one bodyguard in Armenia, Head of the President's Security Service Grigor (Grish) Sargisyan, of their intention to get permission to take action.

And since in Armenia, the institution of godfather-godson is a most important political category, and Gagik Tsaruyan is Grish's godfather, the number one bodyguard decided to close the case and told the NSS officers to settle down.

Ararat Petrosyan refused to answer our questions. It is even possible that he will refute this information after it is published, but there are other people who are willing to talk.

“Naturally, the notion of an officer's honor is alien and inconceivable to the head of the President's Security Service, Grish. You can't blame him for something he has no idea about. But we feel like weaklings after this incident,” the NSS officer we spoke to said.

The Department of Information and Public Relations of the Police that informed us that traffic police had reported no accidents that day on that segment of the road.

When we asked the head of the Department of Information of the National Security Service, Artsvin Baghramyan, what action had been taken in response to the incident, he told us that they hadn't registered any such case.

The fact is that the NSS was defeated by Gagik Tsarukyan's driver/bodyguard, nicknamed Arjuk. In Armenia, not even National Security can stand up to a bodyguard.

Edik Baghdasaryan

---
http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/0412-rover.html

If you want to get a good idea who our Minister of Defense really is and how all he care about his is position of power and personal wealth, read the following story, it’s all there. Serzh is playing with fire and in the end he needs to be burned so he understands that such selfish behavior will not be tolerated.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
8 December 2004

Armenian Court Gives Green Light For Iraq Deployment

By Anna Saghabalian

Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the government the green light on
Wednesday to send Armenian non-combat troops to Iraq, a deployment which Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian claimed will spare the country international isolation.

The ruling paved the way for a debate on the issue in parliament dominated by President Robert Kocharian’s loyalists. Some of them have serious misgivings about the wisdom of the deployment, sharing concerns about the security of Iraq’s Armenian community.

But Sarkisian brushed aside those concerns as he addressed the panel of nine judges. “Armenia could not have stayed isolated from regional developments,” he said. “Hence, the Armenian authorities’ decision to participate in the process of Iraq’s stabilization.”

Sarkisian warned that Armenia’s failure to follow neighboring Azerbaijan’s and Georgia’s example and join the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” in Iraq “could create certain obstacles to a further expansion of Armenia’s cooperation in the international arena.” He did not elaborate.

The one-day court hearing centered on an agreement between Poland and 18 other countries that have troops in a Polish-led multinational division controlling south-central Iraq. Kocharian promised to place about 50 Armenian military doctors, sappers and truck drivers under Polish command during a visit to Warsaw last September. The Constitutional Court found that the agreement does not run counter to the Armenian constitution.

Sarkisian said Yerevan will sign up to the document on the condition that the Armenian military personnel take part only in “defensive and humanitarian activities” and avoid joint actions with the bigger Azerbaijani contingent. “Performance of joint tasks with the contingent of Azerbaijani armed forces stationed in Iraq will not be acceptable,” he said.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the powerful defense chief was confident that the National Assembly will endorse the deployment plans welcomed by the United States. “I think that the overwhelming majority of our parliamentarians care about Armenia’s future and will not make emotional decisions,” he said.

Critics have been warning that an estimated 25,000 Iraqi citizens of Armenian descent could face retaliatory attacks from Iraqi insurgents once Armenia becomes part of the U.S.-led occupation force. The insurgents have routinely kidnapped and killed citizens of countries cooperating with it.

Leaders of the Iraqi Armenians have themselves exhorted Kocharian not to send any servicemen. Underscoring their fears was Tuesday’s bombing of Armenian and Chaldean churches in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
News reports said gunmen burst in and set off explosions inside the buildings, damaging them but hurting no one.

The Armenian Apostolic Church condemned the violence, with Catholicos Garegin II warning of a “danger to the centuries-old co-existence of the Christian and Islamic peoples” of Iraq. Garegin urged Iraqi spiritual leaders to prevent the continuing unrest in the country from degenerating into a religious conflict.

