AMAA's Statement at the Armenia-Diaspora Conference, 1999
ARMENIAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.
31 West Century Road
Paramus, NJ 07652.
Tel. (201) 265-2607, Fax: (201) 265-6015
Armenian Evangelical Church's Statement at the Armenia-Diaspora Conference
by Movses B. Janbazian
Editor's Note: The following is the full text of the Armenian
Evangelical Church's statement presented by Rev. Dr. Movses
B. Janbazian, the Executive Director of the Armenian Missionary
Association of America, at the Armenia-Diaspora Conference held in
Yerevan, Armenia, on September 22-23, 1999.
Your Excellencies, Presidents of the Republics of Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabagh, your Holiness, and dear compatriots.
On behalf of the Armenian Evangelical World Council and the 155
Armenian Evangelical Churches of the Homeland and the Diaspora, we
greet you with warmest Christian love. We also wish to express our
congratulations and gratitude to those who conceived the idea of
this Armenia-Diaspora Conference and worked hard to make it a
reality.
The issues faced by Armenia and the Diaspora are many and
serious. Therefore, this historic conference places a burden of
heavy responsibilities and serious commitments on the shoulders of
its organizers and participants. This is the reason why the
Armenian Evangelical Church is present at this conference with the
prayerful participation of the representatives of all Armenian
Evangelical regional church unions in the world, namely, Rev. Yuri
Avanesyan from Armenia; Rev. Megerdich Karagoezian from the Middle
East; Rev. Dr. Vahan Tootikian from North America; Rev. Gilbert
Léonian from Europe; Rev. René Léonian from the Eurasian region;
Mr. Hampartsum Moumdjian from South America; Mr. Borros Halladjian
from France; Mr. Andrew Torigian, representing the Armenian
Missionary Association of America; and Rev. Movses B. Janbazian,
Secretary of the Armenian Evangelical World Council.
Armenian Evangelicals have been an inseparable part of the life
and history of the Armenian nation since 1846. Armenian
Evangelicals have gone through all the horrors of massacres,
genocide and statelessness that befell the Armenian people. At the
same time, Armenian Evangelicals have been unreserved participants
in all the strivings and achievements of the Armenian nation.
Currently, the Armenian Evangelical Church, under the blessings
of God, continues to minister to our people in Armenia and in 20
other countries around the world through its more than 155 pulpits;
185 ordained ministers; 25 educational institutions; Haigazian
University of Beirut (the only Armenian institution of higher
learning outside Armenia); many social service centers;
publications; youth centers; and significant endowments and
foundations dedicated to charitable, educational and humanitarian
purposes. Specially, through their missionary arm, the Armenian
Missionary Association of America, Armenian Evangelicals render
inestimable services to our people in the Diaspora, in the Homeland
and in Artsakh.
We believe that the independence of Armenia offers a special
opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Armenia and the
Diaspora. Therefore, Armenian Evangelicals pray and work with
renewed hope for the enhancement of the mutual ties and
relationship between Armenia and the Diaspora, which will benefit
both of these wings of the Armenian nation. We wish to depict this
relationship as a symbiotic one, which will nurture and assure the
existence and prosperity of both Armenia and the Diaspora.
Our understanding of the Armenia-Diaspora mutual relationship
rests on two basic premises.
The first of these premises is that all human beings who
confess to being Armenian comprise one nation, the Armenian nation;
they have one homeland, the historical Armenia; and both the
Armenian nation and Armenia are under one flag, the red, blue and
orange Armenian tricolor.
The second basic premise on which our understanding of the
Armenia-Diaspora mutual relationship is based is that unity does
not mean uniformity. We believe that unity is having a common
purpose on essential issues and cooperation on common objectives.
In other words, attainable unity in the Diaspora, and between
Armenia and the Diaspora is necessarily based on the following
principles: - non-negotiable and unreserved unity, and even
uniformity, in essential and vital issues; - freedom and
understanding in non-vital and non-essential issues; and - mutual
love and respect in all issues.
