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29.12.2014

ABOUT THE SELF-ORGANIZATION PROBLEMS OF DIASPORA

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Vahram Hovyan
Expert, Centre for the Armenian Studies, Noravank Foundation

In self-organizing the Diaspora the organizational entities are of vital importance, as they act as a live organism through which Diaspora carries out its activities. In this respect, it appears important to form a pan-national organization as an institution for self-organizing the entire Diaspora, which would be unlike the community structures that are institutions for self-organization of specific communities in Diaspora.

In addition to Diaspora self-organization this is also critical in terms of representing the entire diaspora in its relation with Armenia (and others as well), overcoming the internal fragmentation (based on political, confessional and other divisions), consolidating the potential of Armeniancy, using that potential in the most coordinated and effective manner, and developing the most efficient ways for Armenia-Diaspora cooperation. Without a pan-national organization no structure may claim to represent the entire Diaspora, and hence, can have no legal or moral right to speak on behalf of the Diaspora in relations with Armenia (or others). From the perspective of overcoming the fragmentation, an all-Diaspora structure would help turn the divisions into diversity, which combined with the spirit of unity would become the basis of Diaspora’s power and richness.

Existence of a pan-national organization does not mean ceasing activities of the other structures (partisan, spiritual/religious, charitable, etc.). In parallel to the activities of a pan-national organization, these structures will continue their own activities, thus creating robust competition between them, helping them develop and strengthen their potential and hence, the potential of the whole Diaspora. As for the issues of pan-national significance, all segments of Diaspora will still demonstrate unity and cooperation through a pan-diaspora structure.

The issue of creating a pan-national structure in Diaspora existed among the Armenian public and political circles for almost a century, since the creation of the Armenian Diaspora1. Already during the World War I and the years of the First Republic of Armenia the forcibly exiled Western Armenians organized conferences, which could be viewed as a precursor of a Diaspora pan-national structure. In these conferences various problems were discussed related to the exiled Western Armenian population, from organizing aid for them to ease their conditions to the problem of their repatriation.

Later, in 1920s the public and political circles of Diaspora discussed the idea of merging the three traditional Armenian political parties (ARF, ADL and SDHP) into a single pan-national organization of the Diaspora. The idea of creating a Pan-Armenian Congress was also circulated in Diaspora. However, these ideas were too general and had no specific content, which along with the internal disagreements in Diaspora created obstacles to their materialization.

The national revival of 1980s in Armenia, declaration of independence in 1991, activities of the Diaspora structures in Armenia and liberation of Artsakh opened new horizons for reaching even higher levels and quality of Diaspora-Armenia relations. An objective was set to widen and deepen the Armenia-Diaspora cooperation. Under such conditions the agenda must again include the issue of creating a pan-diaspora organization that will represent the entire Diaspora in its relations with the Homeland.

It should be noted that there have always been a number of structures in Diaspora that could be conditionally called pan-national organizations. These include the ARF, SDHP, ADL, the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical Churches, AGBU and others. They have a key role in self-organization of Diaspora and building relations between the Homeland and Diaspora. However, the mentioned structures are pan-national to an extent in which their activities geographically cover the wide circles of Armenians. Meanwhile, the space coverage of activities is just one criterion to describe a pan-national structure. There are also other characteristics that unfortunately, are not attributable to the mentioned organizations. These characteristics will be addressed hereafter.

There are two currently existing organizations, World Armenian Congress and National Congress of Western Armenians, which nominally correspond to the characteristics of a pan-national structure. In practice, however, they still have a long way to go before becoming truly pan-national or pan-Diaspora structures.

Hence, unfortunately it has to be noted that despite Diaspora exists for a long time, the problem of pan-Diaspora structure has yet to be resolved.

The principles of a Pan-National Structure

Creation and activities of a pan-national structure in Diaspora need to be based on certain principles. We believe the fundamental principles of a pan-Diaspora organization should be as follows:

1. Representativeness։ This principle implies that all segments of Diaspora must be represented in the activities of the pan-national structure. Geographically this means participation of all Armenian communities in the work of the pan-national structure. Organizationally, this principle implies the widest possible involvement of Diaspora organizations in its activities. At the very least, it should involve the most prominent Diaspora organizations. In confessional terms, the activities of the pan-national organization should involve the three confessional segments of Armeniancy։ the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical churches. From the partisan perspective, all three traditional political parties of Diaspora; Dashnak, Hunchak and Ramgavar must be involved the activities of the pan-national structure.

2. Trans-partisanship։ It is well known that there is certain competitiveness, if not struggle between the three Armenian traditional parties of Diaspora: ARF, SDHP and ADL. This is manifested in ideological differences, struggle to expand influence in Diaspora and disputes around specific issues2. Competition is a positive thing per se, if the parties are otherwise able to maintain the spirit of national unity and act in unison when issues of all-national significance are at stake. The pan-national structure could claim the role of the best platform to act in a united manner for pan-national issues.

3. Supra-confessionalism։ What was said above regarding the political parties, applies also to the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical Churches. Emphasizing and advancing the religious/Christian and national commonalities vs. the confessional differences would provide some serious basis to establish religious tolerance. As in case with the political parties, the pan-national structure is the place where the national identity eclipses all sorts of divergences, in this case religious/confessional differences, thus becoming a foundation for cooperation between the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical Churches.

