AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF ARMENIA S A A : YRIAN RMENIANS IN RMENIA PROBLEMS AND RESPONSES By Hayk Aleksanyan May 2014 Master’s Essay in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science and International Affairs SIGNATURE PAGE Faculty Advisor Date Program Chair Date May 2014 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Arpie Balian, whose continued support, encouragement and motivation was immense in the whole process of writing my master’s essay. I am thankful to her for her intellect, proficiency and patience, for giving me an opportunity to work on this challenging topic. I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to the all members of faculty of the School of Political Science and International Affairs for their invaluable devotion, insightful comments and warm encouragement. I am truly grateful to my parents for their love, care and constant support. They have always encouraged me to explore my potential and pursue my dreams. And last, but certainly not the least, I would like to be thankful to my friends with whom those two years became unforgettable. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 5 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................ 7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES ...................................................................................... 8 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..................................................................................................................... 8 HYPOTHESES ...................................................................................................................................... 8 SCOPE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2  LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 10 WHO IS CONSIDERED A REFUGEE? ................................................................................................ 10 A LOOK INTO REFUGEE STUDIES ................................................................................................... 11 THE MAJOR ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS TO SYRIAN-ARMENIANS .................................................. 24 CHAPTER 3  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................... 29 RESEARCH DESIGN/METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 29 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS ................................................................................................ 29 TESTING OF SURVEY INSTRUMENTS .............................................................................................. 30 SAMPLING OF PARTICIPANTS ......................................................................................................... 30 DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................... 31 ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY ......................................................................................................... 31 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .......................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 4  DATA ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 32 INTERVIEWS ..................................................................................................................................... 32 The Degree to Which Assistance is Provided to the Most Vulnerable Syrian-Armenian Families (Mean is 3.8) ..................................................................................................................... 32 The Level of Availability of the Assistance Provided to All Syrian-Armenians (Mean is 3.0) . 33 The Level of Relevant Need-Based Assistance to Syrian-Armenians (Mean is 4.4) ................. 34 SURVEY ............................................................................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER 5  SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................ 43 SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS ..................................................................................................... 43 TESTING THE HYPOTHESES ............................................................................................................ 44 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................... 44 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ......................................................................................... 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 46 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................. 51 4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide is above 45 million. Each year, conflict and persecution forces an average of 23,000 people per day to leave their homes and seek protection in other places, either within the borders of their countries or in other countries. Developing countries host over four fifths (80%) of the world’s total refugees. The Syrian crisis that is in its third year continues to contribute to the growth of refugee outflows. More than 2.7 million Syrians have fled their homes (Syria) since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011, taking refuge in neighboring countries or within Syria itself. According to UNHCR, over 1 million Syrians have fled to neighboring Lebanon, 750,000 to Turkey, 600,000 to Jordan, and even 230,000 to Iraq. Another 140,000 Syrians were accounted for in Egypt (UNHCR 2013). According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 6.5 million Syrians have been displaced within the country itself. The civil war has killed more than 150,000 people over three years. While the country of origin and the driving force moving people away from their home country may vary a great deal, this study will focus on the issue from the perspective of policies in ‘receiving’ or host countries accommodating groups of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2010) “Refugees and asylum seekers are a diverse group, with one thing in common: they are subject to forced migration, and are fleeing from persecution