Recently the prime minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan has urged Diaspora to be a part of building Armenia’s future, to get together and use their competitive advantages smartly. We talked to the president of Assembly of Armenians of Europe, writer and publicist Karo Hakobyan about Diaspora’s response.
– What’s your response to the prime minister’s call for Diaspora?
– The prime minister’s call has the same meaning as all the other calls that we heard from other prime ministers of Armenia throughout years. Maybe it’s shaped differently and there is some kind of gentleness in it, but in real life, a word should be turned into an action. If they indeed want to establish deep relations between Armenia and Diaspora, then it can be done through practical proposals.
– Do you have any suggestions as to how the deep relations should be made?
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– One suggestion we have is the following: along with every Armenian ministry, there should be a body consisting of Diaspora representatives who besides having the right to take part in the process of solving important problems, should also follow the ongoing activities and see whether everything is being done in an acceptable way.
– Which political party the Assembly of Armenians of Europe is going to support in this upcoming elections of Armenian parliament?
– Diaspora shouldn’t just support any political party. We don’t want to split Diaspora. It is a whole unit, which is interested in national benefits. The parties, that raise the question of national benefits above all, will, of course, receive our support.
– Speaking of the connection between Armenia’s and Diaspora’s cultures, what’s your assessment? To what extent is Diaspora involved in Armenia’s cultural life and vice versa?
– Through years the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia has tried to establish cultural ties, but they were not that deep. The Writers Union of Armenia, for example, can do a tremendous work by bringing together the Armenian modern writers, and generally Armenians from all over the world, who are genuinely interested in literature, and create something superb as a result. But sadly, we don’t notice any organized cultural collaborations and we need to fill this gap.
– You just mentioned writers and literature; we know that you too write. What have you published so far and what are you planning to do in this field?
– In 2012 Artsvi Baghchinyan and I published an anthology in Swedish. There were plans to continue this project, because we do have the translations, unlike time, which we really don’t have. I also have some pieces- poems and verses, that haven’t been published yet, but I intend to do that this year. I have a perspective to write a novel as well. Generally, my social and political activities don’t allow me to spend much time on writing. I will have more time to write when I retire (say Mr. Hakobyan jokingly and laughs).
Melanie Sargsian
