Azerbaijanis are the most numerous people of the Caucasus. Why don't Armenians like Azerbaijanis? Why Azerbaijanis

It is generally accepted that the aggravation of the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh began with the session of the regional Council, where a decision was made to separate the NKAR from the Azerbaijan SSR and join it to the Armenian SSR. This decision was contrary to the Constitution of the USSR. But that's not even the point. Why such a decision was made is the question.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation was complicated by the fact that the "territory" was inhabited mainly by Armenians, and the "bosses", Baku, were Azerbaijanis. And now the claims of the territory to the center take the form of national claims. The economy was heavily intertwined with politics. The former leadership of the Azerbaijan SSR did not want to notice this. The former leadership of Armenia also took a non-constructive position. As A. I. Volsky, the representative of the Central Committee of the CPSU in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, noted in his speech, “the origins of the crisis lie primarily in the grossest perversions of the national policy that was carried out by the former leadership of the republic. Today, in fact, generations are standing against each other, many representatives of which have begun to perceive the words about the friendship of the two peoples almost as hypocrisy. And this is the root of all the drama of the situation.

It was in this situation that the tragedy of Sumgayit became possible. And the inaction of local party, Soviet and, most importantly, law enforcement agencies only exacerbated it. But after this tragedy, rumors spread throughout Armenia that at least hundreds of Armenians had died in Sumgayit. At the same time, Azerbaijan was flooded with other rumors: they say that there were mass beatings and even murders of Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, and Sumgayit was just a “response” to the atrocities of the “other side”.

Who needed these rumors, and obviously false? A. I. Volsky turned out to be right when he declared at the session: “Recent events have shown especially clearly that many levers of power still remain in the hands of various kinds of clans in Azerbaijan and Armenia. The cadres we have educated and deployed still continue to influence the general atmosphere, behind the scenes to influence the adoption of many decisions. And the conclusion suggests itself: Nagorno-Karabakh for them is just a convenient occasion, figuratively speaking, a bargaining chip…”.

Not only the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh could serve as such a coin. For example, the rallies in Baku, which began in November 1988, became possible because the problem of Tapkhana, a historical monument of nature, a bastion of the heroic struggle of the Azerbaijani people against Iranian enslavers, was raised to the shield. And in a voluntary or involuntary attempt on it, people rightly saw encroachments on values ​​dear to their hearts, on their historical memory.

The fact is that in a place with that name, located in Nagorno-Karabakh, the construction of a cooperative branch of the Kanaker aluminum plant (the plant is located in Armenia) began. It is not true, - they immediately declared in Armenia, - Khachin Tan (the Armenian name of Topkhany) has never been any monument. And evidence was used that in general this area has nothing to do with Azerbaijanis.

It doesn't matter who has more rights to this place - the Azerbaijanis or the Armenians. Another thing is more important: both sides today did not want to concede to each other not a word, not an span.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that in mid-November 1988 both Azerbaijan and Armenia began to receive first dozens, then hundreds, and then already thousands of refugees. Over 70,000 people moved from Azerbaijan to Armenia in just two weeks at the end of November - beginning of December. The resettlement of Azerbaijanis from Armenia proceeded on approximately the same scale. Both there and there, the migrants were assisted, settled somewhere, got a job. And - they accused the "opposite side" of the policy of forced deportation. On December 5, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR had to adopt a special resolution to stop the infringement of rights on both sides. And only after this decision in Azerbaijan and Armenia, law enforcement agencies "woke up from hibernation" - they began to hold accountable for violations of the law, in fact - for pursuing a policy of ethnic hatred.

Tensions did not decrease in many regions of both republics. Again, with the indecision of law enforcement agencies in Azerbaijan, there were clashes between Azerbaijanis and Armenians, during these clashes there were both wounded and victims. In Armenia, there were fewer such clashes, but columns of Azerbaijani refugees leaving cities and villages, where people lived together for decades and centuries, in peace and good neighborliness, were shelled. Moreover, each side tried to blame its opponents for these incidents. But both there and there, accusations were poured against the "persecutors" - there, in another republic. And they took out their anger and even shot at their own homes - at the “persecuted”.

