Diaspora youth should reap identity and culture in Armenia - USC Dornsife’s Margarita Baghdasaryan
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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Associate Director at USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies Margarita Baghdasaryan has highlighted the Global Armenian Summit in Yerevan for bringing together participants from across the world for debates and networking.
Baghdasaryan said it is highly important for all government agencies in Armenia to maintain direct and constant conversation with the Diaspora around various topics.
“Not only the topics of the Diaspora or Armenia’s concern should be raised, there must be debates about all topics, relationships must be created and maintained. I greatly value this summit for creating this very platform. This is already the second time that the platform is bringing us all together, I am very glad to see participants from various countries,” she said.
Baghdasaryan said Armenia must become for Diaspora youth the place where they will be able to "reap their identity and culture."
She said that the language and culture must be developed constantly.
“I think the state bodies should assume that role. For many years there was no independent state, but for already thirty years we have a state, and Armenia should become for the young people of the Diaspora the place there they will be able to reap their identity, culture, and create the new one based on it. Preservation alone isn’t right, because you preserve what’s old, and you create what’s new,” she said.
Baghdasaryan said she discussed with other participants Armenia’s soft power and cultural diplomacy.
“It was a very interesting topic where we spoke about what the Diaspora communities and individuals can create, what we have so far, and what role the state has in this process. Whether it is right for the state to decide what relationship there should be between the Diaspora and Armenia in order for the power that Armenia needs be created in the Diaspora,” Baghdasaryan said.