Undermining Interests of Armenia and Diaspora

  Appo Jabarian, 6 July 2001

On the Diaspora Front

In an effort to inject confusion about the timely concept of getting the Armenian Diaspora better organized, Kevork Bardakjian, Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Michigan, attempted to throw the monkey wrench in the visionary process of “Elective Diaspora Leadership.”

  Appo Jabarian, 6 July 2001

On the Diaspora Front

In an effort to inject confusion about the timely concept of getting the Armenian Diaspora better organized, Kevork Bardakjian, Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Michigan, attempted to throw the monkey wrench in the visionary process of “Elective Diaspora Leadership.”

In a July 1 interview with Azg.am, referring to the democratic representation of the Diaspora and Armenians as a whole, Prof. Suny stated: “It’s an eternal problem [as to] who shall speak first, who last. They’re saying, let’s hold elections. Harut Sassounian was proposing, let every 20 thousand Armenians have one representative; let them form a central council. In my opinion, that is utopia. … No such thing is possible. The [political] parties would not allow [it]. If the parties do not have a ruling position, they would oppose anything.”

But Prof. Suny contradicts himself by cheerleading its necessity, saying: “For example, they’re saying, if Turkey acknowledges the Genocide, we will seek the defense of our rights. Who is going to present our demands? Who is going to speak on Diaspora’s behalf? Through such questions, answers are created, that we need to unify. But how?”

On the Home Front

In an interview with Azerbaijan’s propaganda mouthpiece az.apa.az, Professor Ronald Grigor Suny of Michigan University and Director of Eisenberg Institute of Historical Studies, sounded more like a political operative than a scholar.

Injecting the Armenian psyche with a sense of self-defeatism, Prof. Suny said: “The facts that Armenians are the majority and ought to be able to rule themselves in Karabakh has to be reconciled with the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, possibly though a federal status that is real, gives Karabakh full autonomy but maintains a de jure association with Azerbaijan.”

By propagating “a de jure association with Azerbaijan,” Suny shamefully chooses to ignore the facts of history relating to Stalin-era carving of Armenian territories of Artsakh (Karabagh) and Nakhitchevan from then newly Sovietized Armenia; and forcibly ceding them to the then newly Sovietized Azerbaijan.

Adding insult to injury, Suny added: “How those attitudes will be overcome is very difficult to say, but it is a first important step toward integration into the Euro-Atlantic structure, which is based on forgetting the negative aspects of the past.”

A study of Prof. Suny’s biography points to the fact that during the Soviet era, when it was needed to weaken the Soviet Empire, certain academics amplified the need to recognize the “nationalist movements of the non-Russian Soviet peoples” such as Armenians, Azeris and Georgians.

After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, several nationalist movements propelled the soviet republics to independent statehood. Many of the newly freed states became the “darlings” of some circles in the West for petroleum considerations, except for Armenia and others. Georgia and Azerbaijan led the pack of “darling” nations. And as such, they continue to “benefit” from the support lent by professors such as Ronald Grigor Suny. In Suny’s interview, the beneficiary continues to be none other than war-mongering Azerbaijan.

Twin “Open-minded” Professors

Suny has no qualms about obstructing justice for freedom-seeking Armenians in Artsakh (Karabagh) seeking self-determination in a reversal of unjust and forcible Armenian land giveaway by Stalin. And Bardakjian does not hesitate to filibuster the right of Diaspora Armenians seeking to be better organized through democratically-held elections.

Both are very knowledgeable academics, but they put their expertise to counter-productive uses, effectively seeking to demoralize Armenians both in the Homeland and Diaspora; and to undermine the interests of both Armenia and Diaspora.