President Sargsyan's Visit to Los Angeles

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Announcement by 3 Political Parties on President Sarksian’s Visit to Los Angeles
Asbarez, 29 September 2009

We find the visit by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian to important Diaspora communities to consult on the already agreed upon protocols on the establishment and development of relations between Armenia and Turkey to be late and moot.

It is unfortunate that because of his foreign policy and defeatists approaches to our national issues, the president wasted a great opportunity to elevate Armenia-Diaspora cooperation and strengthen our national unity.

Announcement by 3 Political Parties on President Sarksian’s Visit to Los Angeles
Asbarez, 29 September 2009

The president’s plan could have been welcomed if it were prior to already approving the aforementioned protocols, which are fateful and important for our nation, and not after having already made a decision. This completely changes the nature of the visit, making it a publicity stunt, which is severely insulting to all Armenians.

Nevertheless, in the name of our martyrs and our history we are obligated to accept an invitation for a consultative meeting between the president and community organizations, which will take place prior to a gala. We will utilize this opportunity to directly convey to the president the basis for our unequivocal opposition to the protocols.

We cannot hide the fact that we have been insulted as a result of the president’s incomprehensible haste to sign these harmful documents, and on the eve of a sad chapter in our people’s history, we cannot take part in any gala honoring the president. This event will only bolster the disregard to our history, the memory of our martyrs, our national dignity and collective convictions and will diminish our national struggle.

Thus, we announced that we will not be able to accept the invitation to a gala banquet in Los Angeles.

Social Democratic Hunchakian Party US Executive Board

Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US Central Committee
Armenian Democratic Liberal Organization (Ramkavar party) US Regional Executive

Unique Situation of Armenians Require Special Considerations

The fiendishly planned and barbarously executed unparalleled genocidal calamity that befell the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, followed by expediency-motivated inconclusive and unfair treatment by the international community – which was reeling from the aftermath of the horrendous impact of World War I – left an excruciatingly painful unhealed wound dissociated from the main corpus…

Developing the metaphor – my intention not being to be poetical or rhetorical though – merely to be able to account for the out-of-the-ordinary surreal situation, the historical inclusion of Armenia in the Ottoman Empire was a case of rape-followed-by-forced-marriage, and the dividing of Eastern and Western Armenia as a forced separation of artificially created "Siamese twin"…

The present case of signing the Protocols between the Republic of Armenia and Turkey is tantamount to applying some bandage to the wounds on the body of Eastern Armenia, hoping to anasthesize the gaping wound on the remaining appendages of the destroyed and discarded body of the Western Armenia… It is obvious from this metaphor that the "normalization and reconciliation" protocols will benefit neither the Eastern Armenians nor the Western Armenians in the long term. Not only that, it will create irreparable cleavage between the two subdivisions of the Armenians!

If this deteriorating condition cannot be arrested, it is time to think of "resurrecting" the Western Armenia – at least in concept to begin with – by the creation of a "Shadow Government" comprising from all aspects and segments of the Armenian Diaspora. Hopefully, the Republic of Armenia makes it clear to Turkey that its agreements pertain only to Eastern Armenians, and it cannot be binding on the Western Armenians – which constitue the vast majority of the Armenians worldwide! Obviously, the unity of the Armenian people is forever indivisible – but exceptional situations and conditions demand creative and unprecedented concepts and action!

Politically amateurish, but profoundly concerned,

John Hovannes Havoonjian

2 comments

Anonymous says:

October 2, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Unique Situation of Armenians Require Special Considerations

The fiendishly planned and barbarously executed unparalleled genocidal calamity that befell the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, followed by expediency-motivated inconclusive and unfair treatment by the international community – which was reeling from the aftermath of the horrendous impact of World War I – left an excruciatingly painful unhealed wound dissociated from the main corpus…

Developing the metaphor – my intention not being to be poetical or rhetorical though – merely to be able to account for the out-of-the-ordinary surreal situation, the historical inclusion of Armenia in the Ottoman Empire was a case of rape-followed-by-forced-marriage, and the dividing of Eastern and Western Armenia as a forced separation of artificially created "Siamese twin"…

The present case of signing the Protocols between the Republic of Armenia and Turkey is tantamount to applying some bandage to the wounds on the body of Eastern Armenia, hoping to anasthesize the gaping wound on the remaining appendages of the destroyed and discarded body of the Western Armenia… It is obvious from this metaphor that the "normalization and reconciliation" protocols will benefit neither the Eastern Armenians nor the Western Armenians in the long term. Not only that, it will create irreparable cleavage between the two subdivisions of the Armenians!

If this deteriorating condition cannot be arrested, it is time to think of "resurrecting" the Western Armenia – at least in concept to begin with – by the creation of a "Shadow Government" comprising from all aspects and segments of the Armenian Diaspora. Hopefully, the Republic of Armenia makes it clear to Turkey that its agreements pertain only to Eastern Armenians, and it cannot be binding on the Western Armenians – which constitue the vast majority of the Armenians worldwide! Obviously, the unity of the Armenian people is forever indivisible – but exceptional situations and conditions demand creative and unprecedented concepts and action!

Politically amateurish, but profoundly concerned,

John Hovannes Havoonjian
Anonymous says:

October 3, 2009 at 2:03 am

I think it is time

I think it is time that as Armenains we come to terms with reality. The reality is that our Republic is suffering. If anyone of you has lived their recently you would see what immense hardships many must endure, especially those living outside Yerevan. Now I wish more than anyone that Trebzon, Van, Ani etc were ours again but why don't we focus on improving our nation with lands that we have attained so far?

Opening the border, I believe, wil help Armenia economically and possibly improve the lives of many Armenian citizens. And since we all know very well that Turkey will not recognize the Genocide, I think it's a good idea to try a different approach, and let them put an end to this devastating blockade while pushing for recognition abroad.