This continued until December 7, a day that seemed to divide all events into “before” and “after”. Before - it was possible to sort things out, to be at enmity and argue, although it would be better, of course, to find close positions, to start a dialogue. But after December 7, it turned out that disputes and strife should, must, become a thing of the past - such a terrible grief came to the land of Armenia. Earthquake. For almost three days, at least on the territory of the Armenian SSR, not a single nationalist slogan was heard. The problem of relations between the two neighboring republics, the two peoples, seemed to have receded into the background, and time would help smooth it out.

Did not happen. Already on December 10, in Yerevan, near the building of the Writers' Union, several hundred people gathered for a rally, where the words of a curse against the neighbors were again heard. Why?

It's hard to figure this out. Apparently, because our common desire to immediately reconcile the two peoples was too great. I wanted to see a leafy picture of how Azerbaijanis and Armenians, forgetting yesterday's strife, immediately throw themselves into each other's arms and swear eternal friendship. And understanding the situation, simple tact was not enough for either ideological workers or the media.

After all, how did events develop? On the evening of December 7, the condolences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the government and the people of Azerbaijan to the Armenian people in trouble were broadcast on radio and television. This condolence was accepted normally in Armenia. Moreover, people were waiting for the reaction of Azerbaijan, and it turned out to be adequate to the expectations. Then reports began to come in that the Azerbaijani people were ready to help the fraternal Armenian people - and these messages were also taken for granted. But the flow of such messages grew. Then there was almost an avalanche of comments on the events, where the "fraternal feelings of both peoples for each other" were strenuously pedaled.

There were no brotherly feelings. It hasn't happened yet. And the propaganda pressure led to a backlash. Moreover. It is clear that different people perceived the misfortune that fell on the Armenian people in different ways. Many sincerely sympathized with the neighbors. But there were also those who gloated. In Armenia, and especially in Yerevan, it instantly became known about the received telegrams of a “congratulatory” nature, and about telephone calls, and about the inscriptions with which trains crossed neighboring Azerbaijan came to the grief-stricken republic.

Perhaps such facts were inevitable. But they had to be properly responded to - made public and tried to find the perpetrators in order to bring them to justice for inciting ethnic hatred. "Negative facts" were hushed up - and immediately overgrown with rumors. It was no longer about single telegrams, but about tens and almost hundreds. There were rumors that the Azerbaijanis were going to send contaminated blood and poisoned products for the victims. These writers of tales received no rebuff.

But if it was just rumors. Barriers and pickets were set up on the borders with Azerbaijan, not without the help of former activists of inciting ethnic hatred, turning back columns with medicines and equipment. Meanwhile, in Spitak, Leninakan, Kirovakan, in villages destroyed by a terrible earthquake, each additional crane could bring salvation to dozens of those buried under the rubble. Volunteer picketers in the first days could not know about the scale of destruction, that by rejecting Azerbaijani equipment, they doom their compatriots who are waiting for help to death. After all, every hour of delay in that situation brought an additional twenty deaths per thousand immured alive. But those who led people to the pickets should, should have thought about this. The blood of the unsaved is on their hands.

They had to take measures, put things in order, explain the situation to people by local party and Soviet bodies. The police were obliged to act clearly and promptly. Alas... Not everywhere such measures were taken. And now you can't help the dead. But then the timely exposure of the pseudo-patriots could have brought to reason those who later again followed the “Karabakh” committee, which put up the slogan: “We will not accept help from Azerbaijan!”

And then they did not miss a single opportunity to play on the poor awareness of people, on the mistakes of propaganda, on the poor work and incompetence of some leaders who commanded the rescue work. Here is what was said about the “Karabakh” committee in the Armenian republican newspaper “Communist”: “The leaders of the “Karabakh” committee, looking for the inevitable mistakes and inconsistencies in such an extreme situation, seek to demonstrate to the working people of the republic that they and only they play the main role in eliminating the consequences earthquakes. An unworthy hype was raised by committee members in defense of orphans, allegedly taken out of the region to be raised in non-Armenian families. Playing on the most humane feelings of people, the committee members are trying to instill in the population a provocative idea that the removal of children is allegedly part of some kind of "program for the resettlement of Armenians." And they are doing everything to destabilize the situation, although they are well aware that only in conditions of calm and harmony it is possible in practice, and not in words, to solve the most difficult problems facing our people ... ".

In 1991-1994, the conflict provoked global hostilities. In 1994, a truce was signed, but the de facto confrontation between the two sides continues to this day.

