Uniting the potential
Editorial

Yerkir/arm
January 28, 2005

Often a question is asked: “What substantial result does the process
of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide bear, and
why are we wasting our time and potential when it is used only by the
others.”

It is true that from time to time, the Armenian Question has been
included in the international diplomacy and used. Sadly, it did not
depend on the will of the Armenian people. Other countries have used
the Armenian Question for their interest — to settle their political
issues or expand their influence in the region, while our people,
often being unprepared, had faced the fact that its issue had become a
subject of the international diplomacy. And this is why we have seen
losses.

In its current stage, the Armenian Question has acquired a quite
different quality as it is the Armenian nation that has raised the
issue through the Artsakh struggle. On the way to settle it we have
gained a national sovereignty, and now the national issues lie on the
basis of our national policy. This means that now we are raising our
issue internationally.

The international recognition of the Genocide is the result of the
Diaspora’s decades-long extensive work because during its history, the
Diaspora has gone through several severe stages: from refuges
scattered around the world to a knowledgeable entirety. Later, this
entirety was able to come together, the communities were formed with
their many ties and then the Diaspora tried tomake political steps.

This was reflected in defending the human and national rights of the
Armenian people and formulating them as our claims. After they became
more established in other countries, the masses who had been deported
from their Homeland, continued to claim their right to go back and
receive human or material reparation.

Thus the issue became something that not only could be raised before
the foreigners but also something that could organize the Armenians
since thoseclaims are the powerful means of uniting Armenians living
under different circumstances, as well as their organizations, no
matter what their differences and interests were. We have a powerful
uniting goal – our claims â=80` that also serve our goal of preserving
the Armenian identity.

So they are directed not only outward but also inward and have a great
significance for organizing the communities. Now they have acquired a
new quality because the independent Armenian state has included the
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide in its foreign
policy, thus building adurable bridge between the Homeland and the
Diaspora.

The movement for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide
unites the Armenian potential for a great goal. So the issue is
bigger; it is not only a matter of Armenia’s foreign policy.