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September 10, 2002 For Immediate Release National Citizens’ Initiative
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NCI coordinator Hrach Hakobyan made opening remarks to the capacity audience. “Our purpose here and now is to address the ongoing cultural isolation and to build common ground among various parts of the Armenian people,” he said.
Rev. Fr. Mesrob Aramian of the Gandzasar Theological Center presented a keynote paper on “The Peculiarities and Ethno-Consolidational Role of Armenian Theology.” “Contemporary historiography often betrays incorrect approaches in analyzing issues of our past. It attempts to treat historic events according to today’s mindset, without taking into consideration that people living years ago were true believers, and solutions to historically important issues had been found not through a political process, but by the collective faith of the nation,” he said.
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Very Rev. Fr. Bagrat Galstanian, dean of the Mother See’s seminary at Sevan, delivered a paper on “The Western and Eastern Diplomacy of the Armenian Church.” He asserted that, “If we review our historical track record, we will note that the positions of our church were neither pro-western nor pro-eastern, but rather represented situational formulations.”
Historian Armen Petrosian presented his opinion on “The New Sub-Ethnic Structures of Diaspora: The American Example,” introducing a personal analysis of the situation in the Armenian communities of the United States.
In his intervention about “Two Catholicosates, Two Attitudes?,” Bishop Mikayel Ajapahian of the Shirak Diocese argued against simplistic characterizations. “The Holy See of Cilicia is not a purely Dashnakist phenomenon, just as the Mother See of St. Etchmiadzin is not a non-Dashnakist Catholicosate. They both are pan-Armenian structures, each with its own frontiers and reach,” he said. The bishop concluded his presentation with the idea that it is of vital importance for the Armenian people to move beyond the phase of parallel Catholicosates and to enter the realm of “being together.”
The brisk exchange that ensued was moderated by NCI councilmember, ethnographer Hranush Kharatian. She noted in particular: “The questions raised during this third workshop underscore a national concern that the individual and collective duality we have inherited from our historic past will continue in the future to drive our choices of action and conduct.”
The spirited discussion engaged the participation of former Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K. Hovannisian; Ludwig Khachatrian, chairman of the Arrata Cultural Association; Yerevan State University professors Babken Harutiunian and Davit Hovhannisyan; “Hanrapetutiun” Party leader Aram Sargsian; Popular Party leader Stepan Demirchian; Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) analyst Hovsep Khurshudian; philologist Hakob Cholakian; historian Pavel Chobanian; and many others.
The National Citizens’ Initiative is a public nonprofit association founded in December 2001 by Raffi Hovannisian, his colleagues, and fellow citizens with the purpose of realizing the rule of law and overall improvements in the state of the state, society, and public institutions. The National Citizens’ Initiative is guided by a Coordinating Council, which includes individual citizens and representatives of various public, scientific, and educational establishments. Five commissions on Law and State Administration, Socioeconomic Issues, Foreign Policy, Spiritual and Cultural Challenges, and the Youth constitute the vehicles for the Initiative’s work and outreach.
For further information, please call
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