Yegparian: Questions

On the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, I heard, inter alia, an interesting remark by a professor being interviewed. He mentioned that another writer had referred to Haiti as the “Republic of NGOs.” It struck me that the Republic of Armenia has been through an earthquake, the remediation for which is still, 21 years on, incomplete, much as Haiti’s rebuilding efforts are deficient. But more interesting were the political ramifications of the NGOs. Because the Haitian state has been weak and corrupt, foreign governments have circumvented it when delivering aid to the country. Perversely, though unsurprisingly, this has further weakened the state, rendering it less able to perform its functions in the aftermath of the earthquake. There are numerous NGOs operating in Armenia, and aid flowing from the outside to the country, quite often to and through these same operations. The parallels are obvious. The question is, are we contributing to the weakness of the Republic of Armenia’s statehood?

There’s another timely question begging to be asked, in light of the hits we’ve been taking over the last year or two—electoral-politically (Armenian candidates losing races for office, often because of other Armenians running as spoilers), public relations-wise (Kobe Bryant, Obama’s unkept promise), legislatively (H.Res. 252), legally (Southern Poverty Law Center and University of Minnesota cases), internationally (protocols), etc.