The alarm was echoed Pope John Paul II on Wednesday. "I express my spiritual closeness to the faithful, shocked by the attacks," John Paul said, speaking from his apartment window above St. Peter's Square on the Roman Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception.

In Yerevan, meanwhile, one of the Constitutional Court judges, Kim Balayan, wondered if the planned deployment could put the lives of Iraqi Armenians at greater risk. Sarkisian countered that they will be insecure regardless of Armenian military presence in Iraq.

Today I went to have my hair cut at Nershik’s barbershop. Nershik has been my barber since the first day I came to Martuni and for this whole time I have always left his shop happy.

Like any good barbershop, I leave with new views of life in our small town, as well as events that effect our lives in Artsakh.

Though I heard a little bit of this a few days ago, today I learned a few more details about Esh (donkey) Edo, the guy that a couple of summers ago took his son swimming in a reservoir even though the two of them didn’t know how to swim resulting in his son drowning. After that his wife divorced him.

Last year Esh Edo’s father, Esh Albert left his wife and married some young girl from a neighboring village. At that time it was the talk of Martuni about how wrong it was for Esh Albert to do this.

The other day, Esh Edo went to she his father and after arguing with him for whatever reason, he left. Esh Albert a little while later died due to reasons that have not yet been made clear. All we know is that Esh Edo has been seen walking the streets of Martuni, which means that he didn’t kill his father, though people say that in the argument that he had, he hit his father.

Nershik and I also talked about the Armenia Fund telethon and the used car sales pitch our president gave. Nershik could only shake his head and say that he too was an unwilling victim of this con and was forced to give 250 dram (50 cents).

He said he would not have objected to the forced donation, but knows that they will down some gravel, then put a thin layer of asphalt and call it a road, which in a short period of time not be fit to drive on. On top of that he said that people can’t afford to drive cars these days, so who will use it?

So how did Nershik get taken for 250 dram? The same way dozens of other people who are members of the combinat (workers collective) were taken for 250 dram. First of all let me clarify what the combinat is. It is a collective of small service businesses where you pay in each month and automatically your taxes (income and pension) are paid. Because of my stone factory I too am a member and each month pay 18,000 dram of which I receive 4,000 dram as a salary.

I was in Yerevan the day my 18,000 dram was due, so I sent someone to pay it and they had mentioned to me that they were asked for a voluntary donation for the road, to which they were told I was in Yerevan and when I return, I will stop by if I wish to make a donation.

I took this information as an opportunity to visit the combinat to find out what these donations were all about?

I walked in to find two ladies that work there and asked them what the donation deduction was all about? They told me it was strictly voluntary and if I didn’t want to give, I didn’t have to. I said that this is not what I heard and asked by name what Nershik gave? They didn’t answer and again said that it was strictly a voluntary and showed me a list of who gave. It had 25 names with figures from 105 dram to 500 dram.

I returned to Nershik’s where I told him that he had voluntarily donated and asked him if they personally took the money from him? He said no, he sent the money with the shoemaker next door who is also a member of the combinat.

I went next door to the shoemaker to ask him if he voluntarily made a donation? He said no, he was forced to donate and present were the two ladies and the president of the kombinat.

If you read my log from a year ago, this shake down for donations from no voluntary individuals is a repeat performance. Last years example came from someone in the president’s building who refused to sign the paper stating they will donate, to which Oleg Yesayan, the president of Parliament gave instructions to the persons collecting the signatures to sign for those that refuse.

Later on in the afternoon, I found myself in the office of a government official and mentioned what had happened with the kombinat. Though I won’t get into the details of the conversation, in short they said that if we don’t show that we are giving, why should the Diaspora give? We then got into a disagreement of money from such projects being stolen and how we must do what we can not to feed into such things.

Tonight I went to the mayor of Martuni’s house (my future uncle-in-law) for dinner. We had barbeque fish and pork, which was very good!!! The fish came from the Arax river and was very large and greasy.

