“A diaspora Armenian always has a fear that at some point Armenia might cheat them”

Says our compatriot, a specialist of international development Arthur Martirosyan

A candidate of political science, former YSU professor Artur Martirosyan has been residing in New York for almost three years now, where he implements a project aimed at protection of children’s rights. Having been involved in the community life of New York he is well aware of the issues and problems existing in communities. “For example, I organize protests against Ramil Safarov, or on the occasion of Sumgait massacres or when Aliyev is visiting New York City to the UN. In all the cases the goal is the same – to conduce to maintaining patriotism in the Diaspora,” says Martirosyan and adds that the important thing is to correctly distribute the resources.

-One of Americans has said that he respects the Armenian Cause a lot but he cannot understand that someone would spend millions to publish an article in the Washington Post in the case when the rates of poverty in Armenia are alerting. Most of the resources of the Diaspora should be directed to Armenia. I myself am trying to find functional mechanism to boost the stream of those resources to Armenia. In the declarative sense everything is in its place. The Prime Minister speaks about the “Armenian World,” which is not a bad idea. The point is no matter where you live you can conduce to the development of your country. The “Come home” and other projects are only tiny drops in the big ocean and I think they don’t have any serious impact other than satisfaction. The role of the ministry of Diaspora and Armenia in general is to find ways to accelerate the cooperation between Armenia and the Diaspora. If in the Diaspora the lowest institutional circle is the church than in Armenia those are the local governments, and NGOs. The role of the ministry of Diaspora should be the creation of linkage among them.

-It is no secret that there is distrust in relation to the projects implemented by the ministry of Diaspora.

-Yes there is lack of trust because the people wish to see the results of the funds donated for the development of their fatherland. The distrust is increasing to the country especially after the ARF turned into a semi-opposition. As a result of that, the Diaspora has become more cautious and wary. That is the reason why I wish to conduct a pilot project and let God grant the successful implementation of this project. The Diaspora is interested in the concept of development. They don’t wish to be mere donors. They don’t wish to always receive financial expectation from the fatherland. The Diaspora wants to get rid of the status of a milking cow and wishes to turn into a partner with Armenia.

-What other methods should you apply to invest the cultural and professional potential of the Diaspora in Armenia? That is something that the ministry of diaspora has failed to do for years.

-Now we are working in that direction. We are linking a Diaspora church with a community of Armenia, for example the Saint Gregory Church of New York city is linked to Parvakar village and imagine this church becoming the partner of the village. The villagers will host them in their houses. And as a result we have a cheap summer vacation. Indeed, the children of Parvakar are closely linked with the clergymen of the church. They exchange their language skills.

-Do you think the inclusion of the church in this project will destroy the stereotypes of the Diaspora about Armenia? This is even more highlighted having considered the rumors that certain religious leaders in Armenia are also involved in financial machinery.

-In the classic Diaspora, the community is closed connected and united with the church. The other structure is the ARF, which is not preferable in this case. Here the challenge is how to modernize the church and make it more participatory. Armenia has over 900 communities, out of which 400-500 are major ones. In western states we have about the same number of churches. And if we succeed to build a bridge between the churches and the Armenian communities we will have incremental results. The world presently is at the stage of decentralization. The religious fathers of the Diaspora are very influential and their word gets to the communities.

-Will the project be implemented on a voluntary basis? Of yes, don’t you have a fear that the Armenian government will do its best to fail this cooperation because this would mean that the funds of the Diaspora will not flow through the state system and will be directly allotted to the civil society?

-Indeed, we have such a fear. You see, many Armenian organizations are attempting to receive financial aid from the Diaspora. This means before the state notices that threat we will already have passed quite a long way. Besides, authoritarianism is not so engraved in Armenia to apply rough means. But the state should definitely help to make this model come to life. I don’t see an alternative way for the development of Armenia. If you see how much money the Diaspora has you will realize that the funds they donate is like for you donating 10 drams to a random beggar. They don’t give the money not because they don’t have sufficient funds but because they don’t trust.

-Nonetheless, is the Diaspora more disappointed of the state of Armenian citizens for squandering their donated funds?

-I would say both. Every time of donation requires a professional approach. Many Diaspora Armenians were cheated by private business owners of individuals. When socializing with Armenians they have the fear that they might be cheated by them at a certain point.

-The project that you mentioned requires honesty and integrity on part of Armenian local governments. How confident are you that the finds will be spent cleverly and purposefully having considered the fact that the latter are not independent either. They strongly depend on the executive branch. This would mean that sooner or later the target of the project will become the RA government.

-I sincerely don’t think they might attempt to fail the project. Vice versa, I think they will encourage this project. I am optimistic that before encountering obstacles we will have gone a long way.

-Is the Armenian community in New York large? Is the number of our compatriots increasing there?

-New York was traditionally considered a not very Armenian-populated city but now the number of Armenians is increasing. According to unofficial data there are about 20,000 Armenians but New Jersey and Massachusetts have a larger number of Armenians.

By Lusine Stepanyan

P.S. We will present the details of the collisions between the RA police and the civil society in our next edition.