Ruben Vardanyan, evolutionary visionary, Co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, UWC Dilijan, FAST, International School of Leadership and Professional Development “Matena” and other projects.
Part 6
Read the beginning here
Armenia will be able to adequately fulfill the historical role of the centering and integrative element that will unite the Armenian world only if it offers the Diaspora a multilateral creative partnership, enabling a fruitful synthesis of the fragmented nation. Establishing such a partnership, in my opinion, is possible under the following conditions:
Read also
- A fundamentally different format of relationships. First of all, we need to stop separating in our minds the citizens of Armenia and the Armenians of the Diaspora. The Diaspora, which finds itself in the deepest slump, needs a prosperous Armenia no less than Armenia needs a strong Diaspora. We must jointly find the optimal balance for the formula “a network nation — a strong country” to work. In other words, it is necessary to restructure the relationship between the Armenian communities of different countries and between the Armenian Diaspora as a whole and modern Armenia. And this suggests an intense dialogue and a search for compromises. The task of our elite is to establish meaningful and productive interaction between the fragments of a disparate nation, while overcoming the characteristic individualism of Armenians. This is the key to the future success of the nation as a whole. Relations between the Diaspora and Armenia should become bilateral. The Diaspora will be fully supporting Armenia only if Armenia is supporting the Diaspora.
We need to stop separating in our minds the citizens of Armenia and the Armenians of the Diaspora.
At the moment, the largest entrepreneurs of Armenian origin, whose combined fortune is several times Armenia’s GDP, donate funds to charity, but do not invest them in the country’s future. We must face the truth: $200–300 million of direct foreign investment over the past two years, the lion share of which is money coming from the Armenian Diaspora, look pathetic against the background of an annual amount of $2.3 billion of remittances that migrants make for the livelihood of their families in Armenia. This measly figure shows that over 30 years of independence, Armenia has not become the focus of the Diaspora’s vital interests. Fortunately, things are changing: businessmen from the Diaspora are launching investment programs in Armenia, and I trust that the day when $2 billion in aid is complemented with $20 billion in investments is not far off.
The joint projects implemented today in Armenia by the citizens of the country and the diasporan Armenians are the most successful, but they are still a rare exception. There is a need for a transition from one-off charity to systemic investments that speed up the country’s development based on social entrepreneurship. However, in order to boost the country’s appeal to institutional investors, the government needs to have a clear vision of the future.
Ruben Vardanyan: “Being convinced that we ourselves must create the future of our dreams, I was granted the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia.”
Photo credit: Personal archive
- At least 50,000 families (150,000+ people) moving to Armenia. Armenia should become a magnet for the brightest minds who, by joining forces and sharing experiences, will be able to come up with fresh ideas. First and foremost, these should be members of our Diaspora, but one can expect that these talented people, using their extensive contacts in different countries of the world, will be attracting others.
This is by no means a fantasy: the past hundred years have seen several waves of resettlement to Armenia, and with each of them, the Armenian society has changed noticeably. In the 1920s and 1930s, more than 16,000 Armenians arrived in the Armenian SSR, mainly from Europe and Russia. Braving ideological differences, part of the world Armenian elite also decided to move to Soviet Armenia at the invitation of the Soviet government and the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the 1940s, as a result of Stalin’s forced policy of repatriation, a further 150,000 Armenians from Greece, Syria, Egypt, Iran, France, and the United States relocated to the ASSR. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a wave of resettlers come from Azerbaijan. In the 2000s, about 30,000 Syrian Armenians arrived in independent Armenia, and our country has welcomed about the same number of refugees from Artsakh since late last year.
For Armenia, which is going through a demographic crisis, the first step in achieving high population growth rates should be the development of a modern immigration policy.
Apparently, the mass resettlement does not go smoothly: despite the fact that Armenians moved to Armenia, they found themselves in a different social and cultural context, which inevitably caused trouble between them and the local residents. Not without rejection on both sides. Some repatriates, unable to adapt and disappointed, left back; for some, Armenia became a transit point on the way to other countries. For example, we did not take advantage of the wave of resettlement in the late 1980s and early 1990s and did not create conditions for the most educated and hardworking migrants to live and work in Armenia, as it was in the first half of the 20th century, when the intellectual elite of Soviet Armenia was formed mainly of repatriates. Those were examples of mutual enrichment: the repatriates diversified social and cultural life of Armenia, introducing knowledge of foreign languages, jazz, cozy sidewalk cafés, the national cuisine of the countries they came from, and much more.
Evidently, for Armenia, which is going through a severe demographic crisis, the first step in achieving high rates of population growth should be the development of a modern immigration policy. And it needs to be developed based on the experience of previous waves of repatriation. We must scrutinize each of them, fix our mistakes, analyze all the pros and cons to avoid repeating the past, which resulted in massive outflows of disillusioned repatriates. In addition, we need to study the experience of repatriation that is available from other countries, and not only from Israel. Such work, of course, will entail serious effort.
