AN INTERVIEW WITH VLADIMIR CHADOYEV

Vladimir Chadoyev is the Chairman of the Union of National Minorities in Armenia. This interview was conducted by Onnik James Krikorian in Yerevan, Armenia, on 10 June 1998.

ONNIK JAMES KRIKORIAN: Can you tell me a little about yourself and the Union of National Minorities?

VLADIMIR CHADOYEV: The Union of National Minorities was founded in December 1994. I was the initiator. I am a member of the Union of Journalists of Armenia. I graduated from the Teacher Training Institute in 1956, and after that I graduated from the Institute of National Economy. I worked as a journalist and held a number of key positions in this area, including head of the Union of Journalists and principle of the House of Journalists.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, each nation started to look for its roots, and the progressive minded people amongst the nations and amongst the minorities started to try to raise the awareness of their nation, culture, traditions and language. Different groups of nations were founded.

In general, in times of emergency, national unions and religious associations tend to unite as a rule. It was a very hard time for Armenia. After the earthquake the war in Karabagh started, there was blockade, no electricity, and a severe winter. There was uncertainty and it was very difficult for people to cope with the extraordinary situation, but we struggled by means of survival in the existing structures. I am thankful to God for having the idea to set up a Union of National Minorities.

In those days there were a number of minor groups of nationalities, and seven wished to unite. ODA (Organisation of the Friends of Armenia), Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, Germans, the Cultural Association of Russians (Harmony), Ukrainian Association, and we managed within the framework of our organisation to unite Yezidi and Kurds as well. We signed a declaration. In it we announced the strategies and tendancies of development.

The activities of the National Union of Minorities are mainly directed towards solving cultural problems, and developing the traditions and languages of minorities, helping them to preserve such traditions and religion, strengthening the feelings of friendship between different minorities as well as among other NGOs. This Union was legally registered with the Ministry of Justice, so we followed the legal proceedure.

I caught your glance at the photograph on the wall. This is my mother. She died in 1941. Her mother comes from the Toumanian family. Two different bloods are flowing in my veins. That of a Kurd – Chadoyev – and that of an Armenian – Toumanian. My wife is an Armenian.

I would like to state that Armenia has been, and will continue to be, a country where representatives of different nationalities will live in peace, in harmony and in friendship with the Armenian people.

 

OK: You said that you had a Kurdish blood and Armenian blood. When you say Kurdish, do you mean Kurdish or Yezidi-Kurdish blood?

VC: There are Muslim Kurds, and there are Kurd-Yezidis. Yezidi is a religion, which means that Yezidi are worshiping the sun. I have been christened in an Armenian Church. In terms of Yezidi, Kurd- Yezidi and Muslim Kurds, I want to express my own opinion. I have said, and will continue to say, the following. If you think that your religion is prior to your national roots and you want to be called Yezidi, we will call you Yezidi. If you want to be called Kurd- Yezidi, we will call you Kurd-Yezidi. If you want to be called Muslim Kurd we will call you Muslim Kurd. But you live in the Republic of Armenia and you are a citizen of that country, and you should avoid creating problems for the government of Armenia.

I have heard the opinion of many scientists dealing with Kurdish issues like Garnik Asatrian and Amarik Sardarian, but I do not agree with them. I have my own opinion on this matter. The reason for this disagreement in my own opinion is that I am the Chairman of the Union of National Minorities, and I think that being the Chairman that each nation is free to have its own understanding of its origins and roots, and to have the freedom of choice regarding what it is called.

 

OK: That is one of the declarations of human rights.

VC: That is what I said during the conference commerating the 50th anniversary of the declaration of human rights. Owing to this approach it is the fifth year that I have been elected the Chairman of this union, and I am managing it very well. My attitude should not be interperated as that of a man who has no principles, and who is very soft and mild. I think it is difficult to deal with people that belong to one nation, and actually I am dealing with hundreds of thousands of different people coming from different national backgrounds, and I manage all those issues and problems very well because of this attitude. We don’t have to fight with each other to share something. We can live in peace and harmony, and great friendship with each other.

I think that both governmental figures and political leaders should have the same attitude, and should avoid using the nationalist feelings of the people in order to pursue some special interest and political issues.

I was invited to a conference of Kurdish intelligentsia in Moscow, and I started my presentation there with the opening words that I was proud to be a Kurd. This is what I think. The United States has gone far here. What is important is that everyone should be free to choose their national identity, religion and belief, and no-one has the right to dictate that everone should believe in their god or language.

