By Edmond A. Azadian
Armenians have talked and worried about unity throughout their history because they have suffered much as a consequence of disunity. It is ironic that the more they talk about the need for unity, the less unified and more fragmented they become.
However, we are united in pain and suffering but divided when we face leadership and the pursuit of future goals. Today we are united in helping our brothers and sisters caught in the crossfire in the Syrian civil strife. Yet, we are divided in most spheres of Armenian life. We finally were blessed in having a free and independent Armenia, and we are at a loss as to what to do about it. People who aspired to independence are now abandoning independent Armenia. The leadership at home and abroad is divided. We are witnessing a leadership crisis.
Our church is still divided for no reason. It seems as though a people who had emancipated themselves from centuries of foreign domination would seize the historic opportunity and rebuild Armenia and unify the church. But there is general apathy throughout the diaspora and Armenia and people are no longer alarmed when confronted with existential dangers.
There is too much talk about the depopulation of Armenia, but almost no movement to reverse it. Turkey and Azerbaijan have deliberately blockaded Armenia to strangulate the last historic portion of Armenian existence.
Armenians are individualists, born out of centuries of oppression which have shaped our individual will for survival. Yet we are individualists at the expense of our collective goals and a common future. As we try to broaden individualism, the most we can achieve is partisan pride, countering our universal goals.
