Armenia’s March 16th presidential election produced two front-runners with less than the 
50% required to win.  There were some infractions reported during this election but all 
poll watchers agree that they were not enough to affect the outcome.


By the time this commentary makes it to print, the March 30th run off will have taken 
place and either Robert Kocharian or Garen Demirjian will be Armenia’s newly elected 
President.  However, regardless of who wins, all Armenians throughout the homeland and 
abroad, must accept the outcome.  We must all do this if we want to add strength to 
Armenia.


In our North American Diaspora, we have been suffering from the ravages of a politically 
incited disunity for the last sixty-five years.  Fortunately the disunity in our Diaspora is 
not a cause for rebellion in Armenia, but it did contribute significantly in weakening 
Armenia’s position at the world bargaining table.  Not that we weren’t in agreement with 
many of the unresolved issues facing Armenia, but because we’re not able to address 
those issues in one strong unified voice.


Throughout the world, we Armenians are still struggling against racial extinction.  In the 
Diaspora we’re fighting assimilation; in Armenia and Karabagh we’re fighting for our 
lives.  The odds of surviving as a unified force is in itself overwhelming, but trying to 
survive in the fragmented condition in which we find ourselves today, favors our enemies 
more than it favors us.


Mustapha Kemal was once told that there were Armenian assassins being sent to kill him.  
He asked, "How many assassins?"  They replied, "Ten!"  He replied, "Don’t worry, by the 
time they get here they will have been arguing so much among themselves that they will 
have forgotten what they were sent out to do."   This little tidbit may be classified as 
Turkish humor, but it must also be remembered that oftentimes humor is the by-product 
of reality.

         
In short, and I direct this to all of our leaders, both religious or political, both here and 
abroad: If our race, heritage, culture, and respective Armenian faiths have any chance of 
surviving the future we must first find common ground.  There’s not one group or faction 
among us that can do it alone.  We need all of the warm bodies we can muster pulling in 
the same direction.


When Khrimian Hayrig (who was the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople at the time) 
returned home from the Berlin World Congress in 1878, he delivered a very historic 
message to his people.  He told them that all of the great powers of the world were 
dipping into the "dish of freedom" with iron dippers.  But he was unsuccessful because 
Armenia’s dipper was made of paper.


I believe that everyone would agree that an iron dipper is far better than a paper one.


Joseph Vosbikian