There are people even on the official level that declare that Armenia is a mono-ethnic country. My union and myself do not share this opinion. It is not important how many nations live in a country, it is important to consider how these nations feel in this country. Lets make an excursion into history. At the beginning of the century the genocide was organised by the Turks against the Armenian nation. I say this not as propaganda, it is proved by facts. The genocide happened, and the Armenian nation managed to overcome this horrible page in its history – it looked to its future. The Armenian nation didn’t become rigid and hateful to those nations that raise their voice of protest towards this event. it didn’t assume the role of a country offended. The Armenian nation managed to find strength in its historical roots to create an independent country for its citizens that are not only Armenians, but also its minorities.

Beneficial conditions have been created in Armenia for the development and prosperity of minorities. It is no secret that the Kurds in Armenia have reached a level of prosperity that they do not have in any other country in the whole world. The Kurds have a department in the Academy, Kurdish studies in the universities, writers, poets, musicians, academics, newspapersm textbooks and literature. I want to illustrate this further with the example of my father.

During the genocide my father’s family fled from Turkey to Armenia. It was a family of shephards, with no wealth – simple common shephards. They came to Armenia and settled in Alagyaz, and life was very hard in the mountains. My father’s family moved to Yerevan and my father entered a college, learnt to read and after graduation was sent to Leningrad to study in the Institute of Eastern Studies. After returning to Armenia, he started his career working in a village before becoming a member of the Communist Party. He was working and continued his education in another institute, and when the second world war started he was conscripted into the army. After the war he worked as the first secretary of the Communist Party in Alagyaz, and then he as sent to Moscow to study in the Academy of Social Sciences.

After graduation he returned to Yerevan and became the head of the Communist Party in the Talin region. Simultaneously he undertook scientific research, and from 1954 he worked in the National Academy of Sciences. Up until 1990 he was head of the Department of Kurdish Studies in the Academy, and has had a number of monographs published on Kurdish issues, Armenian-Kurdish friendship, and the participation of Kurds in the war. He died last year at the age of 84, and until the last day of his life he was a member and worked in the Academy, and on the last day of his life he said “Armenia is my motherland”. Of course, he was also welcoming the Kurdish revolution movement in Turkey, and the struggle to establish a statehood.

The Kurds today are fighting to re-establish their independent statehood in the territory of Turkey under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan, so we are fighting against a common enemy. The enemy is Turkey. It organised a genocide not only against Armenians, but also against Kurds, Bulgarians, Greeks, Assyrians and many other national minorities. What I have said so far is my personal opinion, and not the policy of my union, but I am a member of the Armenian- Kurdish friendship Union that has existed for one year already.

I am also a member of the Council of Kurdish Intelligentsia, and the activities are mainly concentrating on culture, tradition and the development of national language. The first thing we did was to send a letter, a declaration, to the head of the national union of minorities in Azerbaijan, calling on them to unite with the minorities of Armenia in order to facilitate a union to mediate in favour of Karabagh. Of course, we understand that the Karabagh problem will be solved on other higher levels, but we could not remain indifferent to this issue.

 

OK: With regards to the position of the Yezidi and other minorities in Armenia, Aziz Tamoyan states that there is not a feeling of being legally protected within the republic. What would your response be to this?

VC: When I said that beneficial conditions had been created for national minorities, any representative of any minority or community is free to hold meetings, establish associations, open their national schools, publish their newspapers, and to hold cultural festivals. Doesn’t this show that there are benficial conditions?

 

OK: Of course, but Aziz Tamoyan alleges that there are rapes and murders of Yezidi in Armenia, and that he does not feel as though the a legal infrastructure exists for the protection of minorities.

VC: I exclude any possibility of murder, rape, and robbery on the basis of national identity. The problems of minorities are the same as the problems of the Armenian nation. There are crimes everywhere, and the reasons for this are the lack of work, the harsh economic situation, and so on and so forth. It is the same for everybody. At present, Aziz Tamoyan is the head of the Yezidi in Armenia. Did he tell you that the Yezidi have special programme on the radio? Do you know that Yezidi are organising their national cultural festivals?

