YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received participants of the iGorts program, which brings Diaspora Armenian professionals into Armenia’s public administration system.
Welcoming the participants, Pashinyan noted that Armenia has recently been experiencing signs of repatriation and increased immigration. In 2025, the number of Armenian citizens who returned to the country exceeded the number who left by more than 8,000.
According to the prime minister, people are returning to Armenia, purchasing real estate, making investments, and seeking to build their lives in the country.
“Unlike in 2014, or even in 2019-2020, today the trend toward repatriation is becoming more pronounced, including as a result of the peace agenda and the established peace, because this is also a factor that we must certainly take into account,” Pashinyan said.
The prime minister noted that the iGorts program fits within this broader process and expressed hope that it will become a more practical and reliable mechanism for encouraging return to Armenia.
Referring to his earlier announcement about attracting graduates of the world’s top 200 universities to Armenia’s public administration system, Pashinyan said that he has already made several appointments and that additional appointments are expected. He noted that some of those individuals first became acquainted with opportunities to work in Armenia’s public administration through the iGorts program.
“We are now increasingly focused on a vision of the Republic of Armenia today and in the future that we have formulated through the ideology of Real Armenia,” Pashinyan said. “If expressed in one sentence, this ideology is based on the idea that the purpose and significance of the Republic of Armenia as a state is to ensure the security and prosperity of its citizens, their freedom, and the preservation and development of their identity within the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia.”
According to the prime minister, ideas and ideologies in Armenia have traditionally been formulated by elites and imposed on society and the people. He said that the ideology of Real Armenia emerged from a transitional period in that approach and was implemented rapidly.
“I am now convinced that the repatriation process will become institutional because today Armenia is governed according to a logic and ideology that was not imposed on the people by the elite, but rather imposed on the governing force by the people,” Pashinyan said. “Therefore, I believe this is a new situation in our history that opens limitless horizons for our state.”
He emphasized the importance of moving forward and taking advantage of those new opportunities.
Pashinyan added that the current developments in repatriation are not accidental.
“I hope that, including through reshaping relations between Armenia and the Diaspora, we will be able to further develop this approach and truly make Armenia a country that is developing and whose population is growing, first and foremost through repatriation and, of course, through the implementation of our demographic strategy,” he said.
He added that human capital will play a major role in implementing these programs and strategies.
“The iGorts program is a system for identifying and connecting with this human potential, and I hope it will become increasingly effective over time,” Pashinyan said.
Acting High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan thanked the prime minister for hosting the sixth group of program participants and provided details about the initiative.
According to Sinanyan, between 68 and 70 percent of participants from the previous five years have remained in Armenia, while 15 percent continue to work within the public administration system.
This year’s program includes 45 participants from Sweden, Spain, Russia, Norway, Hungary, France, Jordan, Belarus, Brazil, Argentina, Iran, and Austria.
