YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenian President Serge Sarkisian is pressing ahead with plans to form an advisory “pan-Armenian council” that will consist of senior officials from Armenia and representatives of its worldwide Diaspora.
Sarkisian met with the chairman of the Armenian Constitutional Court, Gagik Harutyunyan, and other state officials on Aug. 18 to discuss ongoing preparations for the inaugural session of the council, which his office said will take place next year.
Plans for creating such a body were first announced in 2015 by a high-level commission that organized the official commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The commission was headed by Sarkisian and composed of other senior Armenian state officials as well as the top clerics of the Armenian Apostolic Church and leaders of some Diaspora organizations.
It was agreed that the council will seek greater international recognition of the genocide, examine “conditions of Armenians around the world” and coordinate “pan-Armenian activities.” Practical modalities of its creation were supposed to be worked out by a task force headed by Harutyunyan and Vigen Sargsyan, the then chief of the presidential staff who became Armenia’s defense minister last October.
A statement by the presidential press service said Harutyunyan presented “approaches and mechanisms” for the council’s formation during the Aug. 18 meeting chaired by Sarkisian. It said the head of state instructed officials to draft a package of corresponding decisions that will be discussed at an Armenia-Diaspora conference slated for next month. One of those documents will relate to “the agenda of the first council meeting to be held in 2018.”
The statement did not specify whether the Pan-Armenian Council will hold its first meeting before or after Sarkisian completes his final presidential term in April 2018. The president has still not publicly clarified whether he plans to stay in government in another capacity.
There are an estimated 8-9 million ethnic Armenians around the world. Only up to 3 million of them live in Armenia. Most of the others reside in Russia, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
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“…the council will seek greater international recognition of the genocide, examine “conditions of Armenians around the world” and coordinate “pan-Armenian activities.”
The above stated mission for the Pan Armenian Council (PAC) may be misdirected, as Diaspora’s economic strength is much greater (perhaps US$300.0+ Billion) than Armenia’s declining GDP at US$11.0 Billion.
The Council’s primary focus should be in developing the preconditions to having the Diaspora help grow Armenia’s economy in double digit rates on a sustained basis for decades to come.
I think this is just another way for the Armenian government to deflect criticism.
With this new “Council” the government can claim that it is actively consulting with the Diaspora when really it is not.
Unless the government cleans up corruption, makes the Diaspora full partners and even citizens, and uses the resources of the Diaspora to improve life in Armenian (instead of holding the Diaspora at arms length), nothing will change.
The leaders of Armenia will live in infamy in history books.
All these years we had Armenia-Diaspora conferences and nothing was achieved just an empty talking shop with spin doctor serjuk trying to fool the Diaspora with his show and lies.The problem is himself and his criminal oligarchic regime once that is removed all the rest will fall in place but without cleaning these thugs from their lucrative positions nothing will ever change as you can have another 26 such forums the result will be the same a fat zero.
Diaspora should have the courage and keep to its moral principles and openly come out and criticise and actively work to change this criminal regime if it genuinely wants Armenia to move forward and have a future and not get emptied on a daily basis and reach a level where it will be classed as a failed state.Wake up and get out of your comas and act before its too late as serjuk the election rigger is no asset to Armenia as he has become a major liability.
Lets call the names as they are.
will corruption and election rigging be discussed at this meeting?
Another useless council which will only waste tax payer money. All this is being done to make sure that diaspora leaders will not criticize him after he officially declares himself prime minister this coming April. Shame on anyone in diaspora who will agree to take part in this cheap show. Armenia does not need another pointless council, it needs democracy, justice, rule of law, equality for all citizens and end to oligarchy. We in diaspora have only two options, either sit down and watch how Armenia is transitioning from a semi-democratic system to a dictatorship or use every possible means to make it clear for serjik that we will not tolerate an Aleyiv-style dictatorship in Armenia.
Hopefully the creating of the Council will be a step to transforming it to a second chamber at Armenia’s parliament representing diaspora.
For the current Council I would suggest :
a. to have 1/3 of Council members from Armenia,and 2/3 from Diaspora.
b. not to appoint the council members, but to elect them. Having in mind the contemporary technologies it will not create any difficulty in organizing on-line elections throughout Armenia and all diaspora.
The solution is not another pointless council with traitorous criminals; the solution is nonviolent regime change with forced free and fair citizenry elections along with diaspora participation.