Diaspora Dilemma – The Time for Hard Choices Has Come and Gone!
2009/09/2 5 | 00:44
important politics
A reader from Cyprus sent us the following commentary on the diaspora,
its relationship with the RoA and the current rift over the recent
Armenian-Turkish protocols – Hetq.
How ironic and sad that this pretentious flare-up between the Diaspora
and the RoA remains one of the farce that took place at the Paris
Peace Conference when there were two competing delegations vying for
scraps at the negotiations table – one lead by Boghos Nubar Pasha, for
the diaspora/western Armenia, and the other lead by Avetis Aharonian
for the first RoA.
It was a farce then and low and behold some 90 years later the
Armenian nation finds itself in the same predicament. We, as a people,
haven’t advanced one iota.
It is high time that all Armenians, whether they consider themselves
western or eastern, diasporan or citizens of the RoA, realize that the
current political entity called the RoA is the amalgam of both
geographical sphere of historic Armenia and as such it remains the
sole official representative of the entire nation and its interests.
The Diaspora, or certain elements within it, might think differently
but that is the cold reality.
This issue isn’t new and has deep roots, but the Diaspora must face
facts. It cannot directly negotiate with the Turkish state; it lacks
both the institutions to do so and remains disparate collections of
petty organizations and spheres of interest.
The Diaspora and those forces within it who now lambast the protocols
and the foreign policy of the current RoA regime need to question
their own actions in the matter.
What exactly does the Diaspora want? Who speaks for the Diaspora?
These questions remain unanswered and sadly will remain so.
If the Diaspora was sincere about its present outcry and criticism of
the protocols, it would need to confess that its arguments against the
document are flimsy and superficial at best.
Genocide recognition; fine. Then what? Even if Turkey were to one day
recognize the historical truth; then what? Will this lead to the
descendants of Genocide survivors to move back to western Armenia and
pick up the pieces of their interrupted historical development? Surely
NOT!
The Diaspora laments the actions of the current RoA regime but takes
little if no interest in changing it. On the contrary, where were the
so-called leaders of the Diaspora after the fraudulent 2008
presidential elections in Armenia that ushered in the Sargsyan
government?
Most diasporan organizations argued back then that it was better to
remain silent rather than to destabilize the country. Dear
compatriots, this is unprincipled politics. You can’t have it both
ways!
Let the sons and daughters of the Diaspora, led by their leaders, show
that they are serious about their convictions.
They should either move to Armenia or actively participate in the
political process or they should create a government in exile and send
its diplomats knocking on the doors of the European powers.
The ARF once again attempts to deceive the uninitiated that it is the
protector of the nation’s interests and declares a hunger-strike in
downtown Yerevan.
Does the ARF forget the infamous Treaty of Alexandropol that it signed
or the fact that they requested Turkish military help during the 1921
February Uprising to battle the advancing Bolshevik forces?
Where was the Diaspora and the rhetorical nationalists of today when
ASALA was taking the fight to the Turkish heartland 25-30 years ago?
Back then all one heard was `Amot, Amot’ (Shame, Shame).
Let’s get real folks. All this sudden bluster over the protocols is
just that – empty rhetoric.
People like former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian wax eloquently
about some imaginary injury to Armenian `self-dignity’ if the
protocols are signed and that we’d be depriving ourselves of future
possibilities vis-a-vis territorial compensation. UTTER RUBBISH!
Let the sons and daughters of the Diaspora take up arms and fight
alongside the PKK, that way they might have some moral justification
to make territorial demands on eastern Anatolia.
BUT NO! Oskanian lives in a fairy-land of dreams just like the ARF who
continue to spout nationalist rhetoric but does piss-all when it comes
to real revolutionary work. They call themselves the Armenian
`Revolutionary’ Federation but don’t have the guts to call for
President Sargsyan’s resignation. What utter nonsense.
At least, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, for all his faults, had the pragmatic
nerve to say that the Genocide issue had no place in Armenia’s foreign
policy agenda. Basically, he told the diaspora to take the lead.
Ponder this as a final thought. When was the last time, prior to these
recent protocols, did you hear any discussion or debate regarding the
Treaty of Kars? The voices of dissent are so vociferous in Yerevan,
Beirut and Los Angeles that one would assume that Armenians for the
past 88 years spoke nothing but Kars around the dinner table or at the
local coffee shop.
Now however, when there is a real document on the table with real
consequences and requiring real decisions to be made, people have
literally come out of the woodwork with a variety of opinions. It’s
this definition of the issue, of how to proceed into the unknown,
which has so many at their wit’s end. Why? Because they have nothing
concrete to offer as a viable substitute and haven’t seen the need to
for lo these many years.
This is what really is at issue. Better to continue along the path of
inaction and indecisiveness than actually sit down and hammer out a
plan of action. That, however, requires time and effort, and a real
set of national values.
Not one Armenian government in power since 1991, the year of
independence from the Soviet Union, has ever said that Armenian has
territorial claims of Turkey. This seemed palatable to the vast
majority, in Armenia and the diaspora. So what has changed now to make
so many predict doom and gloom if the protocols are enacted? Mostly
it’s the fear of the unknown and the understanding that they have
nothing to offer as a substitute. They have been living a lie and are
too ashamed to admit it.
I’ve come to the sad realization that as a people we should better
concentrate on the here and now rather than continually living a lie
and wallow in the dead-end of self-deception.
Historical experience proves we are competent to do no more.