The Armenian Evangelical Church believes that the following
are the major essential issues the Armenian nation is facing at
present: 1. Maintaining the liberation and independence of Artsakh
by all means, but preferably through creative negotiations and
diplomatic efforts; and, at an appropriate time, the annexation of
the Armenian lands of Nagorno Karabagh to the Motherland of
Armenia. 2. Assuring the defense and security of Armenia through
adequate military preparedness, and a flexible, balanced and wise
foreign policy pursued in consultation with the Diaspora. Never
again should the Armenian nation be subjected to massacres and
genocide! Never again should we lose any part of that tiny piece
of land remained to us out of the boundless universe created by
God! 3. A condition of political stability and a democratic
system of government in Armenia which will assure human rights,
including the right to freedom of speech, conscience, religion and
worship for all citizens. 4. Vitalization of the economy of
Armenia by overcoming the difficulties of the current blockade,
implementing a market economy, faithfully adhering to the current
privatization laws and regulations, adopting a practical and
equitable system of taxation, and creating an atmosphere of trust
and confidence for Diasporan and international financial
investments and credits. 5. Reformation and modernization of the
educational system and institutions of Armenia so that our current
and future generations will be equipped to benefit from the
scientific and technological wonders of the 21st century, and our
people will be enabled to compete with neighboring and other
nations. 6. Seeking the recognition of the Armenian genocide by a
greater number of nations and international bodies through
coordinated and persistent efforts by the Diaspora and Armenia, as
well as pursuit of reparations for the crime, and rectification of
the injustices committed against our nation. 7. Halting the
current emigration from Karabagh and Armenia by raising the living
standards of our people through investment and creation of job
opportunities. 8. Slowing the assimilation of the diasporan
Armenians by all possible means, and the development of an Armenian
identity and sense of belongingness among the younger generation in
the Diaspora through coordinated efforts by Armenia and the
Diaspora. 9. The bonding together of the Diaspora and Armenia by
enacting a dual citizenship law in Armenia, promoting youth and
student-exchange programs, creating in Armenia and Artsakh
Kibbutz-type communities for diasporan young people, promoting the
exchange of cultural and educational programs through mutual visits
and modern technology and communication means, and ironing out the
differences between the Eastern and Western Armenian dialects.
We believe that these and other issues should be discussed
jointly by Armenia and the Diaspora, and the proposals issuing from
these discussions should be pursued with the concerted efforts of
both Armenia and the Diaspora.
We Armenian Evangelicals also have another serious concern,
which relates to the current weakness of the Christian faith of our
people. For various reasons, our people in Armenia and the
Diaspora have lost our former spiritual values, the faith of our
forebears and the vision of Gregory the Illuminator, which have
played such an important role in the development of our national
image, character and cultural heritage. In order to reclaim our
historical and genuine national identity, we have to rediscover the
Gospel-inspired holy and pure faith of our fathers. We believe
that if we cannot live as a Christian nation, the independence that
we have achieved, and the lands we have liberated, as well as the
economic, social and scientific progress we hope to achieve, all
will be in vain. It is impossible to build a good world without
building up the inner spiritual world of people. It is impossible
to create a noble culture, lifestyle, society or civilization
without adhering to noble principles, truth, and spiritual values,
the purest source of which is God the Creator, the Lord and the
Savior of the universe.
Therefore, it is our highest hope and ardent prayer that when
during the first year of the third millennium we joyfully and with
pride celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of
Christianity as the state religion of Armenia, all of us in Armenia
and in the Diaspora will experience the beginning of a new
spiritual revival at government, church and community levels, and
we shall once again rededicate ourselves as a nation to Jesus
Christ.
In 301 A.D. our forebears made a covenant with Jesus Christ.
If we fulfill our commitment to that covenant, then God will
abundantly bless our small but precious nation, and He will make
our nation a source of blessings not only to its sons and
daughters, but also to its neighboring peoples and to all humanity.
We believe that this is our nation's reason for being; this is our
people's mission in the world; and this is the God-ordained destiny
of our Haigaznian race.
May God bless the Republic of Armenia and the children of our
nation living in the Motherland and in the Diaspora, now and
always. Amen.
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