The way Mother Armenia treats its compatriots trying to immigrate to Armenia after the periodical “Armenia-Diaspora”, “One Nation, One Culture” and similar events reminds us of the story about the little boy who saw what he saw by peeking in the hole of his parents’ bedroom door and then complained to his friends that after that, his parents still didn’t let him pick his nose. After touring the half-empty villages of our 30,000 square meter homeland with its 2.5 million population, our pretensions about Western Armenia and the nearby territories seem illogical when even the government doesn’t wish to populate the country. The proof of the vitality of the inexplicable connection between Armenia and the Diaspora is one project: the “Hayastan” All Armenian Fund with its donations from the Armenian Diasporans. But what does Armenia have to offer its compatriots besides the [oral] guarantee of a homeland and being a temporary hostel which the Armenian Diasporans pay for?-nothing.
The events taking place in the Middle East, the quotidian terrorist acts in Iraq force the local Armenians to return to Armenia if not for the love of the homeland, then at least for the sake of saving their lives. Whereas Armenians from Lebanon, Syria and Israel can sell their properties and come to Armenia with some capital, our compatriots living in Iraq are in a desperate situation. It is practically impossible to sell real estate in Iraq; thus, the Iraqi-Armenians come to Armenia mainly without any sources. Not one of the people in favor of the Armenia-Diaspora unity and having one culture is waiting for those people in Armenia. Vice-president of the Iraqi-Armenian Union of Armenia and professor of Eastern Studies at the Yerevan State University Yervand Minasyan confirmed that too.
“There is a mass of Armenians leaving Iraq. Some (approximately 4000) have emigrated to Syria and Jordan. Today, there are 5-6,000 Armenians in Iraq. Tens of Iraqi-Armenians fly from Aleppo to Armenia each week. But no state structure awaits them here; they can’t find any place to say or work. The money they bring is spent and they are left in the middle of nowhere. They have applied to the President of Armenia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but no reply. Thus, our compatriots from Iraq use Armenia as a temporary landing. Although the immigrants have taxing and other privileges for a couple of years of residence by law, however a day after they start a business, the taxing officials come knocking on their doors and threaten them to pay a certain amount of money in order to leave them alone. If there was some kind of Refugees’ Committee that would call the Armenian Diasporans, ask them questions and try to at least populate them near the border and provide special loans, those people would stay in Armenia and go along with the consequences. But on the contrary, they have left those people in the middle of nowhere. They remain poor and long for generosity.”
In response to the question regarding the Iraqi-Armenians’ involvement in the political and cultural life of Iraq, Yervand Minasyan said the following:
“There are no longer any Armenian districts in Iraq. The new Iraqi government tried to include Armenians in the parliament. In particular, they suggested that Pertch Kirarkosyan, who is rather close with the Iraqi president, enter the parliament. However, being the man of democratic values that he is, Kirakosyan refused because it turned out that they were not suggesting electing him, but rather appointing him as a deputy.
Pertch Kirakosyan was recently in Yerevan and Yervand Minasyan sent a letter to the Iraqi president via Kirakosyan, asking the president to include Armenia in the list of 30 countries where Iraq is getting ready to open embassies. The fact of the matter is that the situation of the Armenians who have emigrated from Iraq is difficult not only from the materialistic, but also moral and legal point of views. Candidate of historical sciences and Eastern Studies specialist Arax Pashayan also says that it is practically impossible to get information about Iraqi-Armenians and that there are no perspectives for the Iraqi-Armenians in Armenia.
“Basically, we don’t know how our compatriots are living in Iraq. Based on the data that we have, a considerable part of the current Armenian community of Iraq (the number of Iraqi-Armenians before the 2003 Iraq war ranged from 22-25,000) have desperately escaped to neighboring countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, while others have fled to Holland and the U.S. A small group of Iraqi-Armenians have found themselves in Armenia. There is no organization in Armenia that can present the current migration situation of Iraqi-Armenians. The Iraqi-Armenians have temporarily taken refuge in Armenia. People who have managed to sell their homes in Iraq (it’s almost impossible to sell property in that country) purchased homes in Yerevan at the right time. Those who still haven’t been able to escape from Iraq have simply fled Baghdad, which is considered the boiling point of conflicts, to the village areas. The problem is that Islamists fighting against the U.S. troops consider the Iraq war as the struggle between Islam and the crusaders; thus, they choose the Christians of Iraq (Chaldeans, Armenians and Assyrians) as the target of the struggle. Since the representatives of the Iraqi-Armenian community don’t pay 80-120,000 drams to Armenian television networks to broadcast at least one minute of information about them, Armenians don’t know anything about the Armenians in Iraq who also become victims of the ongoing terrorist acts. In fact, Yervand Minasyan’s aunt’s daughter-in-law was killed in a bus bombing near the Americans while completing domestic work. Besides that, many rich Armenians and their family members are kidnapped in Iraq. They kidnap them and then demand 100,000 dollars; otherwise, they kill the hostages.
While all this is going on, the construction of the somewhat North street is still underway and is gathering full speed.
P.S. Since Yervand Minasyan has lived in Iraq and has even studied with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, it was interesting to hear his impressions about the death penalty of Saddam Hussein. “I agree with punishing those kinds of dictators. That will teach all extortionists a lesson. However, I was against having the Americans do that and not the Iraqi.”