Around the world, the barriers of subjugation are dry-rotting and coming apart.  The Iron 
Curtain of Russia, the Bamboo Curtain of China, and most recently, Hungary, Polar, and 
the Berlin Wall.  However, the invisible wall that separates Armenians throughout North 
America is still standing.  This is no longer an existing issue of who’s right and who’s 
wrong.  Today, it has become an issue of ignorance that goes beyond all limits of 
absurdity.  As things stand today, Armenians around the world have very little political 
leadership or direction.   The circumstances that have brought this infirmity to the surface 
is the rapid progress of the Communist Bloc nations towards democracy and the current 
Karabagh struggle in Soviet Armenia.


Karabagh, is not only of major concern to the Armenians in Russia, but it should also be 
of major concern to Armenians throughout the world.  However, because we in America 
are so tragically divided and disorganized, the only support we can give our people over 
there is a little bit of fragmented lip service.


It is also commonly known that the political strength of Diaspora Armenians is 
pathetically weak, yet none of our political factions have ever openly admitted it, nor 
have any of them (up till now) taken a broad based open approach to our problems in 
order to help bring down the invisible walls that divide and weaken us.  No!   I’m sorry to 
say, they have only been intent in building these walls higher through their incessant 
adversarial relationship.  For three quarters of a century, or better, the bottom line has 
been their dedicated ideologies, regardless of the separation or harm these ideologies have 
caused among our people.  There is no question as to their sincerity or dedication, but 
realistically, it has been their hostility toward each other that has unwittingly caused the 
divisions we experience today.  Like it or not, their shortsightedness and the divisiveness 
that they have caused and maintain, has been Turkey’s best line of defense against getting 
the 1915 Genocide issue resolved.   As the old saying goes, "The road to Hell is paved 
with good intentions."


As for public visibility, our political factions have always chosen to operate on a low 
profile basis with little or no visibility.  As a result, they have never developed any 
dialogue or rapport with influences outside their own.  Today, we have no out front 
political leaders who can meet with heads of state and be representative of the North 
American communities.  It is because of this self-induced political gap that our religious 
leaders have come forward to represent us to our Western world leaders.  As to their 
ability to represent us in affairs of state, you be the judge.  How successful have they been 
in keeping our churches and communities united during the last fifty-five years?  It took a 
civil war in Lebanon and an earthquake in Armenia for our Sees in Etchmiadzin and 
Cilicia to realize that we need church unity in North America -- which after twenty-three 
years of negotiations, still isn’t finalized.


In truth, what we Armenians need most at home and abroad is good strong political 
leadership that represents a majority.  Let’s try and keep our clergy in our churches; they 
have all that they can handle there and besides, they make lousy politicians.  As for our 
existing political organizations, they must go back to their drawing boards and update 
themselves from the ground up.  And as a people, we must support only those 
organizations that are democratic in principle, whose leadership is visible, publicly active, 
with goals and purpose that, as I stated earlier, reflect the wishes of the majority.  In short, 
if we don’t get off the time-worn paths we’ve been following, time is going to run us over 
like a run-a-way truck, and if that happens, it isn’t going to matter who’s driving.   


Joseph Vosbikian