THREE DAYS UNDER THE SIGN OF DIASPORA

Armenians are spread all over the world, and more Armenians live outside the historical homeland than in Armenia. Similar remarks are heard often on these days when the third Armenia-Diaspora is underway in Yerevan.
The Diaspora is not homogeneous. Already 15 years have passed since the crash of the Warsaw pact but still there are differences between the two halves of people living in two “camps”. And this difference has a negative impact on the process of uniting the Armenian people.
There is a lot of talking about unification too, by the representatives of both the Armenian communities in America and Russia. But something hinders this unification. What especially prevents a clear formulation of the national problems and development of ways to reach this? Judging by the information that is known, ambitions hinder this. Who should lead the national organization, the “formerly Soviet”, the West Armenians or the leadership of Armenia? Especially that the “formerly Soviet”, the West Armenians and the government of Armenia are not “identical”. The three traditional political parties are enough, which do not always agree on national issues. An interesting event occurred on the eve of the Armenia-Diaspora forum, which will certainly impact the life of the Diaspora. The president of the World Congress of Armenians and the Union of Armenians of Russia Ara Abrahamyan and President Robert Kocharyan “made up”. At least, after the meeting with the president Abrahamyan said “we must forgive each other” and “there cannot be a Diaspora without the government of Armenia”. Meanwhile, the relations between Ara Abrahamyan and Robert Kocharyan have been rather tense so far. In this context, this was a rather serious step on Ara Abrahamyan’s behalf. It is known that the organizations led by Ara Abrahamyan do considerable work for the Armenian community but they do not cooperate with the Armenian community in America and especially the ARF Dashnaktsutyun. For its part, Dashnaktsutyun is part of the coalition government of Armenia. Does the “reconciliation” of Ara Abrahamyan and Kocharyan mean “reconciliation” with Dashnaktsutyun, however? Apparently, with such poles national unity is possible on one condition – it should happen under the auspices of the Armenian state. Only in this case can the poles get rid of their ambitions.
The Armenian Diaspora has a great influence on Armenia and Karabakh. First of all, geopolitical. The Armenian lobby in America and several Arabic countries, now in Europe too, can solve certain problems. In this context, the Armenian lobby in Russia is weak, perhaps due to the peculiarities of Russia. On the other hand, the role of the Russian community in the social and economic life of the people living in the homeland is very big.
The influx of the “West-Armenian” capital to Armenia brought in a new mode of world view of people and the culture of doing business. People have started discarding the customs of planned economy and getting used to the notions of rights, property, dissent. However, these relations have a peculiarity: the Diasporan organizations refuse to cooperate with the civil society and the mass media. Only the media and organizations of political parties are an exception. The impression is that it is not very important for the Diaspora in which ideological path Armenia will develop. It is important that Armenia and Karabakh are there. This is the reason why the Diasporans never use legal ways to protect their rights, especially in Karabakh, that they would use in their own countries. Only one case is known when the Diasporan went to court. I think the Armenian community in the United States has a great positive influence on the developments in Armenia. There are shortcomings though, with regard to direct criticism, but I’ve heard representatives of the Armenian community in the United States complain of the difficulties Armenia encounters on its way to democracy, said the former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans.
Will the third Armenia-Diaspora Forum manage to figure out the priorities and objectives? Only the results will enable judging whether the Diasporan poles and the Armenian government have come together.
NAIRA HAIRUMYAN

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