NORAYR EBLIGHATIAN
Recently I read an article titled “Mer Oughin (i.e. OUR PATH) is not a Dissention”, and a paragraph struck a chord. The section read as follows:
Այնուամենայնիվ, քանի դեռ Սփյուռքը չի միացել ՆՈՐ ազգային, քաղաքական, տնտեսական, սոցիալական, էկոլոգիական և մշակութային հայկական նոր վերածննդի գալակտիկային՝ ՄԵՐ ՈՒՂԻՆ այդ երկբեվեռային ամբողջական համադրությունը կատարելու առաքելությունը ունի։
“As long as the Diaspora has not united over a NEW national, political,economic, social, ecological, and a cultural Armenian paradigm, MER OUGHIN (OUR PATH), will have the mission of coordinating all these.”
The Armenian national identity has come a long way from geographical locale tribalism (I am from Aintab, or Tbilisi, or Istanbul); however, our Diaspora is structured in micro-units (e.g. the Armenian community in Amman, Jordan) that make each component vulnerable. A simple proof of this fragility is the incident where a statement by an Armenian individual unleashed (pre-planned) demonstrations against the Armenians in Lebanon. It is quite significant that the Armenian Leadership in Lebanon responded by contextualizing these protests as a law & order issue. While I understand the need to calm the situation, a question comes to mind: Was the destruction of the Armenian communities in Iraq and in Syria (especially Aleppo and the Deir-Zor region) a law & order and judicial issue?
If we start from the premise of the interrelationship of Armenia-Diaspora-Artsakh and their mutual support for survival and consolidation; then paying attention to the Diaspora is a pressing concern. In this post, I would like to focus on the structures and resilience of the Diaspora-1. As mentioned previously, these units are mostly dissociated from one another and each has tried to create a separate microcosm. As a consequence of this fragmented structure, our institutions in the Diaspora have reached a level of diminishing returns. Some examples:
. Our schools are getting weaker and are not self-sustaining anymore.
.Our traditional media (newspapers) have lost readership and are onthe verge of collapse.
. Our organizations are mired in the cold war mentality, even though the Berlin wall fell in 1989.
I realize that some pundits will lecture me about the irrelevance of the above-mentioned institutions; but I would like to propose that we seriously think and work towards the integration and fortification of the Armenian Diaspora. For example: We can start with consolidating the core curriculum of our schools which can lead into common educational material.
We can organize Diasporan trade unions, professional unions (including a Teacher Union) and other trans-Diasporan associations. We can consolidate and modernize our media:
– National events, news, and issues are common across all of them; therefore, a centralized staff can serve all these needs, while local bulletins can be addressed with much reduced personnel.
-Digitization of our media should be the core platform of our media (not an afterthought). Our political, cultural and athletic organizations can start collaborating to produce higher quality public events. There is absolutely no reason left to clinging to a cold war mentality anymore. More examples will not add substantial value to the proposition of reevaluating and restructuring our Diaspora. This is a long arduous process.
Also, we need to stop exporting our Diasporan assets to Armenia (AGBU comes to mind). This reference is about the liquidation of assets and transferring the proceeds to Armenia, as opposed to building new resources in Armenia. When the leadership of Armenia (with their governmental institutions) are stressing the need of the Diaspora as an entity for cross collaboration and mutual help; why are we disassembling assets that our forefathers took years and years to accumulate? What is the purpose of weakening the Diaspora any further?
Very simply, we can start working on the platform of a new, stronger Armenian Diaspora and that restructuring can start with collaboration, integration and renewed structures.