Armenia trying to ‘increase’ population in Upper Garabagh

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
28 Oct. 2004

Armenia is trying to pursue a policy of increasing the number of
Armenian population in Upper Garabagh, Azerbaijan’s region under
Armenian occupation, through internal migration and by granting
privileges to families with many children.

A program on granting privileges to families with three and more
children in the self-proclaimed Upper Garabagh republic was adopted
in 2002.

The ‘statistics committee of Upper Garabagh’ has recently issued a
report saying that the number of families with five and more children
has reached 241 (1,329 children) in Upper Garabagh over the last
nine months.

The “Artsakhbank” has opened 128 accounts holding $115.400 for families
with more than three children.

According to the report, 1,412 babies were born in the self-proclaimed
republic in January-September, or 2.2% over 2003, mostly in Shusha
and Khojavand districts.

Marriage rate increased 24.4%, while divorce rate dropped 18.7%
after the mentioned program was passed, the committee said.

Samvel Dadaian, a department head of the social security ministry in
the self-proclaimed republic said the program on families with many
children requires less money than relocation of population to Upper
Garabagh from other regions.