HOW TO BUILD RELATIONS WITH THE DIASPORA?

Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 31, 2008
Armenia

At the very first stage of the relationship with the Diaspora, the
Armenian authorities adopted not only new approaches corresponding
to the challenges of the 21st century but also started the process
of establishing relevant institutions for putting their plans into
practice.

Let’s recall the main stages of the activities carried out in the
sphere during the past years.

It is well-known that since Armenia’s gaining independence, the
relationship with the Armenian colonies of the Diaspora has passed
two principal stages of development, the first stage being the period
preceding the 1998 shift of power and the second stage being the period
between 1998 and 2008. And although these two stages drastically
differed from each other in terms of the policy trend towards the
Diaspora, such differences were of political-ideological rather than
practical-organizational nature.

During the tenure of L. Ter-Petrosyan, the Armenia-Diaspora relations
acquired an extremely ideologized character, becoming one of the
"spheres" of the political struggle inside the country. The Diaspora
was artificially divided into two camps, and this created a serious
threat in terms of restoring the realities of the Soviet-time Armenia.

After the 1998 shift of power, it became possible to overcome
this harmful20phenomenon as a result of advancing the formula of
cooperation among Armenia Artsakh and the Diaspora. However, the
right political-ideological starting point in the relationship with
the Diaspora was not yet enough for adopting and applying concrete
and clear-cut procedures of implementation.

Following the 1998 shift of power, the political component increasingly
developed in the Armenia-Diaspora relations, the common strategic
objective of achieving the international recognition of the Armenian
Genocide being the underlying thesis of such policy. As regards
the clear-cut procedures of cooperation, they continued to remain
on the level of the economic assistance and the involvement of the
medium-scale investments of the Diaspora.

The fact that the Armenian authorities are seriously inclined to
establish a new level cooperation with the Diaspora became obvious due
to the initiative of setting up a separate structure dealing with the
issues of the Diaspora and granting it the status of a ministry. This
kind of ministries exist in many countries, so having a Diaspora
community twice exceeding its population, our country could no longer
fall behind other states.

This means that the Armenian authorities are no longer satisfied
with organizing pan-Armenian conferences or conducting fundraising
marathons, and they view the relationship with the Diaspora as a
day-to-day painstaking activity.

>From now on, any educational, cultural and other probl em of any colony
of the Diaspora will become a matter of concern for the Republic of
Armenia as well. And each of our compatriots will feel that he/she
is not alone in his/her everyday work aimed at the preservation of
the Armenian nation and enjoys the support of the Armenian statehood.

The most important component in the process of upgrading the
relationship with the Diaspora from the political-ideological level
to the plane of day-to-day practical work is certainly the sphere of
economic cooperation.

And as shown by the experience of the past years, there is no progress
in this sphere. With their huge capital, the representatives of the
Armenian Diaspora have a strictly cautious attitude towards making
serious investments in our country. They prefer to satisfy themselves
with medium-scale programs which cannot produce a serious negative
impact even if they suffer a failure.

Such phenomenon results from psychological complexes which developed in
the course of several years. In order to overcome them it is necessary
not only to introduce serious changes in the tax and customs policy
implemented in the country but also form an absolutely new atmosphere
of mutual trust. In this respect, the new authorities managed, in
the course of their few months’ activity, to do more than did their
predecessors in the whole period after Armenia’s gaining independence.

As a result of President Serge Sargsyan’s meeting wi th the prominent
Armenian businessmen during his visit to Moscow and after their visit
to Armenia, a radical turning point was observed in the dispositions of
the Armenian businessmen residing in Russia. A couple of weeks later,
the amount of the investments promised by the Armenian businessmen
reached the borderline of 700 million US Dollars.

This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the whole history of the
Armenia-Diaspora relations. The businessmen of the Diaspora have
started to demonstrate trust in the reforms implemented in our country
and link their future entrepreneurial activity to their motherland.

In such circumstances, the interests of foreign countries’ non-Armenian
capital will inevitably increase, since the companies (mainly founded
by the Armenians residing in Russia) which are going to enter our
country will bring others after them.

Thus, all the plans that were discussed during the successive
conferences devoted to the Armenia-Diaspora relations for around 1.5
decade are being put into practice by the Armenian authorities from
the very first months of their activities.