Armenia & the Diaspora after the Sasna Tsrer: Armenian Renaissance Holds Conference in Toronto
The Canadian chapter of Armenian Renaissance opposition group organized a conference in Toronto on September 10th, 2016, to discuss the situation and potential developments after the Sasna Tsrer action in Yerevan. The conference hosted around a hundred participants from the Armenian community of Toronto, Canada. Speakers of the conference were world renown actress Arsinee Khanjian, economist Daron Acemoglu from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (author of a number of famous economic publications, among them the book “Why Nations Fail”), Garo Ghazarian and Karnig Kerkonian of the Armenian Bar Association, Richard Giragosian of the Regional Studies Center, Alec Yenikomshian of the Founding Parliament, Robert Aydabirian from France, and Marine Manucharyan from Armenia. The conference was moderated by Viken L. Attarian.
The conference was opened with a message from Sasna Tsrer spokesman Varuzhan Avetisyan, in which Sasna Tsrer presented their position about current political affairs in Armenia and expressed hope that the conference would provide a bridge to sovereignty and democracy in Armenia. “Sasna Tsrer’s disobedience was the first step on the way to sovereignty and refusing colonialism supported by police brute force. Civic disobedience and our decision to take weapons were the call of the situation; disobedience by taking weapons did not have an alternative for us, however, by taking weapons we created an alternative to disobedience. If we fail to provide continuity of the wave we created, there will be no alternative other than taking weapons again,” read Sasna Tsrer’s message.
According to Viken L. Attarian, the actions by Sasna Tsrer unmasked the impotence of the diaspora: “traditional diaspora organizations were either silent or were made silent. This was inaction.”
Alec Yenikomshian, who joined the conference via teleconference, said that Armenia is facing a risk of shattering the statehood and having existential question. Yenikomshian believes Armenia has lost its sovereignty, and is losing even more as political decisions in Armenia are being directed from Moscow, which became more evident after a recent appointment of Russia-owned GazProm gas giant team member with Armenian origin as the new Prime-Minister of Armenia. Alec Yenigomshian is concerned about statements coming from Moscow, even if non-official, saying that Armenia would be in a better shape if joined Russia. He suggests to establish a transitional tribunal, which would also involve lawyers from the diaspora, to work on the complicated situation after the actions by Sasna Tsrer. Yenikomshian called on the diaspora to spread the word and be involved in Armenia’s political life. “Armenia’s salvation is the diaspora’s salvation,” said Yenikomshian.
Garo Ghazarian, as a representative of one of the very few diaspora organizations that spoke out after the Sasna Tsrer, said that looking at human rights and political situation in the country we can see what will happen in five years. He presented the chronology of public discontent growth in Armenia starting from the mass protests at Mashtots park and said that it is the ignorance of the ruling government that gave birth to this desperate action by Sasna Tsrer.
Richard Giragosian said the event is relevant in terms of the timing of events in Armenia. Giragosian believes Armenia is in crisis now. “Looking at trends in Armenia, it is clear that Armenia is in a political crisis today. However, this political crisis is nothing new – it has been accumulating. It’s also based on underlined lack of legitimacy as the Armenian voters, the constituency have been denied to determine the future of this country. The political aspect of this crisis is not new either, what is new is the economic fragility. The emergence of so-called oligarchs, coupled with entrenched corruption and the related challenge of business and politics enjoying too much of interleaved relationship, has brought to economic downturn that is inflicted on the Armenian society.” Giragosian believes the current system in Armenia is no longer economically or politically sustainable, and Armenia is in transition in terms of the leadership’s origins. Giragosian believes next year’s parliamentary elections will be a turning point for Armenia. The lesson learnt is that it is dangerous in any country to ignore the popular demand for change. Giragosian believes in Armenia the risk of neglecting the public demand and expectations is dangerously high, and this is the beginning of a dynamic but not a static process. “What is needed for positive change today is not violence. It is engagement, empowerment, becoming imperative to ensure protection of the conduct of the coming election – this is the way forward,” Richard Giragosian said.