What mechanisms need to be created to make it easier for people to immigrate and adapt? Should it be simplified processes for obtaining a residence permit and citizenship, at least two working languages of international communication, special educational programs for children, public-private agencies in charge of these issues instead of ineffective ministries and departments? What else? That said, not only the state should be driving the transformations—society also needs to make efforts to integrate its new members. All this is important to discuss right now, if we want to tap into the unique potential the Diaspora has to offer, which is really capable of transforming our society in a fairly short time and thereby helping Armenia ensure explosive economic growth. Nevertheless, we have already begun work on a set of measures to facilitate the relocation, integration, and adaptation of 50,000 Armenian families from other countries coming to Armenia.
For 20 years now, my partners and I have been implementing initiatives aimed at the development of Armenia and the Armenian world. We have invested more than $700 million in these projects, and a significant share of this investment—$350 million— has come from my family funds. However, until recently, I was a citizen of the Russian Federation, and this, oddly enough, helped me handle the multiple pitfalls of working in Armenia. Back in the early 2000s, my partners and I attempted to initiate a public discussion of the future of Armenia and the Armenian people within the framework of the Armenia-2020 project. Calling on the Armenians of the Diaspora to move to Armenia in order to build a common Armenian state together with its local residents and convinced that we ourselves must create the future of our dreams, I was granted the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia.
Armenian by Choice – people who made a conscious choice to be Armenians.
Photo credit: The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative ©
- The opportunity to participate in the life of the country and in making decisions that are vital for Armenia and the Armenian people. In today’s world, the Republic of Armenia is a rare example of a monoethnic country with a global multicultural Diaspora in about 100 countries. Amid a surge in migration flows, relations between the sovereign state and the Diaspora are becoming increasingly pressing, and the choice of optimal models of interaction between the sovereign center and the Diaspora communities can be immensely useful not only for themselves but also for their countries of residence. Representatives of various Armenian communities around the world, willing to be more actively involved in the affairs of Armenia, need to determine an acceptable format for their participation in the life of the country and its development:
- move to Armenia without becoming its tax resident, continue to do business outside its borders and pay a fixed part of their income (as is customary, e.g., in Switzerland), or support the country’s economy as a consumer of its products and services;
- set up their own business in Armenia and become its tax resident;
- go on to reside where they are, but work remotely in Armenia, making an intellectual and financial contribution to its development;
- donate 10% of their income to the Development Fund of Armenia;
- continue to provide charitable support to Armenia occasionally, as before.
It is necessary to create all conditions for attracting people who are Armenians by Choice to work for the good of the country.
The Armenian Diaspora, while remaining in fact a financial donor for many citizens of the country, is practically not integrated into the real life of modern Armenia and has no leverage to influence the current changes. In recent years, the civil society of Armenia and some circles of the Diaspora have been discussing issues of granting citizenship to members of the Diaspora and the electoral rights for expatriate Armenian citizens. It is about involving the Diaspora in the life of Armenia, on the one hand, and ensuring the principle of inclusiveness for its citizens, on the other. Our proposition is to take the problem in a broader context: is the Republic of Armenia ready to create transparent technological mechanisms that will allow citizens residing abroad and diasporan Armenians to participate in referendums that solve certain problems of the development of the country and the nation? Given a lack of trust in the authorities, it is necessary to look for new ways to ensure national consensus. Nevertheless, we should bear in mind that the right to participate in solving issues of vital importance for the country and the nation entails certain obligations.
Self-identification with the Armenian world as a conscious choice deserves a separate mention. Many of those who are Armenians by blood and citizenship do not think of it as something important. At the same time, many people who are 1/8 Armenians or even have biologically nothing to do with the Armenian ethnos are deeply worried about Armenia’s fate and do their utmost for it. These people made a conscious choice to be Armenians, Armenian by Choice, and we need to create all conditions for their involvement in work toward the good of the country.
It is important to identify prominent diasporan Armenians, such as Nobel Prize winner Ardem Patapoutian, and motivate them to engage in the development of the country.
- The opportunity to hold high public offices. It has already been pointed out that by imposing restrictions on holding offices in Armenian state structures, we deny ourselves a golden opportunity to attract the best minds of the Diaspora to work for the good of Armenia. A case in point is Israel: throughout its history, the diaspora has been a powerful source of ideas, finances, and talented and proactive individuals who constantly helped the country prosper and contributed to its development.
Molecular biologist Ardem Patapoutian, 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine.
Photo credit: Internet resource
Fortunately, the active part of the Armenian Diaspora has not lost interest in Armenia. Right now, in my opinion, it is important to make joint efforts to design mechanisms, in particular special programs, that will help us identify 20–30 prominent diasporan Armenians (such as, for example, molecular biologist Ardem Patapoutian, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021), create conditions for their permanent or temporary work in Armenia, and motivate them to engage in the development of the country, putting their knowledge, professional and managerial experience in such key areas as education, healthcare, science and technology, etc., at the service of the state.
To be continued