During dinner, as always, the television was on. There was a program on Artsakh television which I am seeing for the first time, which is a billiards tournament of the Artsakh billiards association. The winning prize from what I understood is $20,000. The players are familiar faces I know, including general Vartan Balayan, and Ararat Grigoryan, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, just to give you an idea as to who the players are.

We sat and waited to see how are acquaintances would play and after the introductions of the players, they had a little bit of live musical entertainment. Armenian singers who sang Armenian and English language popular songs. They were not bad. The songs kept of coming and my future brother-in-law commented on this not a billiard tournament, but a concert. We kept watching and waiting, occasionally filliping the channels.

Finally after about 20 minutes of music, the tournament started with a montage of the competitors playing. I said that I don’t think they are going to show any games, and no sooner did I say that, then did the program end.

I’m not sure who played and if Vartan in his red vest won or lost? Who won the $20,000? I really would like to know.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
7 December 2004

Diaspora Armenian Seeks Fraud Case Against Yerevan Partner

By Anna Saghabalian

A prominent Armenian-American who has helped to ship millions of dollars worth of medical supplies to Armenia pleaded with a Yerevan court on Tuesday to press fraud charges against his former local partner who has allegedly misappropriated his expensive property.

George Najarian asked the court through his legal representatives to order state prosecutors to reopen a criminal case against the formal owner of a photo shop and two buildings currently constructed in central Yerevan.

Najarian maintains that he is the real owner of the property which he says was registered in the name of the man, Grigor Igitian, in 1996 because Armenian law at the time banned foreign nationals from owning land. Subsequent legal amendments allowed authorities not to apply the ban to ethnic Armenian foreigners with long-term residency permits.

Najarian accuses Igitian of breaking his pledge to give up the lucrative assets, in which he claims to have invested $500,000, once the restriction was dropped. “We are now trying to find out what happened to my client’s investments,” his lawyer, Ashot Poghosian, said at the start of court proceedings.

Igitian denies the accusations, saying that he invested more than Najarian did. However, it is unclear how the former English-language interpreter and university lecturer could have raised so much money.

The prosecutors tried to find answers to this question in two separate inquiries. However, in both cases they avoided bringing criminal accusations. Prosecutors attending the first court session declined a comment.

Najarian, meanwhile, suspects that the investigators were bribed by his former partner. “We had information that these investigators were following orders from persons within the government who stand to benefit from expropriating these properties from us,” the businessman and his wife Carolann wrote in a recent article published by Armenian-American newspapers.

The couple added that an unspecified “high-ranking member of the Armenian government” has asked President Robert Kocharian to ensure “a fair and objective hearing of our case” but to no avail. “It pains us to tell you we did not find an objective, fair justice system in Armenia, but instead we have seen the inside of a system wrought with deceit and corruption that crushes even their own when they try to resist,” they said.

The Najarians have been active in promoting and providing assistance to the healthcare sectors of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh for the past 15 years. Their lawsuit is a rare example of Diasporan Armenians publicly voicing their grievances against Armenian authorities. Diasporans doing business in Armenia often complain about widespread corruption but most of them choose not to go public.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
7 December 2004

Gunmen Attack Armenian Church In Iraq

(Reuters) - Gunmen attacked two churches in the tense northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, in the latest violence directed against one of Iraq's several religious and ethnic groups, witnesses said.

Members of the churches, one Armenian, the other Chaldean, said gunmen burst in, forced people to leave and set off explosions inside the buildings, damaging them but hurting no one.

Smoke poured from the Armenian church and flames could be seen inside the Chaldean church, Reuters reporters said. It was not clear how many people had been in the churches when they were attacked but the number was apparently not large.

Mosul, population 1.2 million, is home to many of Iraq's Christians, who make up about three percent of the national population. Tension between Mosul's two main Sunni Muslim communities, Arabs and Kurds, has been high since Arab guerrillas routed the city's U.S.-trained police last month. U.S. forces have brought in Kurdish units to keep order.

Christians have been attacked several times in the past few months. Coordinated car bombings in Baghdad and Mosul killed at least 12 people in August and five Baghdad churches were bombed on October 16 at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least eight people were killed in two church bombings in the capital on November 8, and a car bomber attacked police guarding the hospital where the wounded had been taken.

