Concerns for the Future
While for the most part, the last set of issues mentioned have passed into history, the Armenian people now face new alarming challenges.
For completely different but equally serious reasons, the Armenian people must confront a problem of survival both within the borders of the homeland and in the Diaspora.
Once again, Armenians as a collectivity, while possessing various important philanthropic and spiritual structures, also have the need for the active presence of political parties that, as spelled out above, prioritize national supreme interests.
In a fair and realistic overview of the outlook for Armenians worldwide today, it is unfortunately difficult to find reasons for optimism.
In our homeland, which has enjoyed more than thirty years of independent statehood, a political party based on and consistently operating according to seriously defined political and social principles, has unfortunately simply not appeared until today. In a country with barely three million people, how can we view seriously the several dozens of assemblages that call themselves parties, sometimes with hardly a dozen members? To the credit of the ADL, it should be noted that over a century ago, it had the intellectual and political maturity and courage to unite four parties without even having the patronage of a state.
Until today, the people of Armenia have not been able to create a mature political understanding of sacrificing individual interests for the sake of the collective. From the days of independence, until today, the grouping that is in power generally bears some descriptive party name, but after losing power, when the possibility of individual gains disappears, the grouping thins out and practically disappears.
For a variety of altogether different reasons, the picture is not encouraging in the diaspora either. While the generation that survived the Genocide, with great sacrifices managed to maintain political-minded structures in some large regions where the widely dispersed Armenians lived, and transfer that spark to its succeeding generation, the generations that follow the latter understandably are quickly and increasingly absorbed by the concerns of overcoming the challenges faced in their immediate environments.
The ADL, one of the three traditional Armenian political parties which emerged in the late 19th century and continued its existence until the present, has for some time now lost its legitimate organizational structure. We hope that serious and conscious ADL leaders operating in different regions will make a special effort to come together and facilitate the restoration of a reliable and respectable leadership. Each of the other traditional parties has in its turn its own specific internal problems.
Fortunately, the ADL, with the greatest foresight, in its time gave birth to a sister organization, the Tekeyan Cultural Association, which has the mission of keeping the torch of Armenian culture, art and history high. In Armenia and the diaspora, Tekeyan, especially by means of the press it sponsors, fulfills an important role through efficient and effective activity.
In conclusion, at this stage, pan-Armenian national interests dictate that the diaspora, with the participation in particular of all of its organizations established on the basis of time-tested and durable traditions and principles, should create one or more clearly defined cooperative superstructures. These bodies need to have as their clear primary goals, on the one hand, the ensuring of the preservation of a well-founded Armenian identity in the diaspora, and on the other hand, the search for, and implementation of means to help the homeland be strong economically and diplomatically. We must hope, wish, and most importantly, believe, that such a practice of consolidating our forces will become contagious for the people and the leadership of our homeland as well.
The ADL, faithful to its record of over a century, will undoubtedly support every initiative proposed in this spirit with all its means.
(Dr. Arshavir Gundjian served in the past for many years as chairman of the ADL Central Committee.)