90% of Armenians hail positive the protocol prolonging deployment of Russian military base in Armenia, Aharon Adibekyan, head of Sociometr center, told the journalists today. According to him, in 2010 Armenian public actively responded to 3 events, one of them is the mentioned protocol.

Ahabekyan said that majority of Armenians consider that Russia (followed by U.S. and the EU) should become country’s’ vector in foreign policy. “Interestingly, 3% of respondents included Turkey in the list, standing for reconciliation with Turkey,” sociologist said.

“The second key event in Armenia’s life was attempts to open the Armenian-Turkish border and normalize relations between the states, with 46% of respondents backing this initiative,” stated the head of Sociometr center.

Consequences of the global crisis are the third issue Armenians are mostly interested in. “Our study shows that 60% of Armenians were well-off before the crisis, while 40% considered themselves financially vulnerable. After crisis 461% of respondents sustained losses, including loss or selling business, lack of funds for education, unemployment, failure to get treatment and impelled migration,” Adibekyan stated. Armenian citizens also responded to measures implemented by the government to overcome consequences of financial crisis. A total of 48.9% of Armenians called the measures “rather negative than positive”, while 10.6% - definitely negative.

In conclusion, Adibekyan noted that considerable part of the Armenian families is biased assessing financial circumstances. “According to the UN norms, 46% of pollees are below the poverty line, but only 19% of them think they really are,” he said.

A total of 1650 people of different ages and social groups of Yerevan and the regions took part in the public opinion poll.