The Diaspora and the Challenge of State Building

Abstract

In September 2021, the High Commissioner’s Office for Diaspora Affairs announced the second iteration of its iGorts program, which attracts dozens of Armenian professionals from around the world, eager to share their skills in several ministries and offices of the Republic of Armenia. Although small in scope, this laudable, little-publicized initiative has a revolutionary dimension: for the first time, the Armenian state is establishing an organic and horizontal relationship with the diaspora. Until now, the links between Yerevan and Armenian diaspora communities around the world have been based primarily on two pillars: humanitarianism and philanthropy on the one hand, and tourism (memorial or recreation) on the other.

Since the 1988 earthquake, it has been clear that the mobilization of the diaspora in favor of Armenia has taken place intermittently on a transnational scale every time a tragedy rocks the motherland. This was the case at the time of the earthquake, which opened the doors of the Iron Curtain, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the 2020 Artsakh War, which gave rise to a “digital diaspora”. But there are gaping flaws in this relationship.

Read full article here.