By Edmond Y. Azadian
Almost a full century after the Genocide and 20 years after Armenia’s independence, Armenians around the world have been exploring the means to meet the challenges of history.
Through a carefully-planned agenda, with far-reaching consequences, the perpetrators of the Genocide have done such a thorough job that the survivors and their succeeding generations have not been able to regroup and develop a national ideology and a comprehensive policy to live as a modern nation in these most turbulent times.
In recent months and years, several ideas and projects have been offered, discussed and — inconsequentially left in limbo. All these movements seem healthy signs of survival and only history will decide whether they are viable endeavors or some steps that are too late and too little.
Some of the initiatives have come from Armenia and others are generated in the diaspora.
One such initiative was the principle of dual citizenship, which the Armenian government developed. Yet besides its sentimental value it hit a snag. Every Armenian would like to become a citizen of Armenia after dreaming about statehood for almost six centuries. But to achieve that goal, citizens of many countries of Armenian origin, most of the time need to renounce their current citizenship, because not all countries accept split loyalties. That is perhaps why very few Armenians used the opportunity to fulfill that historic dream.