Today www.aravot.am asked Hranush Hakobyan, the Minister of Diaspora, to comment on the opinion of Suren Abrahamyan, a member of the Republic Party political council and a former Minister of Internal Affairs, that the illicit deal of Hungary wouldn’t have been made, if one had managed to mobilize the Diaspora instead of ridiculous projects like “Come home” or “Come and water your grandpa’s grave.” According to the minister, “It is his assessment. The Diaspora assesses whether the projects are ridiculous or not. The fact that children leave the motherland with their eyes full of tears testifies to the efficiency of the project. As for organizing the community, we worked with the community every day. The community informed us that there were such rumors. Those rumors that he will be returned one day have been there for the past 7 years. It was not novel. And the community immediately informed us when there was certain information and we immediately informed our diplomatic mission, but the Hungarian government assured us up until the day of extradition that there was no such thing. Given this, I would like the former Minister of Internal Affairs to say what should we do, if the government, the country leadership says that there is no such thing? What should the community have done? What the community does today is suing. We work with the community every day. The community is suing the Hungarian government and the ministry addressed thousands of letters and appeal-statements to the Diaspora organizations after the meeting of the President’s Security Council and the meeting with ambassadors, you can check it, roughly 2-3 hours after that. Our correspondence with our Armenian offices and organizations reached 15 thousand letters within one week. The fact that the Armenian Diaspora was shaken is a result of the work done by the Ministry of Diaspora too.”
We also asked the minister whether there had been kickbacks in their ministry. She replied, “None. Such a word is incomprehensible and improper to our ears. I can tell you this – the results of three years have been checked by the Ministry of Finance and there have been no drawbacks or mistakes revealed.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