in their countries of origin.” Persecution could also mean fleeing a war-torn homeland. The fundamental questions that ensue pertain to related policies in the ‘receiving’ or host countries with respect to caring for and accommodating refugees that arrive in their 5 respective countries. The degree to which refugees adjust to their new conditions and environment depends, to a large extent, on the policies of the host country with respect to facilitating the accommodation and acclimatization process. This research reviews refugee- related conventions and other policies adopted by international organizations with respect to tackling the issue of refugees. More specifically, the research studies the case of Syrian- Armenian refugees in Armenia: what has the Armenian government done? How is it handling the refugee issue? Were there refugee-related policies and mechanisms in place before the flow of refugees became relatively more significant in 2013? Apart from these questions, the study also reviews whether various assistance programs for Syrian-Armenians implemented in Armenia by governmental and non-governmental organizations have reached their objective of easing the difficult conditions that refugees face, but particularly if help has arrived in time to vulnerable groups of Syrian-Armenians. The refugee problem is one the most complex issues all over the world. Because of reasons associated with political, religious and other types of persecution and conflict, thousands of people are forced to leave their homeland every year and seek asylum in other countries. For many decades, international organizations and several receiving countries have been tackling the issue of refugees and asylum seekers. This ongoing problem has concentrated the efforts of many countries and agencies to come up with a comprehensive framework of regulations dealing with the problem. The most dominant event driving people to flee their homeland is political instability and persecution of minorities and/or some segment(s) of a population. 6 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY From the perspective of the Republic of Armenia, the civil war in Syria represented a totally different dimension of refugee hosting. Before the Syrian crisis, about 70,000 Armenians lived in Syria representing one of the strongholds of the Armenian Diaspora in the Middle East. There is no question that the crisis in Syria has had an indisputable adverse impact on the Armenian populations in Aleppo and Damascus, the former being relatively more intense in terms of the quality and quantity of fighting and aggression affecting the local Armenian communities. Armenians living in Syria are mostly loyal to the Syrian government and have not taken part in the civil war. However, the continuous clashes between rebels and government forces have disrupted the peaceful life of Syrian-Armenians causing damage as well as human lives. Over the past three years, over one hundred Armenians were killed and a few hundred were injured. Nearly half of the Armenian population in Syria fled to other countries: 11,000 have moved to Armenia, 13,000 to Lebanon and 10,000 to other countries. Most of them still hope that they will soon return to their homes left behind in Syria. The April-May 2014 events in Kessab, Syria are changing the demographics further pushing more Armenian families out of Kessab and amplifying the doubt whether or not there will be “a return home” ever. This research is an effort to explore and discuss the major problems Syrian- Armenians encountered in Armenia. In that context, the study aims to understand how the government of the Republic of Armenia (RA) and mostly the RA Ministry of Diaspora dealt or is trying to deal with this issue. In this regard, it is also valuable to find out how the different types of assistance programs implemented mostly by different NGOs were organized. 7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES RESEARCH QUESTIONS RQ : What are the major problems encountered by Syrian-Armenians in Armenia? 1 RQ : Are Syrian-Armenians satisfied with the process of receiving aid? 2 RQ : What types of assistance have Syrian-Armenians received? 3 RQ : Do Syrian-Armenians plan to stay in Armenia? 4 RQ : Are local Armenians supportive towards Syrian-Armenians? 5 HYPOTHESES H : The Ministry of Diaspora is doing its best in tackling issues concerning Syrian 1 Armenians. H : The Ministry of Diaspora is not doing its best in tackling issues concerning Syrian 0 Armenians. H : The process of aid provision is properly organized. 2 H : The process of aid provision is not properly organized. 0 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study was conducted in two cities of Armenia (Yerevan and Gyumri) using a survey in order to answer the aforementioned research questions. Yerevan was selected because the vast majority of Syrian-Armenians have settled in the capital. Gyumri was 8 chosen as another big city far from the capital where there also are several Syrian-Armenian families. 9 CHAPTER 2  LITERATURE REVIEW WHO IS CONSIDERED A REFUGEE? Since this research paper deals with issues concerning refugees, the term shall be defined as follows: a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. According to Article 1 of the 1951 Refugee Convention the term ‘refugee’ “shall apply to any person who “as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it …” (p. 14). According to the dictionary of military and associated terms, refugee is a person who, by reason of real or imagined danger, has left their home country or country of their nationality and is unwilling or unable to return (DOD 2009). War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries. That is the reason why we find that often there is confusion between the concepts of refugee and asylum seekers. However there is a clear difference between these two concepts: an asylum seeker is someone who has asked the host country government for protection under international law and has not yet received a ruling. Once the status of the asylum seeker is confirmed, the person is considered a refugee and gets protection under the 10