The Organisational Crisis of the Armenian Nation

With the wonders of modern technology, I managed to follow the symposium held recently at the University of Southern California on the potential of a trans-national, democratic Armenian Diaspora body. The six-hour long event can be viewed at http://capture.usc.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=555571291d934fcfb6650cb76ebe456d1d.

Let me confess at the outset not to have listened word-for-word to each presenter. I did go through the entire proceedings, however, and my reaction is a reflection of the same general concerns expressed early on this year, when Harout Sassounian published a piece proposing such a body, as did Policy Forum Armenia, a Washington, DC-based think-tank led by David Grigoryan. (Mr. Sassounian was himself a presenter at this symposium, while Mr. Grigoryan, following it online, managed to have a proxy express his thoughts at the event.)

In my opinion, there were two, somewhat minor, aspects of the symposium which were disappointing. For one, although most of the speakers were not American-born and were well-versed in the Armenian language, the presentations and most of the question and answer period, with some exceptions, took place in English. I realise that not all those present knew Armenian, and that it would have meant extra cost and trouble to have a simultaneous translator, but, all the same, I felt it lent an air of artificiality to many of the speakers, especially to those who had trouble with English as well. Simultaneous translations, by contrast, are available at most such public events in Armenia. I know that English is not current in the Republic, but I am not sure how current it is in the Diaspora, either. Continue reading →