RIGHTLY SO
Jean Ipdjian

Gibrahayer
Oct 09, 2009

During the recent debate regarding the infamous Protocols, which
were finally somehow signed on Saturday in one of the halls of the
University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland and under the supervision
and watchful eyes of Mrs. Hilary Clinton fulfilling the role of
the almighty overseer, an important point was raised by a number of
people as to whether diasporan Armenians had the right to "interfere"
in the affairs of the Republic of Armenia, as they are not nationals
of that State.

Technically, the president of Armenia and the members of the parliament
in that country are only responsible to the people of their country
who have lawfully or otherwise elected them to their office.

The issue here of course is not the manner in which they were
elected nor is it whether the elections are fair or any other such
considerations. Armenia is one of the countries in the world where
there are more ethnic Armenians living outside Armenia, generally
referred to as the Diaspora, than there are in Armenia itself. And
in difference to other such cases in the world, diasporan Armenians
whatever their nationality and wherever they happen to live,
have very close spiritual links to that, to their mother country,
Armenia. Even during Soviet times this bond, this spiritual and moral
bond was considered to be so important that it was carefully nurtured
to grow and prosper. The Soviets had even created a special department
whose job was the management and administration of this bond. In the
last years of the Soviet Union, when Armenia was hit by a devastating
earthquake which destroyed hundreds of villages, tens of towns, most
of the city of then Leninakan, which had left hundreds of thousands
of people homeless, the then authori ties had amply harvested the
result of their efforts by the unprecedented drive of aid that poured
into the country from Armenian communities all over the world and
from countries who knew of Armenia and its plight mainly because of
their Armenian communities. Later on, during the war of independence
of the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh – Artsakh in Armenian –
the same kind of assistance was readily available from the Diaspora
and happily accepted.

Until the last very few months there was not a speech uttered by ant
official whether from the Armenian government, or from organisations
based in Armenian nor from the Diaspora where the need to further
strengthen Armenia-Diaspora ties were not stressed.

And rightly so.

Rightly so, because the absolute majority of Armenians both in
Armenia and the Diaspora had the illusion that their fate and
long-term wellbeing hinged on that bond and relationship, since one
of the most important characteristics of the majority of Armenians
is the preservation of their national identity, the perseverance
of their ethnicity as long as possible with the utopian aim of one
day seeing the rest of their motherland freed and returned to them
where they would eventually end up living. Today this ideal seems
utopian. Earlier I used that word consciously, because if a mere
twenty years ago someone had suggested that today we were going to
debate whether the independent Republic of Armenia should sign a
treaty or not, he would have been considered a hopeless dreamer.

Rightly so, because a century ago our nation was subjected to the
horrors of the Genocide, whose international recognition as Genocide
was actively sought for by Armenian organisations in the Diaspora
and till the last change of government in Armenia was one of the main
objects of her foreign policy.

Therefore, the question whether diasporan Armenians have the ri ght
to interfere in whether such a momentous agreement is entered into
or not goes beyond technicalities. The signing of the Protocols as
they stand today do not concern only the Republic of Armenia and
her inhabitants, but it concerns the whole of the Armenian nation
in its entirety regardless of nationality and residence. Armenians
in Diaspora have that right, because they are the result of the
occupation of their homeland by Turkey, because they are the result
of the persecution and Genocide committed by that country and because
Armenia is part of their homeland.