“Hayernaysor”: Mr. Melkonyan, what is your opinion of the international conference on “The Prospects of Diaspora in the Globalizing World”?

Ashot Melkonyan: I welcome the idea. Armenians have always viewed issues of national concern from their own point of view and that is very vulnerable. Today we have a Diaspora and issues concerning the Diaspora. For some reason, we have enclosed ourselves in our issues, but there are many countries with a rather huge Diaspora. We always try to attach the issue of the Diaspora to the Armenian genocide, but that road leads to isolation. Through these conferences, we are trying to view the Armenian Diaspora at the core of the issues of the Diaspora’s concern.

“Hayernaysor”: As a historian, how would you distinguish the Diaspora?

A.M.: Armenians in the Diaspora are very sensual. The Armenians of the Diaspora that was formed after the 1915 Armenian Genocide are still sensual and they fundamentally differ from the people of other nations’ Diasporas. In this sense, we can only compare the Armenian Diaspora with the Jewish Diaspora, which is at a higher level in terms of organization. Through such conferences and research, we will be able to find the formulation of the Diaspora and the key by attaching importance to the particularity of the Armenian Diaspora.

“Hayernaysor”: How can national awareness be preserved in the Diaspora?

A.M.: This is a very complicated issue and is one of the primary objectives of the Armenian state and the RA Ministry of Diaspora. Preservation of identity must be overseen by the Republic of Armenia in order to stop further assimilation in the Diaspora. Unfortunately, the structures of the Diaspora that have been preserving the Armenian school, nation and culture for decades are surprisingly at ease. There is a great danger because we can’t leave it all up to the Armenian State. Armenia and the Diaspora must realize that both face serious issues-the former as the homeland and the latter as an inseparable part of that homeland. For instance, the Republic of Armenia had to have developed mechanisms for providing Diaspora Armenian schools with teachers. To this day, we don’t have any university or structure that would teach Western Armenian, as well as prepare experts on Western Armenian to the Diaspora. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is implementing that with success. We have many priests, archimandrites and bishops who are successfully carrying out their activities in the Diaspora. His Holiness Ashot was a archimandrite in the Armenian community of Egypt and stayed there. We must transfer this practice to the cultural and educational spheres.