Katy over at Blogrel has posted excerpts from an RFE/RL article on youth in Azerbaijan. Fresh from visiting Baku, she says that youth in Azerbaijan are markedly different from their Armenian counterparts in so much as the most educated generally don’t end up leaving their country. Instead, they become part of a general movement pushing for change.

“Our young people like to buy expensive mobile phones and dress well — but those are the young people who have money,” Huseynov said. “When most people leave school — if they can’t get into higher education — they go to Russia and other countries to make money. Those who finish higher education can’t find a normal life here, which is why they’re beginning to turn to the path of opposition and are beginning to join youth organizations like ours.”

Regardless of the realities of life in all three republics of the South Caucasus, a recent poll highlighted a difference in the mentalities of Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians. According to the results of the poll, only 21 percent of Armenians believed their lives would improve in the near future as compared to 42 and 66 percent in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The poll also highlighted the fact that Armenia is still experiencing more migration out of the country than its two Caucasus neighbors. Interestingly, of those young people that do leave, most Azerbaijanis and Armenians leave for Russia whereas most Georgians end up in Europe where they enter higher education.

Katy eventually asks what can be done to get youth in Armenia to become part of the process of pushing for change, and it’s also a topic that Garo from Notes from Hairenik frequently covers when referring to something that he calls the “vochinch syndrome.” It’s also a topic that I discussed with various people yesterday evening — from people at the Civil Society Institute, journalist and analyst Samuel Martirosian, Garo, and in the early hours of this morning, members of the Gyumri rock band Bambir.

I have to be honest and say that I was impressed with the optimism that many young Georgians had when I recently visited Tbilisi even though they were also quite open about the problems their country faced. This is in stark contrast to the opinion of most Armenian youth who can only think of leaving. However, there’s a positive end to this post.

In recent months, as part of an ongoing investigation of youth in Armenia, I’ve begun to find a few intelligent youth here that are becoming part of small groups and large organizations pushing for change. Samuel Martirosian, who also teaches, said the same thing when referring to the new batch of 18-19 year olds he’s come across. For once, I have to be honest and say I’m quite optimistic about this.

When one youth activist from the Bem Youth Progressive Action Center told me he believed that many youth groups will emerge from being underground to being out in the open in the next five years, I had to disagree.

I actually think it will be sooner, and will soon be ready to publish articles and photographs on individuals as well as organizations that are part of this new revolution in the way that some young Armenians are starting to think. Watch this space.