However, judging from all, Washington is more interested in the position of the Armenian Diaspora than in the position of the official Yerevan. There are thousands of Armenians living in Iraq, with whom, according to some information, the American special services have been working for a long time. Before the start of the operation ”a storm in the desert”, more than 50 thousand descendents of Turkish Armenians, ran away from the Genocide, were living in Iraq. According to the publishers of the “Countries of World” political-economic guide issued in Moscow, the Armenians were the 4th big ethnical group after the Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. They were characterized by their loyalty towards Saddam and were enjoying his protection.
After the first American military campaign, a mass migration of Armenians started. The majority of them joined the Armenian communities of the United States and Scandinavian countries. About 7 families came to Armenia and got an Armenian citizenship. After opening of an Armenian Embassy in Baghdad, the ties between Yerevan and Baghdadi Armenians became closer.
As it is known, the inciting the ethnic and religious minorities to the struggle with Saddam’s regime is an important element of the operation carried out by the Pentagon. It is natural that in the plans of Washington the biggest non-Muslim community had a certain role. The appropriate services started to exert influence upon Iraqi Armenians through the Armenian lobby of America. According to the available data, a contact with the head of the Iraqi eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Avag Asaturyan was set with their help. Probably, he was supposed to incite his compatriots against Saddam. It is known that in mid January the head of the eparchy was taken to Washington where he stays up to now. Nobody knows if those who invited the Archbishop to America succeeded in their plans, or no. However, up to now, unlike the Kurdish and Turkmen communities, the Armenian community was managing to avoid being involved in the operation on elimination of Hussein’s regime.
The spiritual leader of Iraqi Armenians will hardly go back before the end of the war. The second one, archimandrite, was called by the Holy See to Echmiadzin for consultations and has not been back, as well. So, the community is left without a leader. All the collaborators of the Armenian Embassy have been evacuated. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepared free visas for the Armenians who want to come to Armenia.
However, the absence of communication creates difficulties for the movement of the compatriots to their historical motherland. Foreign Minister of Armenia said that Yerevan was ready to receive an inflow of refugees from Iraq. Meanwhile, the real possibilities of Yerevan for doing this are insufficient. The support of the Armenian Diaspora would be very well-timed in the present situation.
