Faces of Globalization: Armenian students
By Christine Heath
UPI Correspondent
Published 7/9/2004 6:40 PM
WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) — Walking along the sidewalk surrounding the
Capitol building in Washington, Nune Hovhannisyan and Lusine Tadevosyan want
to complete what they lightheartedly call their picture show.
The two women, born and raised in Armenia, are spending their summer here as
part of an academmic program.
On their way back to work for the Armenian International Policy Research
Group, Lusine, 25, and Nune, 22, strategically position themselves on the
front steps of the symbolic Capitol building, preparing to be photographed.
As the picture is snapped, their faces are proud with an underlying sense of
accomplishment. Both stand ridged and tall, with a sense of how far they
have come from their homeland of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Armenia, located in Southwestern Asia, just east of Turkey, is a landlocked
country with a population of about 3 million.
After gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the country’s
centralized economic structure dilapidated and forced Armenian leaders to
privatize all industries.
Under the old Soviet central planning system, Armenia was able to maintain a
modern industrial manufacturing sector, supplying such things as machine
tools and textiles, to sister republics in exchange for raw materials and
energy.
The break up of the Soviet central planning system and the long conflict
with Muslim Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, the predominantly
Armenian-populated region assigned to Soviet Azerbaijan, contributed to the
severe economic decline in the early 1990s.
Between 1991 and 1993, the gross domestic product dropped by 60 percent.
Factories, with an inadequate fuel supply and an inability sell products,
were forced to close.
“All the plants just closed down and some re-opened, but they needed new
professionals,” Nune explained, now seated at her desk located in the
Armenian Assembly of America.
Nune’s father, who has a formal education in engineering, lost his job in
1993.
After loosing his job at the engineering plant, Nune’s father worked as the
councilor to the head of a trade group.
“It sounds great, but just on the paper … it is a huge complex (group),
but only 1 percent is functioning,” Nune said in accented English.
Nune explains, “a successful businessman privatizes the company. When new
people come, they bring their own team. The complex closed and ever since he
is trying to get a job.”
Nune’s father is financially dependent on family living outside Armenia to
send him money.
Sitting directly to Nune’s left at her own desk, Lusine relates a similar
story.
Her father, also formally educated as an engineer, now drives a taxi.
“Being an engineer you many not have steady work, so they have other jobs.”
In 2001, the unemployment rate topped 20 percent for Armenians.
Lusine also talked about the effect of the war with Azerbaijan, “Blockages
and no energy sources during war make it really hard.”
Armenia suffered chronic energy shortages in the early and mid-1990s.
Even before the war started the only nuclear power plant closed because of
environmental concerns, Lusine explained with a map of Armenia posted
prominently on the wall behind her.
“With no energy supply, how can factory produce?”
The country producing only hydropower at the time, Lusine recalled having
power for a limited two hours a day.
“People got really used to it because they needed to survive. Those were
difficult years, but we survived.”
Lusine added, “My sister was trying to get into medical school; she studied
with a candle. It is an Armenian characteristic, they never suffered the
education for anything.”
The literacy rate for the total population of Armenia is 98.6 percent.
Education has always been important to both Lusine and Nune.
“It was really difficult to get into my institute,” Nune shyly admitted that
600 students applied for 25 places in the economic department at Yerevan
State University.
Upon a successful completion of their undergraduate work, both women decided
to continue their education in the United States.
“When you have an American education it is much easier to find a job. You
have more opportunity in Armenia and elsewhere,” said Lusine.
Nune jumped in, “U.S. education is a passport.”
Lusine and Nune both are in the United States as part of the highly
competitive, merit-based Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program.
Nune, one of the youngest fellows, felt fortunate to be a part of the
prestigious program, “I know people who applied five years.”
The program attempts to ameliorate democracy and economy in Eurasia by
sending young professionals to the United States for a master’s degree level
of education and requires that fellows return home for two years upon
completion of their education.
After the program’s completion, Lusine intends to take full advantage of the
opportunities she has been afforded.
“I got the education not just for fun. I want to use it and get paid, that’s
all I want.”
Lusine and Nune represent a new future for Armenia. The young, educated
professionals will continue to stimulate the economic growth in upcoming
industries like electronics, high technology, agriculture, and
diamond-processing.
The UN estimates that between 1998 and 2000 annual technology-related
exports rose by 25 percent.
Armenia’s gross domestic product was $11.79 billion in 2003. Its per capita
was $3,900 last year.
Armenia is seeing change in its increasing globalization. In January 2003
the country joined the WTO and has recently managed to qualify for
state-to-state funding from the United States through World Bank’s
Millennium Challenge Account.
Over the past ten years, the U.S. government has allocated over $1.4 billion
in U.S. humanitarian, technical, and economic development assistance to
Armenia.
>From under a stack of papers, Lusine pulled out a photocopied March 2004
National Geographic article that featured Armenia.
“I don’t like this article because they make you feel pity on Armenia. You
have to feel pride.”
While in the United States, Lusine takes every opportunity she can to
educate people on the little known Republic of Armenia.
“I am trying to educate people on my country. I learned my history much
better when I came here, which is really long and rich.”
“When they ask, I don’t just say Armenia, I try to give them idea what means
Armenian.”
Faces of Globalization — The above piece by UPI Correspondent Christine
Heath is part 17 of a half-year series by United Press International which
focuses each week on the human face of globalization in locales ranging from
India to the heartland of the United States. The series looks at the complex
array of social and economic issues facing workers, managers, students and
others, who have been affected by the growing worldwide investment, trade
and technological interconnections that have come to be known as
globalization.