Positions: to the North or West? 2014-2017
06-10-2017
In May 2017 HCA Vanadzor, jointly with the ‘Advanced Public Research Group’ (APR Group) NGO, conducted a sociological survey throughout Armenia to find out the public positions on international entities (EU, EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union)). The Survey was carried out with the financial support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee within the project on Raising Effectiveness of Protection of Citizens’ Rights in Relations with the Police. The findings of the Survey entitled “Positions: to the North or West?” are presented in comparison with the findings of similar survey carried out in the previous 3 years.
The Survey showed that after September 3, 2013 when RA declared on the highest level joining the Customs Union and later the Eurasian Economic Union, the number of the people in the Republic of Armenia who favored joining that international entity dropped in the past 4 years, namely in 2014-2017 while the number of those who favored joining the European Union grew.
In 2014-17, the factor of considering Russian Federation a friendly state lost most of its impact on the supporters of joining the Eurasian Economic Union. About 1/3 of the people viewing Russian Federation as a friendly state favor joining the European Union. In the past 4 years, the Armenian society has shown a clearer position on joining those 2 international entities. Younger population and mostly women in urban areas and Yerevan, with average monthly family income above the national average, prefer that the Republic of Armenia joins the European Union. Those who favor joining the European Union look forward to improvements in the activities of the RA political/state institutions and also show high trends of emigration. Supporters of joining the EAEU predominate among those who get information from television, an information source controlled by the authorities with the largest audience, and supporters of joining the European Union predominate among those who get information from social media, an information source slightly controlled by the authorities.
For findings of the Survey see HERE.
For more details see HERE.
Video of the survey results presentation (Armenian language).