Aziz Tamoyan’s attitude towards me is very negative. Why? I am able to listen to Aziz Tamoyan, but Aziz Tamoyan does not have the ability to listen to me. Aziz Tamoyan has the right to say what he thinks, and as a journalist you have the right to go wherever you want and interview anyone you like, and listen to whatever they say. It is not honest to slander a country, or the policies directed towards national minorities, when your minority has the freedom to develop and prosper. In Turkey, if Kurds speak Kurdish they are killed, or tortured.

Yesterday I went to Talin where a branch of the Armenian-Kurdish union was founded. A coordinating committee was established of both Armenians and Kurds. Afterwards a gala concert was held where both Armenian and Kurdish dancers and musicians presented their culture.

OK: We shall talk more on this later, but with regards to the Union of National Minorities, to what extent does the Armenian Government listen what you have to say?

VC: Since our foundation, the union have been received by senior figures, by the Catholicos, by the Prime Minister, by the President, and by the Speaker of the Parliament. When he was Prime Minister, this is what Robert Kocharian wrote [in a letter] after I had a meeting with him:

“I wish prosperity and happiness to the members of the Union of National Minorities, and to all nationalities living in the Republic of Armenia.

 

Armenia is our common motherland, and the stronger and more powerful the nationalities living in Armenia are, the more powerful and stronger Armenia is.

 

Together – hand in hand – we will create a powerful, prosperous and democratic country.

 

Robert Kocharian
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia”

Of course, while I speak of all this, it does not mean that we do not have problems. We have numerous problems that we report to government officials on all levels.

 

OK: An example?

VC: When we brought up the problems that minorities have to Levon Ter-Petrossian, he agreed that the government had not done its best to solve all these problems, but the reason for this was not a reluctance to solve the problems but that Armenia was in a transitionary period, and facing many hardships.

There are communities of minorities in Armenia that have statehood, and these minorities receive regular assistance from those statehoods. Kurds and Assyrians lived in very unfavourable conditions because they did not have a country of their own to help them. First we should ask what minorities can contribute to a country, and then have some expectations as to what govenrment can give us, and look what Armenia is doing.

Unlike the Baltic republics, minorities that did not speak Armenian received citizenship. I welcome this approach, it is very democratic. My personal opinion is that it is should be compulsory for a citizen of the republic to speak the national language. We don’t insist that a citizen should know the national language very well, but they should at least have some literacy in order to write their name, or to fill in an application form.

In the Soviet times the official language was Russian, and all the citizens of Armenia could speak Russian. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the tendancy was to use only Armenian. This was an extreme approach, and many of those who did not speak Armenian left Armenia for other Russian speaking countries. Many lost their jobs, and this is still a problem for us. We should assist minorities in learning Armenian, and we are pressing the government to assist us in this.

 

OK: If the union had existed at the beginning of the Karabagh conflict, would it have also been concerned with the expulsion and migration of the indigenous Azerbaijani and Muslim Kurdish population?

VC: I am the son-in-law of a Karabaghi family. My wife’s parents are from Karabagh, and they have their home there. When I went to Karabagh for the first time I was suprised to find that the area in which they lived had no drinking water. I am speaking of the time during the Soviet years when my wife’s family in Karabagh would ask us to bring matches, salt, sugar, and lamps.

 

OK: Whatever the situation in Karabagh, the Azerbaijanis and Muslim Kurds in Armenia were not responsible.

VC: It was the policy of Azerbaijan to ethnically cleanse Karabagh.

 

OK: The Azerbaijanis and Muslim Kurds were national minorities in the Republic of Armenia, and surely the Union of National Minorities would have had to be concerned by the expulsion of Azerbaijani and Muslim Kurds had it existed at that time.

VC: That was a political game. Do you know about Sumgait? After Sumgait the Azerbaijani population left Armenia, and in this political game there were some who instigated propaganda among the Kurdish community warning that there was danger for all Muslims in Armenia. Many Muslim Kurds did not go to Azerbaijan, they went to Central Asia. As for what the union might have done had it existed in those days, I think we would have had real difficulties. Everyone was trying to save their own skin, and people would ask me why, as a Kurd, I had not left this country. I refused to leave. Armenia is my motherland. I grew up here and I saw no danger.

I tried to persuade people that the Armenian nation would never persecute anyone or create problems for minorities on the basis of national identity. Time has shown that I was right. During that period I went to Moscow, and I saw many Azerbaijani activists involved in activities against Armenia. I was alone, but I had the courage to make a stand against this propaganda. In those days it was the same for everyone.

