Armenians

 Tigran Avakyan – Ph.D., analyst. Former diplo and Deputy Minister. Intl consultant/speaker.

During the continuum of its existence, the Armenian nation created an unprecedented cultural, historical and ethnic heritage (in the form of a large number of sub-ethnic groups of Armenian origin) in dozens of countries of the modern world. Information on the aforementioned heritage is generally not very wide spread. Sometimes, little is known about it among the wide circles of the Armenian population, or even among the advanced Armenian elite of host countries.

Our film entitled "The Armenian Heritage of Europe" was dedicated to such a significant sub-ethnos of Armenian people as Armenians of Poland. Thanks to the substantial support of one of the major political figures of Armenian origin in Eastern Europe, a businessman and patron of art at that period of time, creating of that movie became possible. In fact, the project is a continuation of the activities that I started voluntarily and with great pleasure back in 2006. Everything I do is a kind of quintessence of stories about my grandfather Vagharshak Mikaelyan, his family and time spent next to my grandfather Matsak Avakyan. Love for the Armenian nation is an integral part of my life. I was lucky to grow up under the influence of representatives of the last fragments of the Armenian aristocracy in the Ottoman Empire and Persia. According to their perception of the world, only the result matters, while actions aimed at satisfying one's own vanity are absolutely ruled out. Our project is endless and can finish only when Mher's Doors open in our eternal capital Van. The main format of the idea is to unite Armenians that love their people on pragmatic and mutually beneficial principles.

 The reason for the segmentality and ineffectiveness of the Armenian world lies in the absence of a single mega-goal. You should always ask yourself "why?", "how?", "with what practical tools?". Even the best scalpel in the hands of an ineffective surgeon is a useless toy. Undoubtedly, it depends on what people and religious groups we compare with. The main mechanisms of controllability for the ancient and highly organized peoples were (and still remain) either fear or benefit. In case of Armenians, it should be fear of losing benefit, as Eastern Armenians say, "shah". I am sure that Armenians need to create a global system of national security: economic, political and cultural. Even in the most successful communities, ghakhuts, the Armenian youth begins an exciting road to nowhere: they learn the Armenian language, folk dances, participate in football and backgammon tournaments, go to church or march in scouting uniforms. That is it.  All this does not lead them to success, does not create corporate relationships and support. People will preserve their ethnicity only when the totality of ethnos will make each individual successful. Without realizing the need to gather Armenians on the territory of the Armenian Highland with the aim of recreating the Armenian state in all its significance that existed under Tigran the Great, all other ideas will not be accepted and will be profanational.

Armenians can сertainly be called a network nation. Such effective models have existed for the last 2 thousand years. Armenian merchant warriors transported goods to almost anywhere in the world: from Amsterdam to Lviv, from Lviv to Isfahan, from Isfahan to the Philippines. From the 18th century, this system fell into decay due to objective reasons. Without statehood, Armenians had local armed forces and fleet, and most importantly, their own banking system of a network nature. We must get rid of imitation and move on to effective pragmatism. Any success of an ethno-national or ethno-religious group is based on three factors - the combination of financial, political and military power. When, for example, in Macedonia, a young Armenian knows that he\she will get a better education and protection within the country, then later, in Europe and the world, he\she will wish to become an Armenian. This is the key difference from the barbecue parties and "symbolic" Armenian traditional events. In fact, the model is the devised matrix of development and strengthening of the country, region, continent. It is all about the right movement, and the percentage of achieving the result is a matter of correction and modeling. Concerning the allies: all that is beneficial is good. It is necessary to seek and move.

 Diaspora is a colossal potential resource for the development of Armenia. What ideology could become the foundation for unification of the diverse, heterogeneous Diaspora around Armenia and Armenian interests? The ideology of innovation and the ideology of civilization can become such a foundation. Armenians historically were innovators and "civilizers". The idea of the Armenian world consists of equal prosperity and safe development. It is important to codify our capabilities and identify those quintessentials that may be relevant in the modern world. It is traditionally and completely erroneous to divide the Diaspora into two parts - the old one (Armenians that were scattered around the world after the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923) and the new one (Armenians who left the South Caucasus during the past 25 years). In fact, we have four layers of Diaspora. The historical Diaspora consists, for example, of Maltese and Italian families of Armenian origin, descendants of the Pavlikians, who together formed new ethnic groups in the Balkans, etc. The old Diaspora consists of the Polish, Hungarian, and Moldovan Armenians, etc. The new Diaspora includes descendants of those Armenians who survived during  the Armenian Genocide. It is important to note that Armenians who continue to live on the territory of historical Armenia can not be considered a Diaspora. To a large extent, what we call the new Diaspora is a community of economic emigration. The question is Which priority directions of Armenia's development could you note today? Armenia is able to develop some directions that do not require the synthesis of additional resources. In the Middle East, there is a huge number of peoples, ethnic and religious groups that need to represent their interests in the international arena. They are close to Armenians with their civilization and culture. First of all, they are Copts, Assyrians, Maronites, Yezidis, Zaza, Mandeans and many others. There is also a large number of ethnic and ethno-religious groups of Armenian or partially Armenian origin. It is necessary to recreate the system of Armenian education and subsequent corporate development of students, as well as matrices, which graduates would join. Perhaps, it should be a system similar to an order, or a national agency. Most importantly, Armenia needs a high-qualified and uncompromising management when it comes to the interests of Armenians. At this stage of development, when Armenian state entities are not able to effectively model and realize the paradigm of the Armenian world, that function can be carried out by corporate networks. Let's take Africa as a sample project, in particular the Armenian communities that do not exceed 15,000 people. If we organize effective interaction and use communication potential, these communities will become not only self-supporting, but also profitable. We build the system - we get the profit. Therefore, the top-priority tasks at this stage are systematization and codification of the Armenian world, as well as defining pragmatic tasks and choosing implementation tools. Once, such Armenian Orders as the Mkhitarist and Vasilians in Eastern Europe played a significant role. I think, it is necessary to revive these development models. It is the goal of the new generation.