From 1071 AD till 1918, and from 1920 till 1991, Armenia has survived under foreign 
domination.   And from 1071 AD till 1920, she was helplessly in the path of many foreign 
invaders.  In fact, during her eight centuries of foreign domination, the history of her 
foreign occupiers reads like a Who’s Who of some of the most brutal invaders in history.


Though Armenia is presently surviving as an independent nation, it is evident that eight 
centuries of foreign occupation brought with it the coming of foreign blood.  So 
much so that if our Armenian geneticists were to do some research,  I’m almost certain 
that they would find that we are distantly if not closely related to the entire world.


It is apparent, therefore, that when we proudly say, "Yes Hye-em," (I’m Armenian), it is 
perhaps more for our cultural heritage than it is for our genetics.


For almost the entire length of the past eight centuries, our people had to survive under 
foreign rule.  And for most of that time, they had to survive under oppressive conditions, 
but with it all that, they miraculously managed to hold onto their culture as well as their 
Armenian Christian identity.

	
Being stripped of their sovereign rule, the only leaders left to them were their religious 
leaders.  And this wasn’t totally by chance since most of the conquerors of that time 
found it a more economical and expedient way to keep their disenfranchised subjects 
under control.


In the meantime, many of those who escaped captivity and found their way into friendlier 
pastures heroically reestablished churches, families, and communities.  And in keeping 
with their tortured past, they once again looked to their Armenian Church for leadership 
and guidance.  And to this extent, it was generally the Mother See of Etchmiadzin and the 
belabored Armenian Patriarchates who carried the torch.  (It should also be noted that 
Armenians have had as many as four Catholicates during their history.)


When Tzarist Russia fell victim to the Communists in 1920, the Mother See of 
Etchmiadzin became imprisoned behind the infamous Iron Curtain.


Sad to say, as in the past, it was no longer the military objective of this invader to use 
religious leaders to keep their conquered subjects in line.  Their real objective was to 
destroy all religious beliefs in their entirety and this included the Armenian Apostolic 
faith.  The newly formed Communist state automatically took over all of the religious 
edifices turning some into community offices and some into stables.  And to keep the 
people in check, they coerced notable community people throughout the USSR, into 
publicly acknowledging that it was for the common good.   But being modern conquerors 
with geopolitical ambitions, they revised their thinking; instead they decided to keep 
some of their religious centers, including the Mother See of Etchmiadzin, solvent for the 
purpose of expanding their Communist ideology throughout the world.


So it came to pass that with this new evil empire spreading its tentacles throughout the 
world, our Armenian Churches in North America became victimized by the opposing 
right and left wing Armenian political parties.  This eventually infected our Armenian 
churches through the assassination of Archbishop Tourian in 1933, leaving in its wake in 
North America, and only in North America, today’s remaining division of our Armenian 
churches and communities.   In the past, Armenians went to church solely for religion.  
As things turned out, after 1933 going to church was no longer a purely religious 
endeavor; it also had something to do with which politically divided church our families 
attended.


The Iron Curtain finally came down in 1991 and almost immediately, thereafter, Armenia 
declared her independence.  But instead of reuniting our Armenian churches and 
communities in North America, we saw a politically empowered Cilician See adopting 
and holding onto the divided churches which fell into their hands because of the Tourian 
assassination and also because of the Etchmiadzin See’s tardy approach toward bringing 
them back into the fold.


And things in our newest Republic of Armenia aren’t going all that well either.  Instead of 
seeing selfless dedicated leaders trying to rebuild their young subcompact nation into a 
flourishing democracy, we’ve been seeing wholesale corruption and mass migration.  I 
suppose the present-day leaders in Armenia look on their situation as normal since the 
misfits over there are a shade better than their Communist predecessors who were experts 
at graft and corruption.


Problems in the Diaspora and problems in the homeland.  Where are we going wrong?  
Here’s the way I see it.


Throughout most of history, our people have had to survive under sovereign Armenian 
rule, foreign domination, and an autocratic Armenian Church.  Today, for the first time 
since Noah’s grandson, Haig, sired our race, we have a small democratic republic and, 
throughout the world, all of our people are free to make choices.


As I see it, if we want our Armenian identity to prevail, we have one of two choices.  We 
can go back to living under the archaic circumstances we were surviving under in the 
past, or we can build a real democracy in which the people rule.  And as far as our 
religiously one, but administratively divided churches are concerned, I would suggest that 
they come down to earth by bringing their circus under one tent.  In truth, most of the 
flourishing democracies throughout the world have used Christianity as their 
model---which should go a long way toward proving to our political and religious leaders 
that there is a more positive way toward finding prosperity and salvation.


In short, whether it’s politics or religion: You gotta gettem in da store before you can sell 
em.


Joseph Vosbikian