". It includes materials that the author collected during ten years of trips with peacekeeping missions to Nagorno-Karabakh. He himself is also from Karabakh. In 1992, a war broke out there between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Karabakh armed formations.

Seymur Baijan, Azerbaijani writer. Born in the city of Fizuli in Nagorno-Karabakh. Awarded the Media Key Award for the essay "Sunday in Paradise". His most famous books are Gugark, 18.6 cm, Meat and meat products. The stories have been translated from Azerbaijani into Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Armenian and Kazakh.
Photo: Nurlan Huseynov

In Gugark, he described the love story of an Azerbaijani for an Armenian girl. In the conditions of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, such a situation seems to be something out of the realm of fantasy to this day. And his very visit to Armenia as part of a peacekeeping mission, described in the book, is akin to something amazing: some Armenians saw an Azerbaijani for the first time.

A few weeks after the clashes in Karabakh in April 2016, we met with Seymour Baijan in Tbilisi, where he now lives. And they learned about his views on the conflict, how they perceive in Azerbaijan a person who has been to Armenia so many times, and whether his native country has managed to part with the Soviet past.

- Why do you live not in Baku, but in Tbilisi?

For me, this is my hometown. I understand the Georgian mentality, I like their cuisine, and here I feel more comfortable than in Baku.

Tbilisi has always been the cultural center of the Caucasus. Our intelligentsia lived and worked here in the late 19th - early 20th century, the first Azerbaijani satirical magazine was also published in Tbilisi.

“Every war has something to remember. Every war has its own symbol. The Karabakh war was imprinted in my memory with a severed ear. For me personally, it became a symbol of the Karabakh war. Homemade primitive self-propelled guns, hunting rifles - all this gradually gave way to quite serious weapons, machine guns. With the beginning of serious fighting for positions, prisoners began to appear on both sides. It was impossible to stop the process. The rehearsal ended, the main action began. A calm, carefree life is a thing of the past. Both sides understood that the former neighborhood could no longer exist. In a real war, prisoners of both sides lost their ears.

How did ear cutting begin? I do not know this. I can only say that during the Armenian-Muslim war at the beginning of the last century, Muslims cut off the ear of the captured Armenian general Andranik. And perhaps the Armenians, avenging their national hero, cut off the ears of the Muslims. It happens - in a local war, one of the parties easily repeats the actions of the other. The tradition of cutting off the ears did not carry the meaning of subjecting a person to physical suffering. Rather, it symbolized the humiliation, insult of the prisoner. It even happened that, having cut off an ear, the prisoner was completely released. In those days, wearing "necklaces" of cut off ears, the soldiers flaunted in front of everyone. These were medals that the soldiers awarded themselves and wore as long as possible. And people, seeing this, did not flinch, did not disdain, were not afraid, but looked at the cut off ears as a kind of amulet, or an amulet.

"Gugark"

I can return to Baku whenever I want, but here, as a creative person, I feel better. It's a different environment here.

- How are you perceived in Azerbaijan?

In addition to literature, I am engaged in journalism, and most know me as a publicist. I write on social topics, about traditions, the Azerbaijani mentality. It is journalism that is often perceived negatively.

Therefore, most do not understand me, there are people who hate. But a certain part of society, more progressive, reads and respects.

In one of the interviews, I said that in our country a free person is called either a gay, or a freemason, or an agent. In many post-Soviet countries, for example, in Russia, there is a similar attitude towards free people. This does not console me, I just think that such an attitude exists not only in Azerbaijan.

It seems to many of us that if a person is free, does not go to work, in the usual sense, is engaged in creativity, believes in some ideals, then he has some hidden income or intentions. Because from the point of view of the majority, such a life is unacceptable.

“The battle was flaring up. And in the courtyard of the hospital, wounded soldiers fought. In any place, under any conditions, there is a lover to argue. One said that it was ours who were attacking, others - that the Armenians. One said that one machine gun was firing now, the other said that no, it was not a machine gun, but another weapon, recently brought in. The sounds of automatic fire, clearly different from the others, gradually approached the hospital. With every minute the sound became clearer.

"Gugark"

You have traveled to Armenia and Karabakh for ten years as part of peacekeeping missions. How were you treated in your homeland after that?

