Armenia to appoint Diaspora commissioners in U.S., Canada, Latin America

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The inflow from the Diaspora into Armenia has been ‘stable’ in 2024, High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan has said.

Sinanyan told Armenpress they don’t expect the trends to change unless something serious happens in the world.

The picture in terms of the Diasporans visiting Armenia has been the same in 2024 as in 2023.

“Perhaps 2022 was the year when we had the highest inflow, and it was mostly due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The flow of citizens is certainly very diverse, however most of them are again from Russia this year. We have a flow from Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, as well as the United States, France and Australia,” Sinanyan said.

iGorts program, a program which invites Diaspora Armenian professionals to serve in the public sector, has produced the IGorts Provinces project, which is now in the pilot phase. The DiasPro project, similar to iGorts, is also a pilot program now.

Sinanyan said his office will continue to develop its capacity this year.

“We have 17 commissioners assigned to various countries across Europe. We will assign commissioners to the United States, Canada and Latin America after the Global Armenian Summit in September. This is a delicate matter, because prior to making the appointment we must be convinced that the community has the understanding on what the Diaspora Commissioner is about, and that we have the right candidates to meet our criteria,” he said. Sinanyan said that assigning commissioners to Europe has given results and showed that the process is on the right track.