Armenia/Diaspora Exercise Complementarity

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Souren Seraydarian, France, 16 January 2012

A number of comments and articles have appeared in recent issues of Keghart.com concerning Armenia’s responsibilities toward its citizens. The assertion that the Republic of Armenia is the successor of the ASSR by Garen Mikaelyan on behalf of the Organizing Committee for the Preparation of the Congress of Western Armenians, was not a partisan invention of a person or a group. It is an integral part of the Declaration of Independence (Dec. 23, 1990) and I quote: “The Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic …declares: The Armenian SSR is renamed the Republic of Armenia (Armenia) …”, and Article 12 stipulates, “this declaration serves as the basis for the development of the constitution of the Republic of Armenia…”

Souren Seraydarian, France, 16 January 2012

Article 11.3 of the constitution stipulates “the citizens of the Republic of Armenia shall be under the protection of the Republic of Armenia within the territory of the Republic of Armenia and beyond its borders”, i.e. citizens of the Republic and not all Armenians. Hence the need to organize ourselves as the victims or the descendants of the victims of the Genocide including deportation, loss of citizenship, loss of public and private property, as well as loss of the centuries long cultural and civilizational heritage.

People may agree or disagree with the content of the Declaration of Independence and the new constitution, but it remains an unavoidable fact. We should not fall into the emotional trap of wishful thinking. We should develop our future strategies on the basis of legal (as described earlier) and geopolitical realities.

The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia as stipulated in article 11 of the Declaration of Independence but has also to meet its obligations under international law and maintain peaceful relations with its neighbors. Hence the need to distribute the tasks between the State and the NGOs, such as the National Council of Western Armenians.

The name of the exercise is complementarity of actions and not competition.