Call Our Pilots Back Home, Armenia!

By Naira Hayrumyan
Lragir.am

In the last few days there were two horrible tragedies affecting Armenians. The first was the crash of the Moscow-Yerevan coach not far from the Russian Tula on November 3 which killed 8 and injured 40. And on November 4 an AN-12 plane crashed above South Sudan. Five members of the crew were Armenians.

Those who died in these tragedies lived and worked outside Armenia because the government of our country encourages work migration, expecting only remittances from the migrants. This is not an Armenian know-how, of course, but in Armenia it has been elaborated and polished to an impossible level. The government and public institutions are conducting a policy which enables the citizens to make money outside the country only. It allows the government to avoid investing money in creation of jobs but to receive money which will sustain the consumer market and their income.

Yesterday the Armenian minister of labor and social affairs announced that the government is taking steps to return the citizens of Armenia. However, he did not specify what exactly is being done to return the Armenian pilots who have to make money on freight shipment by the planes of untrustworthy companies in African countries. On the contrary, the government does not support the local airlines and is doing everything to enable the dominance of Russian companies.

The Armenian pilots have to make money by flying cargo of smugglers. They have to fly old aircraft. There have been several air crashes of aircraft flown by Armenian crews. Later they announced that the planes had been overloaded or so old that broke down during the flight. The same took place yesterday in South Sudan.

Every year the Ministry of Diaspora implements the Come Home program, inviting children living outside their homeland to Armenia. However, the Armenian government has never ever addressed its citizens who are scattered all over the world for employment. It has never promised to create enabling conditions for hundreds of pilots, high profile pilots, to work at home. Never! Let them work, transfer money, die.