At a specially convened press conference on Sept. 17, ARF Supreme Council members Armen Rustamyan and Artsvik Minasyan presented their party’s anti-emigration “We will live in our country” plan, according to yerkirmedia.am. The 11 directives and 95 operations that comprise the plan aim not only to counter the rate of emigration, which is viewed as a national security threat, but to also create favorable conditions for immigration.
To implement this plan, Rustamyan said, all stakeholders, including the authorities, civil organizations, and media, must be involved.
“The purpose of this plan is not just about saying the final truth. That will be confirmed and crystallized during the discussions with the various groups within the society,” Minasyan said. “This is not a partisan plan. To make it happen, it must obtain a national plan status. We are the ones proposing this plan and we are the organizers, but we hope that everyone—the regime, the opposition, the active civic sector, the media, the church, representatives of the diaspora, the youth—will engage in the dialogue so that this plan turns into a national platform.”
Both Rustamyan and Minasyan, who are also members of the ARF-D Parliamentary Faction, stressed that the plan is not a closed document, but is rather open to discussion. The first such discussion is slated to take place on Sept. 18, with the participation of psychologists and sociologists.
“Under our approach, the issue of emigration will be solved only when a complete change of regime is achieved, as perceived in our seven-point platform. But until then we have to stop the bleeding,” Rustamyan said. “Emigration resembles the body bleeding; we are bleeding and we cannot allow it to reach blood strain levels. We have to put an end to this so that the body regains its strength. The body is our country, our state, our homeland. To wait for a complete change of regime would be a tactical mistake,” he said.
An interesting article about what is now a critical time in Armenia. To the staff writers: any chance that parts or all of the PLAN can be translated and posted for diaspora Armenians to read by your news journal? I am particularly interested in the parts that focus on what the PLAN calls out in creating “favorable conditions for immigration.”
May be it is time for ARF to push, for dual citizenship. A Diaspora Armenian has some certain rights to be qualified for Armenian citizenship!!
Any talk from the current thug regime addressing the same emigration issue plaguing Armenia? Why would they, as their main concern is maintaining control and lining their pockets?
It’s about time we focused on the present as opposed to unattainable goals that are needless exercises in futility a drain of all our talented resources
It is becoming increasingly clear that dual citizenship ought to be offered to the Diaspora Armenians provided they meet certain requirements for residence, taxation, military service, etc. under the RoA laws.