Then I was young, I had a lot of energy… I was not an office peacemaker, but really went to the place, talked to people, described what was happening there. These trips helped to collect material that I later used in the book "Gugark" and other stories. Of course, these were morally difficult trips, because in Armenia, as well as in Azerbaijan, people live with their own myths in their heads.

And the fact that I went to Armenia was perceived very badly in our country. When I returned, I had problems. People could simply insult you on the street because of this. Because for many Azerbaijanis Armenia is an enemy country. Surprisingly, at the same time, I do not know peoples that would be as similar to each other as Armenians and Azerbaijanis. We have a similar lifestyle, mentality…

Our peoples are hostages of their own history dictated by propaganda. At the same time, we have an emotional approach to understanding history, and this is very disturbing. We don't want to see history as it is. After all, this also requires a certain level of development of both the person himself and society.

After all this, I developed health problems, so I stopped participating in peacekeeping missions.

“Uncle O. kept bees. One of the Armenian bombs hit Uncle O.'s yard and destroyed the bee hives. Frightened and angry, the bees flew out of the hives and scattered throughout the quarter. That day my mother was making jam. When the bomb fell, we ran and hid in the basement. We thought that the basement would save us from destruction. It was no longer possible to cover the jam with a lid. Mom left a basin with cooked jam in the yard of our small house. That day the Armenians did not shoot often. Despite this, we were afraid to leave the basement. When they left, they witnessed a strange picture. Uncle O.'s bees were still circling in our yard. Angry bees ate all the jam cooked by mom. The pelvis was as clean as if it had been licked. Even the most "desperate" housewife could not wash the basin so cleanly. A strange thing is war. If it were at another time, that is, if we lived in peacetime, and if Uncle O.'s bees had eaten all of Mom's jam, Mom would have gone to Uncle O. with curses and abuse, and strangled him. Now my mother looked at the basin cleaned out by the bees, looked, and sat down on a stool near the house, wept.

"Gugark"

"Remembering the past in bright colors is human nature"

- Do you think society in Azerbaijan is still Soviet or not?

The Soviet Union is not mentally over for us yet. There are a lot of myths about him and, unfortunately, few truthful and objective books have been written. Until now, people believe in these myths, tell their children about them and pass them on to new generations.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a mass psychosis in Azerbaijan, people felt euphoria. It is difficult to explain and describe. Then chaos began, riots, people lost heart, they had a very strong disappointment. And this made people remember the Soviet past in bright colors.

If we had a normal life in the everyday sense, a good education, then there would be no such nostalgia.

But remembering the past in bright colors is human nature. And it seems to me that it is still impossible to cure this Soviet disease.

Photo: Nurlan Huseynov

- But young people do not know life under the Soviets ...

Even those young people who have not seen it also have nostalgia. And she is even stronger than the older generation. The youth have been spoiled by our television, other media, the education system and the parents themselves... Of course, there are progressive people who have raised themselves, but they are few.

I recently read an interview with Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin. And there was such a phrase that we had to bury a Soviet person in the early 90s, but we could not do it.

In my opinion, the Soviet man is a terrible man. He still paints the image of Stalin as a true leader. And even if you explain to such a person that Stalin did no less bad than Hitler, he does not believe.

“Before the artillery shelling began, people left their homes quietly, quietly, ashamed. With the beginning of the shelling, the number of those leaving increased. Each left his home in a different way, in his own way. Someone quietly left in the evening, with the onset of darkness, someone, publicly during the day, someone took the family to the neighboring area, and he returned home. Those who understood that everything was already gone, that the war would be long, moved to Russia, Ukraine. Everything was strange. People who fought in peacetime beat each other with a knife and an ax because of a meter of land, abandoned their houses, orchards, wells and left the district center. But some took the idea of ​​running away as an insult and laughed at those who were leaving.”

"Gugark"

- Why is the Soviet man scary? What do you have in mind?

The collective image of the Soviet person has no conscience. If a person was lying then, how can he tell the truth now? People who taught scientific atheism during the Soviet Union became religious people after the collapse of the Union. It seems to me that anything can be expected from such a person.

- If there were no problems in the economic sense, would nostalgia remain?

I think it would be less.

“Our people don’t read much and don’t want to buy books”

- What do you remember from your Soviet past?

