Friday, January 30, 2009

Diasporan Armenian Politics... the means, or an end?

I have never been a fan of the political parties in the Armenian Diaspora, nor of the various other Armenian political entities which have the audacity to presume that they represent Diasporan Armenians; these groups, in some cases, impose their own criteria and definitions of what it is to be Armenian, who is a good Armenian, and the strict rules which must be followed in order to be accepted as an Armenian - a Diasporan Armenian - rules, roles, and identities which are in so many ways disconnected from just an identity, and from Armenia.
But the main players for the majority of my life have been the Dashnaks, the Ramgavars, the ANC, AAA etc... These groups often act in a way which would make an outsider think that the group itself is the end, and being Armenian, or the country of Armenia itself, just a means, or a tool.
I have been impressed by the third main party, however, which at least from my perspective, has resurfaced more recently, the Hnchaks. When I scan the main papers of all of these groups, I've noticed it is the Hnchakian publications that have events in Armenia on the front page, as issues of main concern. That's as opposed to many of the other groups, where Armenia may or may not show up in an issue, other than as related to a fundraiser, or other non-headlining, relatively unimportant topic. Issues in Armenia do come up in these other publications, but they are often downplayed, with what I am starting to think is an intentional quietude and minimality of information, meant to keep readers wondering more about the next banquet or social gathering, than about unemployment and economics, healthcare and education in Armenia, not to mention, regardless of what side one takes, the issue of Democracy in Armenia.
For example, on January 26th, the day PACE met, Nouvelles D'Armenie published an article cosigned by several groups, including the Hntchakians, not only eloquently summarizing the current state of human rights and democracy in Armenia, but urging PACE to actually hold Armenia responsible for their commitment to Human Rights and Democracy in Armenia, as they obliged to with their membership in the Council of Europe.
On the other hand, the Armenian Assembly of America has decided to hold their yearly Washington D.C. Advocacy Conference on March 1-3 this year. Regardless of whether you think there are or are not political prisoners, you like SS or LTP or Muk or whomever, it seems more than a tad disrespectful to cover up that day of incredible violence and sadness with meetings, and a banquet. Not to say that advocacy has not played an important role -- I do appreciate some of their work. So, along with SAAG, I emailed them, and made a suggestion. I have yet to hear a response. I sent it on January 17th. Below is the email, which I sent to the following email addresses (the last one bounced back):

bardouny@aaainc.org (Bryan Ardouny, executive director);
mzachariades@aaainc.org (Michael Zachariades, Director of Communications- his name
is on the press release);
Ykeshishian@aaainc.org (Yeghig Keshishian, Director Western Office);
info@aaainc.org ;
centoff@arminco.com
---------

Dear Armenian Assembly of America,

For years I have appreciated the work you have done for the Armenians of the United States, and around the world. I learned recently that the annual Advocacy Conference will be taking place on March 1-3 this year; this is clearly a change from the past, when the Conference was held sometime in late March to May. I am sure there must be unavoidable scheduling conflicts which have forced the AAA to hold the Conference on such a sad day for the people of Armenia, a day marking the loss of 10 Armenian lives. I wonder if you might consider, on the first anniversary of the death of those 10 Armenians, having a table available where your participants may donate money to help support the families of those 10, if not require a small donation in addition to the $300 fee for the Conference and Banquet.

Sincerely,

Tzitzernak and SAAG (Save Armenia Action Group)



P.S. As a number of others have wondered about this same issue, I may make your response public.

-------------------

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tzitznrak - Why do you lie in your letter?

You state you are not a fan of the assembly, but you start your letter with a disingenuous lie.

Send a real letter instead of a rough draft.

Ani said...

The single best outcome of the United States recognizing the Armenian Genocide would be that this issue would no longer dominate the Diaspora's time and energy. Then the groups just might be able to cast a glance at what's happening in the Armenia of today--well, one can dream, I guess...

Anonymous said...

I stopped reading PanArmenian.net exactly for the same reason. I can find everything about Turkey and Azerbaijan there but not about Armenia/things of vital importance for the people of Armenia. Well, let Turks and Azeris read that, there are enough sites about our country...

Tzitzernak,
Another powerful letter. Holding that event on March 1-3 is just outrageous. They don't have( and can't be bothered to hide) any respect for our victims...Clearly they don't consider them "theirs"...Talking about "unity"...
BSW

tzitzernak2 said...

I removed the previous comment from author Shirak, as it contains obscenities. i have rewritten it below with modification of three letters. I will continue to remove posts that have inappropriate language, but invite all well-articulated opinions.