Arsinee Khanjian discussed the current political situation in Armenia and challenges such as systematic corruption, absence of rule of law and independent judiciary. “As an Armenian artist and activist I have the responsibility to speak out about the world which surrounds me and concerns me. On the eve of its 25th anniversary of its independence there are four formidable social, political and economic circumstances that are challenging the Republic of Armenia today. Major internal problems that are the outcome of systematic corruption, nepotism, oligarchy, suppression of freedom of speech, police brutality, violation of civic and human rights, and a lack of independent judiciary. These circumstances along with factors such as economic blockade, adversary of neighbors, the war with Azerbaijan, subsequent pressure in the peace negotiation in Karabakh and the lack of natural resources have created an existential threat for Armenia. Public distrust, resentment and lack of economic and social welfare are turning into desperate acts of civil disobedience and outrage within the population. Others, more quietly, have opted for exit strategy, causing brain drain and significant depopulation of the homeland, which in turn affects the basic security of Armenia,” said Arsinee Khanjian and urged the diaspora to get involved and contribute to rehabilitation of social and political shifts in Armenia. She suggested that the diaspora could do it through defending truth, justice and human rights, as well as to demand from traditional disaporan institutions and organizations to expand and diversify their involvement in Armenia by holding the government accountable for their abuse of politics.
Daron Acemoglu spoke about his concept of inclusive institutions in a state, and compared political situation in Armenia with other countries that have gone through a similar path to show common patterns why countries that failed to provide inclusive institutions have shattered peace. “Sasna Tsrer is a symptom of a deeper problem. One of the main messages for why nations fail is that if you want to build a healthy economic and social system, it needs to be based on a certain set of political institutions, this is what we called inclusive political institutions in “Why Nations Fail.” What we mean under that is a combination of electoral institutions. It also requires that those who hold power are accountable beyond elections, that they are checked for by judiciary institutions, parliamentary institutions, and they should share power with other participants of the civil society such as media and civic organizations to ensure political power is not monopolized. Equality of opportunities is very important too as it is a guarantor for economic gains to be shared equally and resources be used in the most efficient ways and not to be monopolized as we see happening in Armenia through its oligarchic system,” said Acemoglu and as an example of failure to develop inclusive political institutions he compared Poland and Ukraine, which started with almost equal political and economic systems shattered by communism in early 90s. Now, however, Poland has three times higher GDP than Ukraine due to engineering positive change, which is still coping with challenges of non-inclusive institutions.
The conference was followed by questions and answers aimed at finding ways of diaspora’s engagement in Armenia’s political life. During the Q & A session Vahan Kololian, founder and chairman of the research group “The Depopulation Crisis of Armenia,” said lack of good governance and rule of law is a major contributor to lack of hope in Armenia among people, who are leaving the country in row. Kololian brought an example from Canada and came up with a proposal to the government. He said Armenians have potential but are always acting separated։ “We need to put this aside. We need a proper parliamentary opposition. My call to action, or proposal, has its roots in the Canadian example. The Progressive Conservative party of Canada initially had two members in the parliament, which led to the rising up of Western Canadian right wing party called “Reform” party.
The Canadian business community told both of them that they are not going to get a penny until they unite because we believe in strong united opposition. Here is my proposal: we need – and I am referring to the entire Armenian diaspora from Canada to Argentina to Moscow to Europe – to set up a new All-Armenia Fund. This fund is going to be called “The Governance and Civil Society Fund.” I today pledged the first 100,000 dollars to that fund. This organization will be democratic. We will have non-Armenians on the board of directors. We will have party members and non-party members on the board of directors. This fund will have three purposes: 1. To fund officially opposition parties but only if they can get from the number of twenty that they are today down to below five; 2. Election monitoring; 3. Because we lack institutions so badly in Armenia, we need to increase the salaries of judges. Judges have to be independent. This is my call to action. We need a new governance and civil society fund that will invest financial and other resources to openly create proper opposition in the parliament.”
By Kamo Mailyan,
Toronto-Yerevan
