"Azatamartiks of Shirak marz have appealed to the Armenian Diaspora. The statement runs in part:
“Armenia’s home political events did have their direct impact on the whole country including Shirak marz. Commanders Ashot Zakarian, Mushegh Saghatelian and azatamartiks Harutiun Urutian and Gevorg Ghazarian are imprisoned on groundless accusations.”
Shirak has always been proud of his heros who have sacrificed everything for Armenia’s future prosperity and protected their Motherland with honour and dignity.
The arrestees have chosen a tough way to restore justice in the country: they have gone on a hunger-strike in prison cells.
Hundreds of thousands of Shirak residents are concerned about the authorities’ indifferent and scornful attitude towards the Artsakh war veterans.
We call on our compatriots living overseas and concerned over our heroes’ fortune to voice a complaint and to exert pressure on Armenia’s authorities in order to administer justice with joint efforts. Otherwise, the future of Armenia will be jeopardized,” the statement runs.To note, over 5450 people have participated in the collection of signatures in support of the political prisoners of the marz." [a1plus.am, bolding is mine]
I wonder what type of effect this will have. I hate to be a pessimist, but I think most Armenian organizations are too busy trying to either get power or money, or, are too busy trying to figure out and maintain their own identities to actually do that which should be most fundamental to all of them - that is - to help all Armenians and Armenia. Wondering how I can be so cynical? While there are some individuals and small groups, or subsets of larger Diasporan organizations that have been supporting the people in Armenia, the majority of the larger organizations have concocted some type of justification of the events surrounding March 1st, thus allowing them to go on with their business as usual.
Go ahead and try asking a member of one of these groups what they think about recent events in Armenia. A discussion of the fundamentally disturbing facts - oppression of basic human rights, political prisoners, a government shooting on its own people - is completely glossed over, only to be replaced by - what were they [protesters] expecting anyway? What did they think they would accomplish? ad nauseam...
When the disaster was the earthquake of 1988, or the war with Azerbaijan, things were black and white; there was no question of right or wrong, good or evil. Everyone wanted to collect money and wanted to support and help the people of Armenia, and the idea of Armenianhood. These disasters did not conflict with the perceived purposes of any of these organizations. But the path to be taken is not as clear for these organizations when they have to choose between the people of Armenia, and their own organizational purposes.
To be a little philosophical here, Plato writes about what is the true definition or identity of any object, the purest existence of it, for example, the "chairness" of a chair - ie, identifying that which is fundamental to all chairs, that which is what defines a chair as a chair. The majority of Diasporan Armenians and organizations are so caught up with trying to prove that they themselves are true Armenians, in that pure sense, that the actual state of living Armenians who are not involved in the debate has become meaningless to them. It's like sitting around and debating the chairness of chairs, while the chairs you are sitting on are falling apart.
I hope for the sake of Armenia, Armenians, and Armenian"ness" that I am surprised by an outpouring of responses and support.
I will be very happy to be proven wrong.
2 comments:
Tzitzernak, I have been reading your blog for a while and I want to say Thank You. You are always posting very interesting things.
As for this letter to the diaspora from the Shirak Marz I think it is a very good precedent. They are clearly identifying which segment of the vast diaspora they are targetting. the people they are targetting are generally more recent immigrants who are not usually part of the traditional diaspora political parties or organizations. These more recent diasporans have a better understanding of the situation in Armenia and are less prone to debating the 'chairness of chairs' as you write. This is an important segment to target. And I have greater hope that they may act, but to what degree I am not sure.
As for the traditional diaspora parties and organizations. Well, they have already shown their intentions. They are conservative and driven by a ridiculous sense of 'amot'. they feel ashamed talking about problems of Armenia in front of 'odars'. As if odars don't know what is happening. This is outdated thinking and if democracy is to be established in Armenia, this thinking must change. Armenians must begin to debate openly (without fear of imprisonmnet, torture, etc.) and to confront the problems in our society without fear of what others will say about us.
Anyway, thanks again for the great posts.
Thank you, Mayranoush. Both for your support and for pointing out that the letter is intended for a subgroup that will likely be more supportive, which provides me with a small sense of hope.
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