We Too Are Proponents of Unity and Concordance

Last week the Canadian Armenian community in general and the Moritreal Armenian community in particular faced a series of announcements and initiatives in rapid succession.

Naturally, these announcements will evoke serious questions in the minds of concerned and healthy-thinking Canadian Armenians since along with the sincerity of the initiatives certain controversial aspects have emerged.

Last Saturday, 23 October, His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, Primate of the Armenian Church of Canada, issued a touching message of unity through the internet, with total sincerity and deep faith, putting aside practical considerations, calling all Canadian Armenians AND ALL ITS ORGANIZATIONS for joining their efforts to promote all activities with a spirit of unity in the interests of the entire community.

We shall publish the message of the Primate in our next week’s issue.

However, all of a sudden, within a space of barely 24 hours, a confusion and a controversy arose in well-informed circles, when only certain organizations, and not others, received an invitation by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) to partake in what they call a "National Council” which intends to pursue the objectives of unified action more or Iess along the same lines as those proposed hy Bishop Galstanian. Naturally, this development created a disturbing and disconcerting element at the onset of a call for unity of the ENTIRE COMMUNITY.

Has the ARF appointed itself the sole executor of the Primate’s otherwise well-intended proposition of unity? If so, how could it invite only certain organizations, in defiance of excluding core establishments that have been founders of the coirimunity such as the Tekeyan Armenian Cultural Association, the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, the Bolsahay Cultural Organization, the Armen-Quebec Corporation, the ABAKA Weekly, etc.

On the other hand, if this scheme of "National Council" of the ARF is unrelated to the Primate’s call, it begs the question whether it intends to disrupt Serpazan’s initiative of a pan-community cooperative system, by arousing a state of confusion within hours of the Primate’s call for unity.

Nevertheless, affirming once again our wholehearted conviction of the spirit and the ultimate purpose of the Primate’s initiative, we deem it necessary that, considering concrete realities of our community, before committees, commissions, etc. are set up, unofficial consultations and meetings be held among persons closely associated with the mechanisms of the community and with experienced circles, so that the aim of unity and concordance does not fail from the very start in the process of transition from a great idea to a wished-for established reality.

ARF’s hasty and untimely action is already a good example of how to lead to such a potential failure. Our organizations condemn such acts.

It should also be known that the announcement, by the Congress of Canadian Armenians on this matter, done hastily, did not have the prior approval of its member organizations. The Congress’ role would have been, along with a full support of the spirit of Primate’s initiative, to devise and propose ways and means of implementing such a noble cause in such ways as to avoid ultimate failure.

When the message of the Primate will be published in our next issue, the readers will, no doubt, find the above reflections useful for their own interpretation.