Who will replace the ex-employees of the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia?

One of the topics discussed in the Armenian segment of the Internet  is still the information about the recent, somewhat unprecedented, order of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan to dismiss the heads of a number of departments in the Office of the Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs (more than 10 responsible persons).

Interestingly, the Armenian portals practically do not provide an analysis of what happened, mostly paying attention only to the thesis about “optimization” of the structure. The ministry itself, according to Armenian sources, refuses to give official comments, limiting itself to explaining that the layoffs are the result of “not personnel purges at all, but structural changes” (armeniasputnik.am).

However, a number of direct and indirect nuances suggest that the decision made by the Armenian prime minister was far from spontaneous. For example, former Deputy Minister for Diaspora Issues Serge Srapionyan defined the fact of dismissal of employees (all of whom, according to his testimony, “worked under the previous government”), under the pretext of liquidating jobs, defined the “outer shell” designed to “cover up the usual personnel pogrom” that is “de facto obvious” (armeniasputnik.am).

In other words, S. Srapionyan openly expressed himself in the spirit that the “dopashinyan’s (before Pashinyan)” team was dismissed. In that case, someone has to come to replace them, right?

Let us turn to the information published by N. Pashinyan on July 20 that from September 2020 “100 highly qualified Armenian specialists from the Diaspora will be involved in the work of the state administration system in Armenia”. “We are happy to accept them and use their experience to improve the well-being of Armenia,” he wrote on his Facebook page (facebook.com/nikol.pashinyan).

The talk here was about the program "I Ghorts" ("For the cause"). The portal of the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs tells that, “in accordance with the professional requirements provided by the state bodies, within the framework of the program, Armenian Diaspora specialists will work in the state system, and will be able to apply their experience and knowledge in the development of policies and programs for the improvement and development of relevant areas." (diaspora.gov.am). By the way, this is the only information on this site "under processing", is written on the page.

According to the head of the Office Sarah Anjargolyan, young people who were born, educated and worked in the Diaspora, who have a completely different worldview, expressed their desire to come to Armenia from all over the world. “The approach and philosophy are changing,” she says. “They can bring something new. We have wonderful specialists in the Armenian government, but we probably need a small internal revolution. “Clarifying what has been said, she adds that the program "I Ghorts" fills in "many different gaps", fortunately "we bring our people here." These persons “bring with them the culture, work style, way of thinking of their countries”, thanks to which “we can only become stronger” (aravot-ru.am).

Thus, N. Pashinyan started another stage of the personnel revolution, this time in the diaspora structure. In this aspect, it is almost unmistakably possible to determine that the talk is about replacing the former personnel of the department with persons with pro-Western thinking. Apparently, among those 100 people “from outside”, persons have already been identified who will fill vacant positions in the Office of the Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs. Of course, presenting what is happening as their replacement for exclusively “pro-Russian” cadres may look ahistorical. However, the fact remains - the decision has been made, and it is proceeding in the spirit of those personnel changes that have taken place on the part of N. Pashinyan over the past months.

Undoubtedly, the prime minister could have made this decision shortly before September, when, as announced, the change of “former” to “new Armenians” should take place, however, the purge of the diaspora structure today and now bears a symbolic, if not symptomatic, character. This happened against the background of the coordinated, as never before, the activities of the Azerbaijani diaspora around the world after the Armenian attack on the Tovuz region. The role of the Armenian diaspora was limited mainly to assault, and even then in cases when the number of Armenians exceeded the number of Azerbaijanis by several dozen times. 

This allowed N. Pashinyan to start a "personnel revolution" in the Diaspora Office a month before September.

Teymur Atayev