The Soviet Union, as it was in the Caucasus, differed from what it was in Central Asia, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia ... When we watched films about the pioneers as children, it all seemed to be some kind of reality far from us. Pioneer life in Russia and the Caucasus was different. In our country, pioneers could not wear a tie, not because they did not like the Soviet Union, but because it was simply inconvenient: to tie it every day. Therefore, these films did not work for us.

I also remember how at school we were taken to pick cotton and grapes. For me, this is child labor. Now it also remains, but in a slightly different form.

In Soviet times, there was bribery. When I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I already knew how much to pay to get into a medical university.

- When you were a teenager, how did you evaluate all this?

I didn't understand what was really going on. When I grew up, I read different books, an opinion was formed. I evaluate my past from the position of today's thinking.

When the union broke up, I was 15 years old. Of course, I didn't realize much. Many still do not understand how important this topic is - the collapse of the empire. The older generation, of course, understands more, but they are not free people, so they do not talk about it.

“Everyone left their home in their own way. I ran my palms over the trees in the garden, over the stones and walls, over the flower bushes, and for the last time drank water from our well. I did not want at least one tree, wall, bush to be offended by me. Each tree, bush, stone was filled with meaning, symbol, history for me. Having poured a bucket of sand into the pool, I looked at my favorite fish for a long time. Some I caught myself. Others were brought from somewhere or received as a gift from grandfather. When my mother's colleague, Aunt Raya, a Molokan, came to us, she entertained herself by feeding the fish with bread crumbs. She always said: “What beautiful fish! I am ready to give birth to three children from these fish.

"Gugark"

- Time can somehow change the situation?

I think not yet. We have the same people in power who were in the Soviet Union. Or, for example, the situation in culture, it seems to me, has remained practically the same as it was in those days. Writers and artists who are supported by the state promote their creativity and receive presidential prizes. Our people are too lazy to read and decide for themselves whether this is a good writer or not. We have representatives of the authorities to say that this person is a writer, then he will be perceived as such.

The unions of writers, artists and composers are left over from the Soviet era. In Georgia, for example, there is no longer a writers' union. They have changed the system. And we still have the state funding such organizations. They have their own media through which they bring creativity to the masses, their books are published in large numbers.

- And your?

My books have a circulation of 500-1000 copies. But our people don't want to buy books. It is unthinkable for them to spend five manats (a little more than three dollars. - Approx. TUT.BY) on a book. They generally don't read much. My audience is youth. And I myself am still called a young and promising writer. But what is expected of me is unclear. Probably, and in 70 years they will call it that.

- Do you feel like a happy person?

These questions are usually asked to singers. (laughs). But I think not. I recently turned 40 years old. And I thought about it a lot, there were a lot of thoughts about what I do and how.

Photo: Irakli Chikladze

- Didn't you have such questions at the age of 35?

Then there were other questions. Now I think about the fact that in my books I mainly write about what I see. I still don't understand if society needs it or not. I am a sentimental person. And this sentimentality interferes with me both in my personal life and in my work.

I am currently working on a collection of short stories that I want to call Late Stories. I believe that our people are late in their development, and I, as part of it. After all, the history of prose among our people has only a hundred years. It cannot be compared, for example, with Germany, which has such a rich past. That is why I call my work belated literature and, at the same time, local literature. People like me are called people famous in narrow circles.

- With whom do you mainly communicate in Azerbaijan?

It can be said that now I am left without an interlocutor. In recent years, we have had a large wave of emigration. Many of my friends have gone to America and Europe.

Why didn't you go there?

I do not see the strength in myself to live in exile. I have seen the difficulties friends face. And I already once lost my house because of the Karabakh war. Now it's hard for me to start from scratch. Moreover, I do not know a foreign language. Although, of course, I had the opportunity to leave.

- Where is your house?

I don't have a home and I'm not looking for it. Now I'm looking for something else - the answer to the question: is everything that happens in my life - is it fate or my conscious choice? But it is impossible to find a definite answer to this question.

I wonder why Armenia has developed such relations with almost all of its neighbors? No, I'm not for the sake of inciting ethnic hatred, but just to find out opinions, maybe someone has some interesting thoughts on this matter.

The difficult history with Turkey is understandable, but why did it start? Why don't Azerbaijanis like them? They continue to dislike why the Baku pogroms occurred several times in history? And at the beginning of the 20th century there were, and at the end of it?

