Dropping Down Into Disappointment?

About two weeks ago, Mkhitar Hayrapetian was in the Los Angeles area and spoke at a public session held at the Armenian society of Los Angeles. He is currently chair of the Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth, and Sport of the Republic of Armenia’s National Assembly and head of the Armenian delegation at Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. It is the second time I have seen him speak. Also on the podium was Consul General in Los Angeles Armen Baibourtian.

Much of the information conveyed came through the questions received from the audience. Important issues were addressed – Diaspora-Homeland relations; IT related instruction in schools; dissolution of the Diaspora Ministry; closure of schools, primarily in the countryside where there are just too few students in the villages to support a school, suggesting that perhaps teachers could cover more than one topic to solve this problem; the analogous question of Diasporan school closures; transitional justice; whether Yerevan would be creating a Diaspora governance structure – rightly, he responded with an emphatic “NO”; participation in elections of Diaspora-dwelling citizens; integrating all businesses in the country into its taxation system, even exempting small businesses from taxes to achieve this integration; that the April-May 2018 political “revolution” would now be followed by an economic “revolution.”