| Since Armenia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, there has been a steady increase in emigration from the country. This paper will examine how governmental and bureaucratic corruption from its early years of 1991 to 1998 have rendered the average citizen bereft of any hope in the country, in turn leaving them cynical regarding its future and providing the catalyst for such high levels of emigration. With a combination of written primary and secondary sources and oral narratives of emigrants who left the country from 1991 to 1998, this paper will assess the complex motivation of an emigrant from the Post-Soviet Armenian Republic and the socio-economic and political factors that created such an environment. |