Why even a large number of Georgians do not like Armenians? To be honest, many Georgians have extremely negative feelings towards Mikheil Saakashvili himself, accusing him of being an accomplice of the Armenians in Georgia and actively promoting their interests in the republic. Some people there even consider him an Armenian. In Tbilisi, the Armenians generally have a whole area where they have been living for many centuries - Avlabari. There I stopped. In the south, closer to the border, there are even more of them. But the Georgians are clearly not very positive about them there either.

The indigenous population of Sochi also treats them extremely negatively. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but they say that there is an unwritten rule in the Krasnodar Territory - not to hire them in law enforcement agencies and government agencies. In a private conversation, this will be argued to you like this: if you take one Armenian, he will then bring all his relatives to the authorities and hello. The further implications of this are clear.

One Azerbaijani told me a clever thing on the way to Istanbul:

"I even envy the Armenians a little. They are very close-knit, unlike us. We are Turks and we have many nationalities of brothers. You are Slavs and there are many of you too. You also have those who understand you. But the Armenians (well, the Georgians ) there is no one else. A small people, a small land, and no one else understands their language except themselves. That is why they are so close-knit. Maybe that is why we lost Nagorno-Karabakh then. If one of us grows career and financially, others start pull him back down, they don't want someone to be higher. The Armenians are different. One rises, he leads all the others. So they are great in this. A small country, a small people."

One thing really annoys me about the Armenians. Talked about it theme . The Armenian Genocide by the Turks is one of their main export goods. It is hammered into the heads of children from childhood. Even in Saratov we have a monument erected by Armenians to the victims of the Armenian genocide. Saratov something to do with it? Well, we have a lot of them here :-)

Similarly, our main commodity in Volgograd is the 2nd World War. That is, you will arrive there, and there is an echo of war all around. All.

I don't kindle. These are the words and opinions of different people. The topic of interethnic conflicts has long been interesting.

The reason for the increase in the number of divorces is the collapse of the system of family values.

About it Oxu.Az said the head of the Public Association for Assistance to Women Təmiz Dünya Mehriban Zeynalova.

According to her, there are many reasons for divorce:

“First of all, some people run the family according to outdated orders. Of course, not everyone agrees with this, as a result of which the relationship deteriorates and a divorce occurs. Forced early marriages, forced marriage due to age, unemployment and infidelity also play a role. Some women do not want their freedom to be forcibly restricted.”

Mehriban Zeynalova stated that it is impossible to prevent a divorce:

“The value system has cracked. There is no way to prevent divorce. The process is self-regulating. This will continue until the process of creating a family becomes conscious.”

Head of the Department of Demography and Population Geography of the Institute of Geography of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Nizami Eyyubov stated that at present one of the biggest problems of Azerbaijan is the erosion of national and spiritual values:

“The Internet, social networks, increased cruelty of people lead to the erosion of values. Previously, we did not live very well, but people got along, agreed with each other. Now problems appear out of nowhere and grow. People cannot accept each other and get divorced. Research shows that problems between people are not grounds for divorce.”

Nizami Eyyubov stated that over the past 10 years, the number of divorces has increased by 70-80 percent:

“If we compare the first years of independence and our time, now there are more divorces. Natural population growth has declined and continues to decline. The natural increase per 1,000 people has decreased from 19-20 to 9.

The state has adopted programs to solve demographic problems, but the natural increase continues to fall. It's all about divorce and a sharp reduction in the birth rate. Does a divorced person want children? Of course not".

The head of the department noted that the natural population growth will continue to decline:

“Now the population of Azerbaijan is growing both due to natural growth and due to visitors. The migration balance has been negative before.

Also, part of the natural increase left the country. Now it's not like that. In Armenia, natural growth and population are three times lower than ours. Compared to Armenia, our situation is very good. But it is imperative to prevent the destruction of national and family values.”

It should be noted that in the first half of 2018, the district (city) registration departments of the Ministry of Justice registered 27,525 marriages and 7,219 divorces. The number of marriages per 1000 population was 5.7, divorces - 1.5.

For the corresponding period of last year, 40,256 marriages and 9,787 divorces were recorded in the country. The number of marriages per 1000 population was 6.2, divorces - 1.5.