Armenia’s minister of diaspora says she hasn’t heard any complaints about the recent pan-Armenian conference that brought together compatriots from different communities.
Several Diaspora-Armenians had earlier expressed unwillingness to attend the Fifth Armenia-Diaspora Conference in Yerevan, considering its outcome already predetermined.
“I cannot give an answer on behalf of 7 million people. We had invited representatives from different organizations, so we could have absolutely nothing to predetermine in advance,” Hranush Hakobyan told Tert.am, commenting on the reports about the Diaspora-Armenians’ discontent.
The minister said that the conference agenda covered topics that had matured long before in different communities. “The statement text, which we adopted, had been shared among all [the participants], and everybody expressed their opinion,” she explained.
Alec Baghdasaryan, a Los-Angeles – Armenian who participated in the event, says he is all in all satisfied with the agenda that helped address the most important problems. “But these are not problems to be resolved in just a couple of days. We need to carry out work, and I am sure we will,” he said.
Tigran Jinbashian, Director of the Lebanese-Armenian seminary Melankton and Hayk, agreed that there were no divergences among the participants, but said the agenda was too overloaded to enable a full-fledged debate.
“The true value of conferences of the kind does not consist in the questions raised, but rather the fact that so many people from different communities had gather together. And though many appeared to have certain disagreements, all were unanimous views on the key issues,” he added.
Hakob Nazaryan, who heads the Ramkavar party’s Western US branch, also expressed his satisfaction with the conference, considering the event successful. “We all were given the chance to express our ideas, so we now have to translate them into action,” he noted.
Sharing his impressions of the event, Director of the Yerevan-based Modus Vivendi Center Ara Papyan said the participants had no disagreements because they separated just the same day without any opportunity to discuss among themselves.
“Some people would come up to me, expressing their opinions and trying to figure out if they could let the organizers know of their viewpoints. So there was no discussion at all, as the text remained unchanged,” he told our correspondent.
Papyan said he finds that the conference statement should have been made public and considered in advance to enable a fruitful discussion. “But the Diaspora-Armenians did not complain at all,” he noted.
Source: tert.am