WE SHOULD FIND PERFECT MECHANISMS OF USING LOBBYIST ORGANIZATIONS IN FAVOR OF ARMENIA, VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 12 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, NOYAN TAPAN. "Struggle with the help of organized
structures of Hay Dat was one of the greatest political victories
of ARFD.

ARFD Hay Dat Committees took out the Armenian people having no
statehood to the international arena." RA NA Vice-Speaker, ARFD Bureau
member Vahan Hovhannisian declared this on March 12, at the opening of
the Conference of ARFD Hay Dat Committees. In V. Hovhannisian’s words,
today when RA has a statehood, both the Armenian state and the Diaspora
should avoid two extreme approaches. The first is that the Diaspora
has its own and the state its own interests and tasks. In particular,
some people consider that only Diasporan Armenians should be engaged
in issues of Hay Dat. "There were such moods as early as in the
beginning of 20th century and our enemies sowed them," V. Hovhannisian
stated. The second extremity we should beware of is that independent
RA has its state structures and lobbyist organizations of Diaspora
"can impede it." "The truth is between the very two approaches, which
is correlation of factor of independence of Armenians created thanks
to the efforts of Hay Dat Committees with the factor of independence
of Armenia. At that, this problem is faced by both the state and the
Diaspora," V. Hovhannisian declared. He mentioned with satisfaction
that over the past years Armenia in its foreign policy more and
more leans on abilities of ARFD Hay Dat Committees and the latters,
in their turn, become stronger feeling firm support of Armenia. In
V. Hovhannisian’s words, "we should find perfect mechanisms of using
lobbyist organizations in favor of the state."