Now I want to talk about the problem my union will raise with the government. Our legal rights are protected by the constitution of Armenia. Minority rights are also protected by international documents that the government has adopted. Armenia is on the brink of becoming a member of the European Union, and when european representatives visited Armenia to examine many issues, including the position of minorities, they found that there was no law concerning national minorities. Another problem is that minorities have no representation in Parliament although people contradict me by pointing to a female Georgian in the Parliament. However, she does not represent a minority because she has been elected as a representative of the women’s movement.

We think that the new law on elections should have the provision for two or three seats in the Parliament for representatives of minority groups. At present, different articles in the constitution are being revised and it is our view that the new constitution should address this issue of minority representation. We feel that there has been a change in the governmental mentality, and that minority issues will be examined more closely. In my opinion this is because we have new forces represented in government that are more democratic. In particular, I of course mean Mr. Robert Kocharian, a president who stated in his inaugural address that together with the Armenian nation, the national minorities should be happy and free. I want to quote his words: “Armenia should be a dear home, close to the heart, for all the minorities living here.”

This has been the case here, but we realise that this should be given a official status, and that in the government there should be a committee concerned with the issue of minorities. This commission has been established, and Paruir Hairikian is the head of this committee. I had a meeting with Hairikian this week and I made him aware that whilst there are no real problems with minorities there should be official representation under the auspices of the government, and the head of any committee dealing with minorities should be a representative from a minority.

Whilst it may not sound modest, that head should be the President of the Union of National Minorities because we know what our problems are. We have a comprehensive knowledge of minority issues, and we want to take some of the burden off the shoulders of the government. In other words, we do not want to sit and wait, we want to do it ourselves. At the same time we also do not agree with the fact that there are no minority representatives in any governmental body.

We feel that it is our duty to have an active participation in the establishment of democracy in this country – minorities should have a part in this. There is an earthquake zone in Armenia – minorities live in the earthquake zone. Last year representatives of my union went to the earthquake zone and had a meeting with the regional community. In that meeting the Ambassadors of Russia and the Ukraine were present, and my union raised the issue of international assistance in the redevelopemnt of the earthquake region in terms of unifying their efforts with the Armenian government for the reconstruction of the residential areas inhabited by Russian and Ukranian minorities.

Presently, the branch of the union in the earthquake region is unable fulfil its role because we have no financial assistance from the government. For smaller activities like cultural events there is money because the sums are not large. For example, Levon Ter Petrossian granted the union five million dram for one festival. However, there is no well-designed, programmed, continuous and effcient assistance programe. Of course, financial assstance is not our first priority because we know the econonmic situation of the Republic of Armenia is very bad, and the living standard is very low.

However, when a legal framework is created in the country for minorities in terms of a presidential decree, laws and parliamentary representation we will have more power and prestige, and we will be able to get financial assistance not only from the Armenian Government but also from other countries which have minorities living within the republic. We would be able to invest in enterprises, and to provide employment for minorities.

As time proceeds we can see better what we should do. There is a charity among the minorities, named after Mother Theresa. Fifteen women driven by charity in their hearts have taken the responsibility of nursing mentally and terminally ill patients. The total number of these patients is 350. There are other charities focusing on this layer of society in Armenia such as the Red Cross but our union feels that it is our duty to also have a contribution in this. We appealed to the Minister of Health and on Friday I will visit him to thank him for providing medicines to distribute to the 350 patients. Penicililin costs 1000 dram, but we paid only 15 dram covering the delivery costs.The same is true for other medicines and vitamins. We realise that the Minister of Health does not give this money from his own pocket, and that it is from the grants given by international organisations, but what is important is that the Minister acknowledged the importance of our union by helping us. There are no laws or presidential decrees, but whenever our union has various proposals the government has always tried to assist in order to help us.

Last year the Kurdish Community in Talin raised the problem of having no water for our cattle and sheep. They approached the union and Amarik Sardarian for help, and this problem was solved by the Government, and I see my position as a mediator between the minorities and the government. I have no offfice, and I have no car, and it is financially difficult to enlarge and widen my activities, and I work from early morning to late at night.

I had a meeting with Vahan Hovanessian, an advisor to the President, for two hours a face to face meeting like the conversation I am having with you. After this meeting Vahan Hovanessian accepted the heads – all the leaders – of the minority communities. I can see a change in the attitudes of officials towards the problems facing national minorities, There are more than a thousand NGOs in Armenia, and the Union of National Minorities is one of the most active. We have had this success due to our hard work.

