Narek Karapetyan addresses high unemployment rate in Armenia

Official statistics put the number of unemployed people in Armenia at around 180,000. Unofficial estimates, however, suggest the figure could be as high as 500,000, Narek Karapetyan, coordinator of the Our Way movement, said in a video on Tuesday.

“There is no clear and simple economic policy in place. The main goal of our movement is to propose such a policy so that the problem of unemployment can finally be solved,” Karapetyan said. “Believe me, unemployment is not as big of an issue as it is made out to be. In a country with a population of 3 million, it's inappropriate to have 500,000 jobless."

Karapetyan argued that the solution lies in industrialization and the establishment of factories, enabling Armenia to produce essential goods domestically rather than relying on imports.

“Every year, we import $4 billion more in goods than we export. That means we are becoming poorer by $4 billion annually,” he added.