September 20 marked the end of the third three-day “Armenia-Diaspora” congress. Many Armenians from the Diaspora had made the trip to Armenia to take part in the event. According to the event organizers, this year’s congress differed from the other two in that there were more people from many countries.
During the three-day congress, there were many speeches, speakers called on the people gathered, made suggestions, talked about using the potential of the Diaspora, steps towards preserving Armenian roots abroad, etc. However, the congress later became an occasion for expressing desires and demanding: some Armenian Diasporans demanded that the Armenian language return to the orthography of the creator of the Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots, give at least 10 spots for political figures from the Diaspora at the National Assembly, form a “Ministry of the Diaspora” in Armenia, etc. Citizens of Armenia really wanted to use the potential of the Diaspora, in fact, the connotation of this word combination “use potential” was sending money to Armenia and Artsakh for implementing this or that project. One of the topics talked about was the project aimed towards getting rid of poverty in the villages, recognition of the Armenian Genocide, dual citizenship, etc., however, the congress was known for its lack of speech. You got the impression that the number of participants gathered hadn’t come to Armenia to do something, but rather to be in Armenia and go sight-seeing. In other words, many of them had come here as tourists. I tried to find out from some of the participants about their expectations and what they’re going to do in order to implement the projects talked about during the congress. However, each time I asked a question, they all kept saying that it’s good to have an Armenia-Diaspora congress, that their homeland, Armenia, is a beautiful country and that they feel good here, that Mount Ararat is simply magnificent and other things, and that Armenia and the Diaspora must unite as one and it is then that Armenia will become a strong country. According to them, organizing such congresses in Yerevan is very important because you can feel Mount Ararat with you. Some of them expressed their desire to look at the smaller mountain first the next time they make the trip to the homeland. In general, there was a lot of emotion during the congress, however there were depressing speeches too. For example, on the last day of the congress, Head of the Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan made a speech and called on the gatherers to stop being emotional and think more seriously and do something. According to G. Harutyunyan, currently Armenia isn’t able to define our status and move forward. He says that if Armenians know their priorities, they will see that stabilizing the state is a major issue because without statehood, a nation’s future is in danger. Harutyunyan believes that the current mechanisms with which Armenia works with the Diaspora aren’t solutions or are close to being solutions. He doesn’t believe in the formation of a Ministry of the Diaspora in Armenia. “It’s impossible to be in charge of relations between Armenia and the Diaspora from Armenia and don’t go along with world processes,” said Harutyunyan.
It was interesting to hear the speech by French-Armenian Petros Terzyan, who said that the yearly income of the Diaspora reaches 100 billion dollars of which only a small amount is provided to Armenia and said that if the Diaspora wants to help Armenia, it has to be “proud of Armenia”. He also said that national ideology is “old and there must be something new to believe in”, and according to Terzyan, that something new is Armenia, “but not this Armenia.”. “We need a country that we can be proud of. Be democratic, fair and get rid of corruption,” said Terzyan after which followed applauds and he added, “If you can’t provide that, then we can’t help Armenia. You do your part, we’ll do ours.” As for Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vartan Oskanyan, he proudly said that the dual citizenship law would pass at the National Assembly by the end of the year, which was followed by applause. It’s worth mentioning that Oskanyan, who is getting ready for the Armenian presidential elections, ended his speech saying “The 21st century is ours.”