It turned out that in recent days I had the opportunity to communicate with several Diaspora Armenians. Of course, when I say “communicate,” I mean face-to-face communication, because, in my opinion, the virtual space is not so much for human contact as it is for fruitless tongue-twisters.
Let me present my impressions from the conversation with them, and start with the good news: in the Diaspora, according to my interlocutors, there is no retreat related to national identity due to the defeat in the war. Instead, there are unanswered questions about the causes and results of the defeat.
Here in Armenia, we are obsessed with the discussion of mutual accusations between the government and the opposition, while our compatriots are more interested in the stability of the state of Armenia and the fate of Artsakh. They are also concerned about internal political tensions. They are interested in who can act as a mediator between the government and the opposition, so that the two “irreconcilable” parts of both politics and society find edges of contact and unite around the nationwide agenda. I think that President Vahagn Khachaturyan can play a certain role in this matter.
As much as we criticized (in many cases, appropriately) the Armenia-Diaspora forum and the work of the Ministry of Diaspora in general, our compatriots saw certain charges in these activities: these events helped us to “speak one language.” Naturally, we are talking about public, political “language.” At the same time, some initiatives of Diaspora Affairs Commissioner Zareh Sinanyan are also approved.
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Not only from these conversations, but also from contacts and other signs before that, I got the impression that the gap between Armenia and the Diaspora has deepened during these 4 years. The problem is not only the deterioration of relations with Dashnaktsutyun, a mistake Levon Ter-Petrossian also committed.
The current government was so short-sighted that it also got angry with the Mother See, which is perceived negatively in the Diaspora. But in general, it seems to me that due to the certain vanity and arrogance of today’s rulers, the Diaspora factor is being underestimated in practice (not at the level of words).
Meanwhile, I doubt that no matter what authorities or external allies we have, we can face today’s challenges alone with 2.5-3 million people.
Aram Abrahamyan
