Nikol Pashinyan: government is not enthusiastic about Syrian-Armenians’ repatriation

Political 28 August, 2012 22:17

The unclear situation around the Armenian community in Syria has underlying reasons, and for the most part relates to the fundamental ideas about the state of Armenia.
RA government is not enthusiastic about the opportunity of organizing systematic repatriation of Syrian-Armenians. While the civil society proposes unanswered inquiries, government representatives justify themselves in the backstage, that the removal of Syrian community is not in the best interests of Armenia and Armenians, and the best is to be done to keep Syrian- Armenians in place, maintaining the integrity of Armenian community.
The authors of these statements are not really concerned about the fact, that the majority of Syrian-Armenians, which doesn’t come to Armenian, eventually finds shelter in a third country. It’s not said-out-loud, but, it’s obvious, that this is a is a more preferable option for certain scopes of government, than the immigration to Armenia. Such position is not a result of apathy or lack of knowledge, and has ideological justifications. This way of thinking is possessed by people, according to whom, the guarantee for the existence of Armenia is the rich Diaspora, which is to be the major financial, economic, political, and world-political sponsor of the Third Republic. So, even those Syrian-Armenians, who leave Syria, but do not come to Armenia, continue to remain as Diaspora-Armenians, that is to say, from the aspect of “Diaspora-centered” concept , it’s an acceptable decision to make, because each one coming from Diaspora weakens it, and the Diaspora Armenian is a Diaspora Armenian, whether in Syria , Lebanon or USA.
The accusation raised by the opposition in different times, that the current authorities intended clear Armenia from Armenians, is crystallized in case of Syrian-Armenians. The above listed, however, redresses the already-known accusation, because in many speeches Armenia-clearing process is regarded as conspiracy, while in the last 14 years, the ruling elite in Armenia acts that way not out of the dream to destroy Armenia: it just carries out a "unique concept" in building a national country. That concept is not defined and is not confirmed by any legal act, but is consistently implemented by the authority of Robert Kocharyan, and that line continues to this day.
On what was Robert Kocharyan’s economic miracle based, if not on the concept of emigration? During the office of Kocharyan, the biggest project was the export of Armenian men to abroad, and building “economic miracles” on the remittances sent by them. Kirk Krkoryan’s unprecedented large donation- A Diaspora-Armenian’s donation to motherland, completes the image, North Avenue- lifeless contribution of Diaspora money to motherland.
When we try to design the situation during Kocharyan’s presidency, we come to the conclusion that, according to that model, Diaspora is the model of survival and ideology in Armenia, and the official propaganda was presented by Diaspora (the integrity of Armenians living outside Armenia) as a basic value and support of Armenian people, that literally keeps Armenia. Few people notice, however, that the development of this logic leads to a simple conclusion: the less people are in Armenia, the easy it is for Diaspora to keep Armenia, and the bigger is the Diaspora, the better will live Armenia. This very approach is installed in the basis of ideology, that is considered treacherous by the opposition.
However, Serzh and Tigran Sargsyans were not that lucky: global economic crisis dried the sources of the remittances and made Armenian face a collapse. Tigran Sargsyan was right after all, when he claimed that there is no economic crisis in the Republic of Armenia: the real crisis was in the countries, where new and old Diaspora Armenians, who send remittances and make donations, live. The very "Diaspora Economic crisis" became the biggest challenge of Diaspora-centered concept: it seems, that Serzh Sargsyan should’ve adopted a conceptual approach in this situation, in order to take the country out of crisis. For a moment such attempts were undertaken, but eventually diaspora / migration concept continued to be the main philosophy of ruing, and as to the question “why?”, Tigran Sargsyan reveale in his famous interview with "168 hours" newspaper , on June 30, 2011: “To do the best for people not to run away?, so that they can stay and raise a revolution?," he said in response to reporters' question about emigrating Armenians. The concept of migration, then discovered another practical significance: the less people live in Armenia, the controllable situation, in political context, will be. Parliamentary elections in 2012 showed the rightness of this approach. And if Robert Kocharyan is proud of the economic miracle, then Serzh Sargsyan can boast with a political miracle, when the team, that made the country face an economic collapse, and the authorities, receive a "vote of confidence".
By the way,
Diaspora Ministry’s "Come home" program not only does not deny, but also proves once again,that the concept of migration is in the basis of management of the Republic of Armenia. Let’s even analyze the “come home” expression and everything will be clear. There is an old song, you will remember probably: "I’m calling, I’m calling, come sweetheart, sweetheart, it’s already dark, hard-hearted sweetheart”. I’m not using irony, let's really analyze come home, come home expression in this context. So, the wife addresses her husband who has gone to work. Dear sweetheart, come home , bring money, let’s eat, party, go to cinema, go to theater, sleep together, and you go to work again in the morning. This is certainly a logical and understandable concept for family, but also incomprehensible for the state.For Armenian people, therefore, the place to work and earn living is abroad, the Diaspora. And Armenia is a home, home, which has the image of mount Ararat hanging on the wall, in the original. More accurately, it’s a cottage, summer-house, and not a place to live. Because an Armenian wisdom says, that the place to feed you is a place to live in. stay there wherever is bread. Therefore, Armenia will be home for Armenian people only when at least one part of Diaspora Armenians earn their bread here.
Another Armenia
As already mentioned, the concept of migration is not clearly defined anywhere, it’s not talked, it’s not discussed aloud, in public. But it is realized consistently and irreparably. The main problem here, that Armenia is facing, is to stop the activity of this subconscious mechanism, to change the concept in the basis of management of the country. Thus, the decreasing dynamics of Armenian population is to be changed into dynamics of growth. As a solving tool to the problem, therefore, cannot be considered only the natural growth- population increase through the increase of birth rate. Emigration concept is to be confronted to the concept of immigration, according to which Armenians’ human, financial, economic and intellectual potential is necessary, or to center its substantial part in Armenia, and it will become the guarantee for further strengthening and security of Armenian state.
It is time to acknowledge that without such cast Armenia doesn’t any prospects for development. Speaking of various programs and concepts of development, we forget, as if we have forgotten at all, that there are indispensable preconditions for the development of any area, that is called human resource. Human resource, human potential is the most important basis of any national economy: in fact, saying economy, I mean a broader scope, than is usually meant: art, sport, army…
Armenia has reached a state, where the lack of human resources is obvious in any field, including the army. Thus, there is a necessary and essential condition for the development of Armenia: the country must restore human resources and potential, and for the next twenty years the population of Armenia should increase with one, two, three million. And there is only one way to solve this problem: create sufficient conditions for immigration. For quiet, growing, and ultimately , mass immigration.
In fact, it is the lack of human resources in the army, that occasionally shakes the confidence of the followers of emigration concept. They could not long sustain the status quo of the separated families in the outset of 21st century, when the men were abroad, and the women and children in Armenia, as consumers of the food sold by oligarchs and as army inductees. In the last six or seven years, separated families come together in abroad, as a result of which Armenia lives again another wave of migration and economic hardships. The volume of remittances has also reduced due to this: the addressees depart to the senders.
It’s high time
Therefore, the underlying logic of political processes, should be aimed at this goal: creating of conditions for the repatriation of various layers of old and new Diaspora. This problem is not easily solved, because to compare Armenians in Armenia, means to compare people of different mentalities, thinking, culture, and occupation. The solution to this vast problem has at least one prerequisite: monopolies, oligopolies should be destroyed, an independent judicial system should be created, all should be equal before the law, the mechanism of free political, civil and free economic competition should operate and national consensus, based on the rule of law should be formed. We also should be aware that this a necessary condition, but not sufficient. I mean, even in presence of these conditions, new and old Diaspora Armenians won’t start to enthusiastically return to Armenia: an enormous spiritual, ideological, propaganda and organizational work is required. It is a job, which is worth spending time and energy on, because as it’s said, the future of Armenia and the Armenian nation is on the gaming-table.
P.S. : Another detail, which, perhaps is not related to the problem. Artist Vardan Azatyan’s lecture-interview has found a wide-spread response on the web, in which he refers to the sometimes contradictory visions of the nation and people. The following inquiry does really need a formulation in the 21st century: what does Armenian nationmean? What is Armenian nation?

