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Due to the current challenges in the Near East region, the number of members of the thousands of Armenian communities of Lebanon, Iraq and Syria is still on the fall. Thus, the new reality of the Armenians in the Near East and the factor of the Armenians living in Western Armenia, need to be added to the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora triumvirate. This was the proposal that member of the Board of Founders of Lusavor Avedis website of France Dikran Pashabezian made during the 8th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora.
According to him, due to the current challenges in the Near East and adjacent areas, the activities of the Armenian communities are essentially different from the regular activities of the traditional Armenian Diaspora, and a new threat that is becoming more and more resonant is being posed.
“For us Armenians, this is not a new situation in the sense that we Armenians have faced these challenges starting from the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, as a result of which the once prospering Lebanese-Armenian community of 300,000 members is now a community of 60,000 members, and it has suffered all the consequences,” he said, adding that the 20,000-member community of Iraq and the 300,000-member community of Syria have also decline throughout the years.
According to Pashabezian, in case of such development of events, the fate of the other Armenian communities of the Near East and the Armenians of Western Armenia remains unclear.
Thus, the speaker believes that the Armenians in the Near East and in Western Armenia need to be viewed as the fourth component of the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora triumvirate.
Pashabezian also said he was glad to state that the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora partnership has been very successful over the past 25 years in the strengthening of statehood of the Republic of Armenia, the protection of the right of the Armenians of Artsakh to live freely and their right to self-determination, reinforcement of the security of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia, major support and contributions to the economic, educational, healthcare and cultural sectors, the restoration and development of infrastructures of the Armenian states, the debilitation of the society’s pressure and in other sectors.