Figures are not available but some of Iraq's estimated 650,000 Christians, mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics, have left since the fall of Saddam Hussein or are contemplating leaving the country. Some have been involved in businesses such as selling liquor and have fallen foul of radical Muslims opposed to such trade.

I’ve been back in Martuni since Thursday and things have been non-stop. Without a general manager and accountant, I’ve been keeping very busy and for that reason have not really logged about life here.

The beauty salon is doing better than I was expecting. Over October’s figures, we had a 40% increase in profit. It should also be noted that according to my workers, November is the slowest month.

Being that I have no accountant, I had to do this months accounting for the salon, which took in all about 4 hours to do. I had set up a receipt system, which made it very easy to plug in the numbers into an excel page, along with expenses.

I visited the tax office to find out how we have been paying our taxes and learned that we are paying quarterly. For our hair dresser, we pay a fixed 252 dram per working day and for our cosmetologist we pay 16.67% value added tax, which we can deduct any value added tax for supplies and electricity that she may incur. I have to explore what other options are available for the cosmetologist, as this month she paid 3 times more in taxes than the hair dresser and took home only a quarter of what the hair dresser made.

I also talked to the tax office about setting up a corner of our salon to sell hair paint, shampoo, perfume and other things that women may interested in purchasing. I had told my general manager about my desire to do this over a year ago, with an answer that it was no possible to do. Well I got a different answer from the tax office, which is that if I put up a wall (they suggested of glass, so people could see inside as to what we had for sale) and if we keep it under 10 square meters, we can pay a flat 1,000 dram a month tax and sell whatever and however much we want of product that we purchase with a receipt that reflects we paid VAT. For merchandise that we have no document for, we pay 5% of the selling price in tax. One other benefit of the “store” being under 10 square meters, we don’t have to have a cash register.

I will look into my options for putting up the wall and bringing in a showcase and some shelving. My salon manager has also suggested that we have a section of woman’s intimate apparel, of which in Martuni there really is not a real selection of.

Yesterday I also went to the gasification office and paid for the gas meter and labor to get natural gas in the salon. We are now burning wood, which for a beauty salon, is not exactly appealing, nor is it of help to me, since the wood has been coming from my house. They tell me that by the 15th, we should have our gas turned on.

I am now working on the lake problems. I’m not sure what the initial outcome is going to be, but am readying my self for the worst and am ready to take the mayor of Hadrout and those responsible for illegally giving him the lake to court if need be. Yesterday my guard at the lake reported that the mayor has sent his fisherman to the lake and they have removed fish with nets. I’ll keep a count of what he takes out and add it to my damages.

I’m also once again working on my book, this time a little bit more seriously. I have the general outline done and so far 61 chapters which are half written. I was originally going to only have 40 chapters, but can’t figure out which 21 chapters I will cut? On top of this, I have a few more chapters that I still want to add. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, since I really had my heart set on keeping this book under 300 pages, but now it looks like it could go well over 500 pages.

Anyway, I have to be back at the salon at 5pm, so this much is going to have to satisfy your hunger for life in Artsakh for now.

Armenia supplying prostitutes for international trafficking - research shows

Arminfo
1 Dec 04

YEREVAN

Armenia is a country that supplies prostitutes for international trafficking in countries like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Greece, the USA and other western European countries. This is the result of research conducted by the Armenian-European centre for economic policy and legal consultations (AEPLAC).

According to the research, most of these women are being trafficked to Turkey and the USA (61.4 per cent and 29.5 per cent respectively). A considerably small number of them are trafficked to Bulgaria and Poland (2.3 per cent each).

The trafficked women are mainly from Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor – 33 per cent of them are from Yerevan, 30 from Gyumri and 18 from Vanadzor. The research showed that in most cases, women leaving the country are planning to work in their new place of residence (76.2 per cent), including prostitution (18.6 per cent). As usual, the victims of trafficking are women who have economic difficulties and represent the poorest strata of urban society.