Sounds strange, but today there is a legal definition of highest power, about the identity of Armenian people. I mean the Preamble of RA Constitution: A lot of people probably have not paid attention, but our Constitution begins with the following preface:
“The Armenian People, recognizing as a basis the fundamental principles of the Armenian statehood and national aspirations engraved in the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, having fulfilled the sacred message of its freedom loving ancestors for the restoration of the sovereign state, committed to the strengthening and prosperity of the fatherland, to ensure the freedom, general well being and civic harmony of future generations, declaring their faithfulness to universal values, hereby adopts the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.”
The subject recognizing the Constitution, the source of law, therefore, is the Armenian nation, to whom, according to that Constitution, belong the supreme power. While only eligible people, RA citizens participate in the referendum. If we take into account that the Preamble to the Constitution, was born in a situation when only a small part of Armenians had the right to vote, it turns out that this statement also includes the meaning and purpose of existence of Armenian Third Republic, which is, to integrate Armenians’ ethnic, linguistic and cultural, historic generality with the generality of settlement and citizenship, in the territory of the Republic of Armenia, because according to the logic of the Constitution, to be Armenian, a part of Armenian nation, means to be the highest carrier of the power of Republic of Armenia, a citizen granted the right to vote, someone who has the right to take part in Constitutional and other referendums, presidential elections, elections to the National Assembly elections to local self-government bodies.
These are the institutions, with which, according to the Constitution, Armenian people iimplements the highest power belonging to it. The border of Armenian nation, therefore, is designed with this right. This does not mean at all, that the Armenian not being the subject of civil law is not an Armenian. But awareness of the inevitability of return is to be planted in the consciousness of that Armenian, as a final and ultimate goal, that he will pass from generation to generation. The realization will cause process that will perhaps last for centuries (s), but that 100-year process will be the guarantor for a century existence of Armenia. In fact, if for an Uruguay-Armenian to return means to move his family and capital, for a Karabagh-Armenian it is the status change of his cradle.
In the context of this issue I must speak about the 22 years of ongoing debate in Armenia- the national ideology. I want to refer the problem in a context, whether national ideology is a good thing, or bad, is necessary or not. These inquiries are even useless now, because in the contemporary world Constitutions become ideologies, or at least the mechanism of its practical implementation. A special notice: I do not claim that the current RA Constitution itself is a national ideology, my claim is that any national ideology is meaningless if it is not consistently reflected in the Constitution, which, by the way, may be subject to various changes. It should be noted, however, that two provisions of RA Constitution are appointed for life.
Article 1
The Republic of Armenia is a sovereign, democratic, social state governed by rule of law.
Article 2
In the Republic of Armenia the power belongs to the people.
The people exercise their power through free elections, referenda, as well as through state and local self-governing bodies and public officials as provided by the Constitution.
The usurpation of power by any organization or individual constitutes a crime.