OK: I see major problems with the position of minorities within the Republic of Armenia. The Government is not responsible for putting any pressure on the national minorities within the country. Because of the problems facing Armenia it has not had the time or inclination to look at the problems facing minorities in particular, and as a result – although this does not relate directly to all of the minorities in the Republic of Armenia, but perhaps it would if I were to examine their situation in more detail – I can not help but think that the confusion, the debate and the fight to determine who the Yezidi are in Armenia can ultimately lead to major problems in the future.

Both sides seem to write their own versions of their history and their culture. I have met Yezidi who hate the Kurds, and I have met Yezidi who feel themselves to be Kurds. I have even met Yezidi who feel themselves not to be Kurd, but who do not even know who Aziz Tamoyan is – a man who is their theoretical leader.

My concern is that when the Government of Armenia actually examines the situation of the Yezidi in more detail it may be alarmed. Not only do you have individuals such as Aziz Tamoyan trying to influence the evolution of the Yezidi community in Armenia, you also have organisations such as the ERNK (National Liberation Front of Kurdistan) and PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) as well. When I saw the offical representative of the ERNK/PKK in one particular village in Armenia my impression was not just that they were trying to influence Yezidi culture, but also that they were trying to recruit.

VC: How did you manage to conclude that he PKK is trying to recruit? To do so you are trying to prove that there are [PKK] military bases in Armenia and I do not agree with you, and I feel myself offended.

OK: In one village the villagers did tell me that two Yezidi had been killed in south east Turkey, or Turkish Kurdistan – whatever you want to call it. I did get the feeling that the political rhetoric from the PKK representative was in order to solicit support, both in terms of financial support and also in terms of human resources. The implications are very sensitive and dangerous.

If the Yezidi community is split then it is harder for the Yezidi to address their own issues of concern. Whilst Kocharian has placed recognition of the genocide on the Government’s agenda he has perhaps also realised, as perhaps Levon Ter-Petrossian did, that Armenia must be on good terms with Turkey for the sake of its own future. Depending on how these relations evolve, I wonder what effect the politicisation of the Yezidi into a Kurdish identity will have on the Yezidi – not from Turkey, but from the Armenian Government itself.

VC: All over the world Aziz Tamoyan declares that the Kurds in Armenia are the enemies of the Republic of Armenia. I do not agree with this. The only thing I know is that an army of 40 million Kurds is fighting for its freedom against the Turks.

 

OK: When you talk about 40 million, however, you are not talking about a united Kurdish nation. You are talking about the Kurds split into three opposing sides in just Iraq and Turkey alone – the PKK, the PUK and KDP. Your figures do not comprise a united Kurdish nation.

VC: Let it be 10 million – let it be 5 million. What is important is that Turkey has organised a genocide against the Kurds.

 

OK: And against the Armenians, in which the Kurds participated.

VC: The Kurds have for many years apologised for their involvement in the Armenian Genocide, and let us not forget that many Kurds also saved Armenians during this period. You can not close and forget this bloody page in history, and we are sorry for what we did, but it is a fact that the struggle against Turkey is a struggle to establish an independent state. This is my personal opinion.

I know that the relationship with Turkey is improving on a diplomatic level, but it is a fact that the Kurdish struggle is being developed on the land of historical Western Armenia. Recently, American-Armenians held a lecture series in the American University of Armenia. There was a lecture on Armenian-Kurdish relations.The Kurdish struggle in Turkey is a matter of interest for the Armenians in the diaspora, but the Kurds in Armenia have no interest in it whatsoever.

 

OK: There are two points made by Yezidi who feel themselves to be a separate identity. One is that the Kurds and Turks committed the Genocide against the Armenians in Turkey, and the other point is that they strongly feel offended that those who seek to promote a Kurdish Yezidi identity have forgotten that one of the reasons why the Yezidi live in the Republic of Armenia is because they fled from the Turks, and also the Muslim Kurds. Even today, the Yezidi are still persecuted by Muslim and by Muslim Kurds.

VC: The official policy is as follows, and I agree with this. The Government does not interfere with the issue of the disagreement between Yezidi and Kurds. Government officials instead accept the rights of those who call themselves Yezidi, and those that call themselves Kurds. Minorities should solve the problems of their identity themselves.

