ARMENIA IS NOT A "NOSTALGIC, ROMANTIC" HOMELAND

Panorama.am
18:57 21/08/2007

"For years, the Genocide has been the only motivator for Diaspora
Armenians," Lebanese Armenian Asbed Koochigian stated at the "Friday
Club." He added that for the new generation of Armenians, Armenia isn’t
merely a place of nostalgia, as it was for their parents’ generation.

"We don’t have the pretension that all Armenians need to look at
Armenia as a homeland. This is fine, let everyone look at things
their own way. But let them look at Armenia as a real place, with a
government, not as a place for nostalgia," he said, adding "the idea of
homeland has a different meaning for different people. For the third
or fourth generation American-Armenian the homeland is, for example,
Kharberd, but when they see Armenia as a state, an organic state,
their ideas will change, and they will say ‘this is my Armenia.’"