What Turks feared to do to us, our own government has done – Harutyun Berberyan

The policies of Armenia’s current authorities are causing a complete rupture between the Diaspora and Armenia, poet Harutyun Berberyan said in an interview with Alpha News.

“The current stance of Armenia’s leadership severely undermines efforts on the Armenian Cause. We in the Diaspora have worked for decades toward the recognition of the Genocide, yet what the Turks feared to do to us has been carried out by our own government. Unfortunately, this is leading to a total break between the Diaspora and Armenia. The Diaspora has realized it must think about itself, it must reorganize. We cannot accept that Mount Ararat belongs to the Turks or that Western Armenia does not exist and is simply part of Turkey. Such a position is tantamount to betrayal and is unacceptable to us,” Berberyan said.

Speaking about the role of Armenian intellectuals on these issues, the poet added, “Intellectuals must speak out, no matter how much others try to silence them. And when I say intellectuals, I don’t mean just writers. An intellectual is someone with a stance, and a vivid example is Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan. When the authorities cannot silence such a voice, they suppress it—they imprison it. The same happened to Samvel Karapetyan.”