The Conference of ARF’s Hay Dat Committees
Yerkir.am
March 16, 2007
The second conference of ARF’s Hay Dat Committees was held in Yerevan
on March 12. 85 representatives of Hay Dat Offices, ARF structures and
youth and student unions from 27 countries participated in the
conference.
The conference is aimed at reflecting on ARF Hay Dat’s strategy and
the tasks the Hay Dat Committees and Offices are facing in the context
of the international developments and the challenges Armenia is
facing.
The accomplishments and problems in Armenia’s domestic and foreign
fronts were presented to the conference participants. Member of ARF’s
Bureau Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Vahan Hovhannissian
congratulated the participants on the occasion of adoption of dual
citizenship. Hovhannissian noted that one of ARF’s greatest
accomplishments in Hay Dat activities is that it managed to work in an
organized manner, a task that is rather difficult to accomplish.
Hay Dat Offices have managed to represent the Armenian nation that was
deprived of a state for decades because the Soviet Armenia did not
deal with Hay Dat issues. The Soviet Union was representing Armenia,
and this representation did not derive from the interests of the
Armenian nation and the latter was deprived of an opportunity to
struggle for its national life. This, according to Hovhannisian, meant
that issues of national importance could only be raised by the segment
of the Armenian nation that lived in the free world. And this was done
through the ARF.
Hay Dat Committees were established with the support of ARF. In the
beginning of the XX century an opinion dominated that every segment of
the nation should deal with its own issues. `It is clear that this
approach was introduced by our enemies. We have observed the
unfortunate consequences of this approach,’ Hovhannissian stated
adding that because of this extreme approach only the Western
Armenians are tasked with pursuing the Armenian cause.
The other extreme that is equally dangerous is that Hay Dat Offices do
not have any value since there is the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Hovhannissian believes this approach is completely wrong. The
work of Hay Dat Offices has doubled because Armenia’s interests are
now represented autonomously.
The Republic of Armenia manages to work in a better organized manner
appreciating the strength and support of the Diaspora. `All political
forces in Armenia should realize that we have common interests, the
interests of the entire Armenian nation. Local interests should not be
mixed with pan-national interests. Pan-national interests connect
Armenia to the Hay Dat,’ Hovhannissian stated. Hay Dat Offices are
Armenian foreign policy’s main support.
Member of ARF’s Supreme Body, Minister of Education and Science Levon
Mkrtchian presented a report on the balance of power in the region,
the problems and tasks of the Hay Dat Committees.
Minister Mkrtchian believes the comprehensive national security
concept adopted in Armenia has some influence on the country’s foreign
policy line and creates the necessary foundation for strengthening and
further development of the independent national state. Our common
vision of building a Free, Independent and United Armenia has a great
political and moral significance, Mkrtchian believes.
Armenia’s foreign policy is aimed at one specific goal ` strengthening
of our fifteen-year-old independence and consolidating its
accomplishments. `The factor of balance of power in the region is very
important from this perspective,’ Mkrtchian said. Armenia has always
been at the locus of clashes and conflicts and our nation has suffered
greatly because of this.
`There have been very few instances throughout our history when we
lived in a situation of balance and a dialogue of civilizations rather
than clash of civilizations. These short periods became times of
revival of our nation and restoration of our independence and
statehood,’ Mkrtchian said.
According to Mkrtchian, the balance of regional powers is of crucial
importance and it can be defined on three levels ` civilization,
political and national. The civilization level is universal in its
contents. From this perspective our nation’s role as a nation and
state of universal civilization value is important.
`From civilization perspective, Armenia is unique in that different
civilization values clash and merge here,’ Mkrtchian said adding that
our nation is the unique Christian nation that has been perceived as a
`friend’ in the Muslim world and has managed to preserve its ties with
the European value system despite the fact of living at the border of
the Muslim world. This makes the Armenian nation a very important
factor in terms of preserving the civilization balance.
On the second, political level we should strive to achieve a balance
of interests, Mkrtchian believes. `Deep political interests clash in
this region and uni-polar accumulation of power has never been
beneficial for our nation,’ Mkrtchian said.
The third, national level will help us to survive and preserve our
unity and conciliation despite being spread throughout the
world. Balance in national issues is the guarantee of our internal
balance, Mkrtchian believes. Having survived in different situations,
living in many countries throughout the world, the Armenian nation
needs to ensure balancing mechanisms within itself, on the national
level in order to minimize the contradictions in our life.
`This is what determines Armenia’s policy that is considered to be a
policy of complementarism. If we analyze the last ten years of this
policy we can see that success was achieved at all three levels,’
Mkrtchian stated adding that due to its foreign policy Armenia has
managed to established friendly relations with countries with which
there were no relations at all.
Mkrtchian believes one of the most important principles for Armenia is
that the country’s relations with another state are never determined
by its relations with a third state. Mkrtchian believes we establish
the value system that allows us to go forward taking into
consideration the national interests. By clearly representing our
issues, the Hay Dat Offices and Committees manage to accomplish
significant success being anchored on their basic values.