Hranush Hakobyan: “The Diaspora Ministry is the home of every Armenian”

An interview with the new minister

by Vincent Lima

Published: Friday November 21, 2008

Hranush Hakobyan heads the Diaspora Ministry of Armenia. Photolure

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Yerevan - When I made my first trip to Armenia 16 years ago, I stayed at the Erebuni Hotel off Republic Square for three weeks. It was a well-worn facility, and at the time it accommodated guests on the fourth and fifth floors only. The other floors were occupied by refugees from Azerbaijan.

On October 21, accompanied by my colleague Maria Titizian, I returned to the hotel, now all fresh and shiny after a major renovation job, right back to the fifth floor. We had an appointment with Hranush Hakobyan, the head of the newly formed Diaspora Ministry of Armenia. Her large office was filled with floral arrangements - tokens of affection from her friends on the occasion of her appointment.

As we sat there, sipping bitter Armenian coffee, I thought about the refugees who had lived in that building. Some of them had become integrated into the local society. Many of them had moved abroad. Even as Maria and I had, each of us, moved to Armenia with our families, hundreds of thousands of Armenians had moved away from Armenia. Not only had Armenia changed over the last two decades; so too had the diaspora, much expanded by this huge influx. Or perhaps there were multiple Armenian diasporas, and Armenian emigrants from Armenia and Azerbaijan were the newest diaspora.

Was the Diaspora Ministry an effort to reach out to that new, not-yet-organized diaspora?

"For our ministry, there is no old diaspora, new diaspora, small diaspora, or big diaspora," Ms. Hakobyan answered our first question. "For us the guiding principle is the Armenian person living outside of his or her homeland - by homeland I mean either Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh. We are ready to work with, discuss, cooperate with, and make decisions with every single Armenian living outside of the homeland, whether they are individuals or organizations. After making decisions, we must work together to realize them. This is my greatest desire."

Ms. Hakobyan acknowledged that President Serge Sargsian had intended to send a powerful message with the creation of the Diaspora Ministry. "He understood that he had to deal with issues and make decisions that impact Armenians all over the world. And that was the reason that in his plans there were three important principles:

"(1) Preservation of Armenian identity (hayabahbanum) in all its forms. By preservation of Armenian identity we mean the Armenian family, Armenian culture, faith, and our mother tongue. If these four great pillars remain steadfast and strong, then we will be able to resolve the many issues of our preservation.

"(2) Discovering and tapping into the potential of the diaspora to help empower the homeland and bring about progress. This means that in different countries throughout the world where we have powerful, resourceful, established specialists, scientists, businesspeople, and cultural figures, all their energy and focus must be directed to the empowerment of the homeland.

"(3) Repatriation. By repatriation we don't only mean physical return. We mean the return of the mind and heart, which will then bring the physical return with it. In repatriation (hayrenatardzutiun) we must see a return to Armenianness (hayatardzutiun). The more people there are who want to return to their roots, the more it will help to strengthen the homeland."

Where the ministry fits in

In the absence of a dedicated ministry over the past 17 years, much has been done to draw diaspora Armenians to Armenia and to enhance and coordinate their contributions to Armenia's development. At the very start of Armenia's independence, President Levon Ter-Petrossian set up the Armenia Fund, which coordinates charitable work. President Robert Kocharian initiated the Armenia-Diaspora conferences, of which there have been three so far, the Pan-Armenian Games, a set of Pan-Armenian cultural festivals under the rubric, "One Nation, One Culture," and other Armenia-diaspora initiatives.

There is no shortage of information from Armenia. Armenians around the world have access to Armenia's public television and Armenia TV; there's the Armenian Reporter out of New Jersey, Yerevan, Los Angeles, and Washington; there's Yerevan magazine out of Moscow and Yerevan; there are news agencies, websites, and blogs. And there's a constant stream of visitors in and out of Armenia.

Even philanthropic work has become more sophisticated, with initiatives like the Children of Armenia Fund - and the Armenian-American Wellness Center, a project led jointly by Rita Balian in Virginia and Ms. Hakobyan in Yerevan.

Where does the Diaspora Ministry fit into this complex of existing structures?

"After 17 years of independence, ties and partnerships have been formed, yes. The traditional parties returned to the homeland. Many organizations set up affiliates. Governing bodies within ministries have established ties with diaspora communities. I think that the creation of this ministry has been 17 years late in coming," Ms. Hakobyan said.

Although the ministry was officially launched on October 1, Ms. Hakobyan had been assembling her team and setting up for some months earlier. "After only several months of working," she said, "we have found that there is the need for coordination. Everything that has been done, has been done haphazardly, has been done independent of each other, without coordination or direction. The greatest mission of this ministry is the coordination all state governing bodies in their cooperation with diaspora structures and to cooperate with all private and nongovernmental organizations that work with the diaspora."