 

OK: When there were reports of the clearance of Kurds from Kelbajar and Lachin in 1992-3 I asked Armen Sarkissian when he was Ambassador to the United Kingdom questions about the staus of Kurds in the Republic, and he stated that there were no Kurds in Armenia – only Yezidi. It is irrelevent whether Yezidi are really Yezidi or whether Yezidi are really Kurd, but Armen Sarkissian’s response was a political statement.

VC: There are Kurd-Yezidis in Armenia. Kurdish by their nationality and Yezidi by their religion. Muslim Kurds have left Armenia. However, part of the Yezidi community says that it is Yezidi in their nationality. The Kurd-Yezidi say that there are 50,000 Kurd-Yezidi in Armenia. the Yezidi say that this number is Yezidi. In the National Academy of Sciences meetings years ago the conference was organised by the joint effort of the Center for Democracy Development and Union of National Minorities. The representative of Yerevan State University asked me to provide him with figures – how many Assyrians, how many Turks, how many Russians etc. Because the census data is old – from 1989 – and was done during a very tough time, the Kurd-Yezidi said that there was a 50,000 Yezidi community in Armenia. I gave this information not as a representative of the Kurd-Yezidi community, but as the Chairman of the Union of National Minorities.

I have a deep respect for each nation, and that every nation should preserve their language, their religion and their culture.In the United States there are not these issues of nationality. The national issue is raised for some specific political interest – by certain political officials seeking to strain the relations between Russia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and so on.When the newspapers printed information regarding the size of the Kurd-Yezidi community in Armenia there was a big noise from some Yezidi who felt themselves to be a separate ethnic identity. Aziz Tamoyan immediately held an interview with journalists and I attended. Aziz Tamoyan actually asked me a question. What right did I have to falsify the figures? I responded by saying “Look here, brothers, if you want to be considered as Yezidi then you are free. There are Kurd-Yezidi that are Yezidi and who want to be called Kurd-Yezidi but you say that they are not Kurd-Yezidi. We are indifferent to this. There are Yezidi, and there are Kurd-Yezidi. You are what you think you are. Lets on an official level – a governmental level – have a census.”

There are 34 villages in Armenian inhabited by this minority. Let the Government go to each of these villages and count the voices of all those that feel themselves to be Kurd-Yezidi, Yezidi-Kurd, or Yezidi. This would take between one and two months, and a press conference would then be organised. Government officials, religious leaders, and all representatives from all the minorities should be present. A declaration would then be made:

“Ladies and Gentlemen. there has been a debate for many years in Armenia. Who is a Kurd-Yezidi? Who is a Muslim Kurd? Who is a Yezidi? Now, to clarify the matter a census was officially organised and now we have the figures. This is the number of Kurd-Yezidi, and this is the number of Yezidi. These are the villages where Yezidi and Kurd-Yezidis live together, and these are the villages where only Yezidi live, and these are the villages with a mixed population of Armenian, Kurd-Yezidi and Yezidi.”

And after that we will have the obligation to declare that these citizens of the Republic of Armenia should forge mutually friendly relations and have our involvement in the state establishment. This is my vision of what should be done.

 

OK: When is the next census in Armenia?

VC: Next year. [Interviewer’s note: The Armenian census has since been delayed until the end of 2001]

 

OK: This is very short notice to incorporate your suggestion.

VC: I have undertaken measures to issue a questionnaire next year, including questions that inquire into nationality, religion and so on. Aziz Tamoyan would never have been able to come to such an idea. Aziz Tamoyan is being used by some people to create national tension.

 

OK: Who are these people?

VC: I do not know the names, and I do not want to know. They are forces trying to drag Armenia back by trying to prevent the development of democracy in this country, There should be a Government policy towards the minorities in this country, and this is why, adjacent to the President, that we believe there should be a committee dealing with the question of national minorities.

We will hold the census and everything will be okay, and I want to reveal one secret to you now. Actually not a secret, but youare the first to know this. The day before yesterday I was invited to the Russian Embassy for the anniversary of Russia’s independence, and Robert Kocharian was there. I approached the President and congratulated him on his election, and requested an audience. The President agreed, and we have arranged to hold a meeting on these matters very soon, and I am optimistic that all our concerns will be addressed and resolved. Being an Armenian should make you very proud. I am even more proud because I am a minority.