"WE MUST NOT DISCUSS ALL THE ISSUES ON THE SAME LEVEL"

A1+
[03:30 pm] 25 September, 2006

Participant of the third conference "Armenia-Diaspora" Oshin
Qeshishyan who is the editor of "Armenian Observer" weekly which
has been published in Los Angeles for the last 36 years, thinks that
"the same copied materials were represented during the conference,
whereas we needed specialists more than speeches".

"It is impossible to hold a conference with 1000 participants. There
were Armenians from different countries and continents, with different
problems. For example, an Armenian from France is interested
in completely different problems from those of an Armenian from
Iran. That’s why we must not discuss all the issues on the same
level. It is noteworthy that no reference was made to the problems
of the Diaspora with the exception of the problem of preserving the
self-consciousness", Oshin Qeshishyan said.

As for the issue of preservation of originality of the Armenians, Oshin
Qeshishyan mentioned that in California, besides "Armenian Observer", a
number of other periodicals are published; there are Armenian schools,
three Armenians private round-the-clock TV Channels, etc. Nevertheless,
he did not deny the fact that if there weren’t immigrants from Armenia,
the Armenian community of California would soon be "exhausted". For
example, in one of the state Universities of Glendale where he works
as lecturer, eight thousand of the 20 thousand students are Armenians,
of which six thousand have migrated from Armenia and study excellently.

As for "Armenian Observer", the editor said, "Although it is published
in English, it is still an Armenian newspaper as it refers to the
national problems of the local Armenians. It is published in English
as in Armenian it would not be so popular. And now, it is read by
many senators, congressmen and even common Americans. Thus we tell
them about us".