The President of the “Yerkir Tsirani” party Zaruhi Postanjyan’s
Address to the two parts of the Armenian nation: Armenians living under the Armenian statehood and transnational Armenian nation 21.09.2017
“New Modernization of Armenia: Armenian’s Competitiveness”
A quarter century of independence became a period for the Armenian nation, during which the independence has been proclaimed, laws were written about freedoms that were unfortunately not able to organize public life for the sake of the Armenian nation.
In essence, these years marked the Armenian statehood, but did not serve to build a legal and national state.
These years, undoubtedly, broke the oblivion of the Armenian political statehood after the collapse of the Bagratid and Cilicia kingdoms, and showed the whole world the survival of the Armenian national liberation struggle: the liberation of Artsakh.
However, the disorganization of our public life (the incomplete use of civil and political rights) under our national statehood deprived us of the opportunity to be a political factor and a full-fledged political actor.
Neither the current political elite of Armenian nation, nor the Armenian nation, with its entire part, failed to develop the Armenian statehood, as an effective political system. For quarter century this system worked through force, fixing systemic authoritarianism (controlled democracy).
The quarter-century of the Armenian statehood has marked a dual political status of the Armenian nation and its national statehood.
We have two Armenian states which have not officially recognized one another, which are not officially joined. In addition, one of these states negotiates with the enemy on the basis of the status of another. These negotiations also concern the transfer of the territories.
From the two parts of the Armenian nation:
The transnational Armenian nation living in many countries of the world and which is several times more than the Armenian nation living under the Armenian state, is deprived of political rights regarding the issues of the Armenian statehood governance,
A small part of the Armenian nation, which lives under the Armenian statehood, is also deprived of political rights related to the governance of the Armenian statehood.
The main reason for this is the existence of political monopoly in the Armenian state and the limitations of the political rights of transnational Armenian nation.
Despite the fact that we have a quarter century independent Armenian state: the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian nation was unable to secure civil, political, cultural, economic, scientific and military power under the Armenian statehood.
The national political thought remained in the embryonic stage of development.
The transnational Armenian nation did not raise its civilization level and did not get out from the narrow mold in which it has been living for centuries.
We did not understand and realize the importance of the national state as a guarantee for the existence of a nation.
The development of the Armenian political thought and the practical steps undertaken by the traditional Armenian parties, educational institutions and clergymen in Armenian Diaspora communities were limited to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
The Diaspora Armenians and the Armenians living in Artsakh and Armenia were unable to develop a political thought that led to the swamp of the national political spirit.
The sensitive, willing and responsible participation of all Armenians in the Armenian political life has become a mandatory and irreplaceable function.
The cornerstone of the Armenian political philosophy of the 21st century should be the direct political involvement of transnational Armenian nation in the building policy of Armenian legal, national ideal statehood.
Having significant positions in the modern world with huge material and non-material abilities, Armenians have the opportunity and obligation to create a worldwide network of national civil and political co-operation through which it would be possible to create a promising national prospect – the creation of a legal and national ideal independent statehood and the loyalty to the historical homeland.
The ideological value system, under which people live and create, is essential for the establishment of each nation.
We, Armenians of the 21st century, have not proclaimed our national ideology by the national political structure and have not yet adopted our nationwide development program.
The reason for the deficiency of capital investments on behalf of the current transnational Armenian nation for the recreation of a national state is not the lack of patriotism or savings at the expense of the development of national programs.
For centuries, all the Armenian cultural, educational and spiritual life has been organized by the material resources of the patriotic Armenians, which, however, is not enough for the revival of the national ideal state in the Homeland.
The role of the Armenian clergy in the Church has been limited to the policy of preserving the Armenian identity and following the Armenian traditions.
Consequently, without the national development policy, during some time the existing Armenian Diaspora communities will disappear and their abilities will serve for the development of foreign countries.
The conclusion is that this dual political status of the Armenian nation, which has demonstrated disastrous consequences, should be eliminated.
The fact that we need to dismantle this system is unequivocal. Certainty for the need of the introduction of a new system and the formation of new political elite is also unequivocal. But most importantly, we need to change our consciousness – we cannot continue to live in such a way.
We, Armenia and the Diaspora:
– We must defeat the quarterly systematic authoritarianism,
– We have to implement the pan-Armenian connection to become one political body in Armenia and in Diaspora,
– We have to implement the primary political agenda to hold the legitimate elections of the political bodies of the Armenian statehood, including the Parliament, the President, and the Government. In such political system the elections should be free, equal and transparent aiming to ensure the participation of transnational Armenian nation.
To achieve this, it is necessary to carry out the following actions:
- Develop a network of transnational Armenian political structures in Armenia, Artsakh and in the highly Armenian-populated cities of the world.
- Develop and adopt a national development program.
- To elect delegates from two parts of the Armenian nation (from the Armenian statehood and from the representatives of the transnational Armenian nation) to invite the Global Armenian National Forum.
- Develop the agenda of the Global Armenian Pan-National Forum.
- To nominate and elect a provisional government that will prepare the elections of the Armenian unified statehood with the participation of transnational Armenian nation.
- Approve the principles of the provisional government and its regulations.
- Approve the provisional government action plan and determine deadline for its execution.