Reviewing the principles of trans-partisanship and supra-confessionalism, it can be stated that when dealing with all-national problems, one should step out of sociopolitical and religious/confessional ideologies. In other words, the solution of pan-national problems requires the sociopolitical and religious/confessional ideologies to be pushed to the backburner or even ignored altogether, conceding the arena to the national principle. It is not appropriate to call this phenomenon supra-ideologism or deideologization, because nationalism is also an ideology and the advocacy of the national principles is ideologism, too.

4. Comprehensive scope of activities։ This principle implies that the activities of the pan-national structure should not be limited to one or a few fields. Its activities must involve if not all, then at least as many as possible directions of public life that are critical for Armeniancy, including, but no limited to political, spiritual, cultural, scientific, educational, charitable and other matters. Certainly, the traditional Armenian political parties, as well as the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical Churches carry out activities through their subsidiary structures not only in political and spiritual/religious dimensions, but also in scientific, educational, charitable, cultural, sports and other fields, but this is not sufficient to characterize their activities as comprehensive.

5. Geographical extensiveness of activities: This principle means that the activities of the pan-national structure must encompass the entire Diaspora, i.e. Armenian communities of all countries of the world. Otherwise, the geographical limitation of the activities by one country or region would disqualify it from being an all-national or pan-Diaspora structure. In addition to a headquarters, the pan-national structure should have branches around the world, so as to ensure the geographical inclusiveness. This way the pan-national Diaspora organization will have a network structure, spread everywhere in the world where Armenian communities live.

6. Independence from global power centers։ In order to be a truly national structure and serve national interests, the pan-national organization should be independent from any global superpower or power center. This does not imply that it must not cooperate or be in contact with the global superpowers. On the contrary, it may actually cooperate with various countries, international organizations and other political entities in order to achieve its objectives.

This is more about not being established by one or another global superpower and/or its activities being directed by any of those powers. Otherwise, there would be a danger of turning into an instrument in hands of superpower and serving their interests (which could be quite different from or even opposite to the interests of Diaspora, Armenia and Armeniancy), and more importantly, this would be fraught with dividing effects, because Armenians of Diaspora live in various countries, including superpowers (the USA, Russia, EU) and may have differing approaches with regard to geopolitical issues and opposing geopolitical orientations.

In order to avoid influences of superpowers, it seems appropriate that the pan-national structure of Diaspora should be established and headquartered in some neutral country, such as Switzerland, although even that per se would not guarantee the its independence.

Thus, based on the above described six principles, the creation of a pan-national structure may occur in two possible manners. First, the World Armenian Congress and National Congress of Western Armenians, that presently have nominal claims for being pan-national organizations, may adopt the mentioned principles as bases for their activities and thus, become pan-Diaspora structures.

The second option is to establish a new organization, the activities of which would be based on the mentioned six principles from the very beginning. During the 5th Armenia-Diaspora Conference, President Serzh Sargsyan voiced an idea to create such structure on the basis of the State Commission on Coordination of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. It was suggested that in 2015 the mentioned Commission could be renamed as Pan-Armenian Council and become a permanent platform for discussion of urgent pan-Armenian issues.

Organizational Structure

The Diaspora pan-national entity’s organizational structure would include a president, board and executive body, which will constantly and directly implement the managerial and other activities.

However, the supreme organizational body of the pan-national structure would be its Assembly to be convened once in several years, which is typical for large organizations. The primary objectives of the Assembly would include determining the strategic goals and the means to achieve those, summarizing and assessing the mid-term activities (implemented in the period between the Assembly sessions), outlining the further guidelines for mid-term activities (clarifying tactical objectives and the ways to reach them; various programs, events, etc.), electing a president, board and executive body for the organization.

Specialized committees dealing with areas critical for the public life should have a unique and important role in the structure of the pan-national organization, especially in its executive body. These specialized political, economic, charitable, educational, cultural, sports and other committees would have their members and chairpersons. The committees must constantly follow the existing and emerging issues and changes in their respective areas and offer practical solutions for the problems and for achievement of the set objectives. Thanks to the activities of these committees the president, board and executive body of the pan-national structure would be:

• always aware of the events occurring and situation in the areas critical for Armeniancy,

• able to timely and effectively respond to the challenges and even preempt those,

• capable of making the right and effective decisions, preparing projects for solution of targeted problems, etc.

Consequently, the pan-national structure would become the “government” of Diaspora, as many governance, representation, legal and other functions would be characteristic to it. With existence of such structure the following will ensue:

• self-organization level of Diaspora would increase substantially,

• Diaspora activities would be more targeted and effective,

• the relations of Diaspora with Homeland and other countries and organizations would become easier and clearer.

1Although since long ago, already starting from the 4th century AD periodical forced migrations of Armenian populations led in establishment of Armenian communities in various corners of the world, however, the current dominant viewpoint in scientific circles is that the Armenian Diaspora is a result of the Armenian Genocide. More specifically, the emergence of Armenian Diaspora is attributed to the Lausanne Agreement signed June 24, 1923, by which WWI winner countries of Entente “buried” the Armenian Question and ruined the hopes for repatriation of Western Armenians, who were deprived of their homeland during the Genocide.

2For example, during the Soviet period there were disputes about attitudes toward and standpoints on Armenia, the repatriation issue, etc.

“Globus” analytical bulletin, No. 11-12, 2014

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