"F*** you and your levon ter petrosyan"

Anonymous said...

i could not agree more with this..."These groups often act in a way which would make an outsider think that the group itself is the end, and being Armenian, or the country of Armenia itself, just a means or a tool"....all these evil orgs are NOT FOR ARMENIA, they are for their own selfishness. money, power, wealth, success, they can careless about Hayastan. to them Hayastan is a distant past that is now occupied by turGAY. to them being Hay is same as being a JEWmerican. they rant about the AG and other related causes, but they never comment/express outrage on the current situations in Hayastan and the unrest that takes place (it seems) once a year now. similar how american JEWS do now when EVILSrael is bombed, they never express outrage or show any protest for it.

i hate AAA, ANC, Ramgavars, AGBU, HMEM(<--100% ARAB oritented group, nothing of Armenian) AYF (todays ARAB.y.f is not the same what Garegin started with his cexakron) and now i am growing an UNfondness of ARF too. AAA is 100% turGAY/zionist jew controlled org, it is nothing Armenian. its real agenda is that of making sure REAL HAYS dont come to power and have success (such as me) and to be sure that JEWmerica never offically publically recognizes the AG. Annie Totah is a zionist donmeh jew pretends to be Hay, also who has strong ties with LTP(JEWtp) her husbands is a senior leader in AIPAC (american EVILSraeli potlical action group) Edgar Hagopian her lil dog that desperately follows her is also a turGAY agent who pretends to be Hay, and is known for throwing lavish expensive parties for local politicans so he can make sure they dont vote YES on passing of AG

all these orgs are very ANTI-HAYASTAN. they only care for their own bullshit selfish agenda. ever wonder why there is ZERO HAYASTANCIS involved in these orgs? because these orgs are ANTI-Hayastan and dont welcome Hayastancis to join, they dont reach out to us, nor do they welcome us if we try to join. i post this comment out of personal experiences, they HATE REAL TRUE GENUINE HAYS (especially from Hayastan) this is why they downplay Hayastan issues and never have it on their "FRONT PAGES"

BTW: bryan ardouny, is a donmeh jew-turGAY agent. he has secret meetings with ATAA and AIPAC and is connected with CIA

Aziz55.5 said...

The first anonymous is obviously a serjagan attempting to instigate some kind of discontent in this blog...exactly as there were in the Azatutyan Hraparak where these instigators were always present and
Nikol would always advise us not to listen to them...
I was there...and I have seen many come to the rally say dubious things and then disapear, and the next day, the same.
Anonymous, I have this to tell you:
payqar, payqar mincev verc.

Richard said...

Hayaser,

Why did you stop? Why not just say you hate everybody?

Anonymous said...

at R

I know who you are, and i dont forget who you are and WHAT YOU REALLY ARE. as promised in the past, when i see you, its all over for you, your life, your entire world will come crashing down

oh and this one is for you
I HATE ALL SPYURKS, AND ALL THOSE WHO ARE ANTI-HAYASTAN

Anonymous said...

OK, "Hayaser", you hate everything or almost everything. We got it from the very beginning of your comment, there is no need to go on and on.

Regarding the topic.
Although Hayaser has lots of anger and some of the facts he mentions are just untrue, he has a point. AAA would not hold meetings and banquettes in any other country where a tragedy like ours happened exactly a year ago. Don't you think it is done intentionally? I don't know if it is SS's "brilliant" idea (to dismiss any attempts of demonstrations in the center of Yerevan with an excuse of disturbing our "diasporan brothers'" meetings of global significance!), or the AAA's (to emphasize its attitude towards Armenia and the Armenians--hayastantsi's). But it is pretty clear for me, and they keep proving it, that the lobbyist groups DO NEED Armenia NOT to prosper economically and democratically, otherwise they will have to cease their activities and will be deprived of their income, as well as the illusion of power. I am sure, there is a psychological motivation too, but it is a long story and I don't even want to get there. That's why these groups display this perfect understanding and support to RK and SS, that's why the diasporan organizations joined together (pay attention! how often does it happen?!) to welcome the usage of military power against peaceful population of Armenia. I think, it's pretty much anti-American-values posture too.

Anonymous said...

most of the diaspora organizations and their newspapers and magazines have kept quiet throughout the year regarding develpments in Armenia, but they would talk endlessly about genocide, gul's visit (by the way, SS was so much crticized in those media for inviting Gul but never for forging elections and killing protesters),
i finished reading tashnag party's aztag daily special edition of new year, a 250 page magazine issued in beirut, there is only 1 article about elections in Armenia and subsequent developments, written to distort facts and realities and that ends up saying "shouldn't we first define what is political prisoner"? the rest are all about the PAST and diaspora, turkey, etc

that is the tashnaq media, and the rest of USA-based genocide preaching useless "garbage" (sorry for my word) so disconnected from the realities of armenian nation

a 100% classical diasporan

Anonymous said...

Try MassisWeekly.com

Ani said...

Take a look at this piece of bull-oney: http://tinyurl.com/dhsf38

For the U.S. readership, they pretend there is actually some difference in the political parties, although they vote 100% alike and drink champagne toasts to each other when they're in Yerevan. But in Dubai, at a 5-star hotel in high season), they'll play to the audience. http://tinyurl.com/cpkvuu

Actually the dubious Dubai junket needs a post of its own. Can I interest you, Tzitzernak?

Anonymous said...

It's disgusting that the diaspora media does not even attempt to report on or criticize human rights abuses in Armenia. But Armenia must also be blamed for diasporan neglect. When Armenia begins to treat the diaspora with some attention rather than the customary apathy or aversion, then things might begin to change.