Support for Kocharian Lowest Among South Caucasus Leaders
According to ArmenPress, a poll of 1,500 respondents by the Caucasian Center for Research Resources finds that the Armenian President Robert Kocharian enjoys the support of 37 percent of the population. Although lower than his counterparts in Azerbaijan and Georgia, Kocharian can at least take some comfort in the fact that his popularity is apparently increasing. He only had the support of 30 percent of Armenians last year.
Similar polls were held also in Georgia and Azerbaijan. The polls in Georgia and Azerbaijan found that Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili is trusted by 71 percent of Georgians, down from 86.4 last year and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has the support of 64 percent of Azeris, also down from 81 percent last year. The polls also found that only 21 percent of Armenians believe that their living standards will improve in the near future, the number of optimistic Azeris and Georgians are 42 and 66 respectively.
Interestingly, the polls also put the migration rate from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan at 3.7, 2.3 and 1.2 percent respectively. Approximately 84 percent of Armenians and 98 percent of Azerbaijanis that leave their countries end up in Russia. Only 24.2 percent of Georgians end up there. Instead, 45 percent leave for Europe, with around half doing so in order to enter higher education.
