«Մեր մինուսները վերածել պլյուսների» - հարցազրույց Ռուբեն ՎԱՐԴԱՆՅԱՆԻ հետ

The article is an interview with Ruben Vardanyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Troika Dialog Group and a member of the coordinating council of the "Armenia-2020" project, dedicated to the problems of self-organization of the Armenian nation under conditions of globalization and the search for ways to transform diasporic disunity into a competitive advantage.

Introduction and Methodology
The conversation is structured as an extended dialogue covering issues of diasporic identity, leadership, trust, elite formation, and cultural policy. The reasoning draws on the experience of the "Armenia-2020" project and a sociological survey of diaspora representatives on the criteria of national self-identification.

Key thesis: the survival model vs. the prosperity model
Vardanyan states that the Armenian diasporic model of the 20th century was formed on the basis of the tragedy of the Genocide and a strategy of survival rather than prosperity. Hence the specific character of the Armenian diaspora compared to others:

it resembles not the classical diasporas (Irish, Turkish) but the Jewish model — with a state that is not the historical homeland of the majority of diaspora members;
the weakness of the Armenian state was historically "advantageous" for the diaspora, facilitating the mobilization of sympathy for a "persecuted people."

The diaspora as a disunited network
The author emphasizes a paradox: despite the existence of a centuries-old Armenian community network (Russia, the USA, France), these communities remain isolated from one another, and the level of mutual assistance is lower than that of the Chinese or Jewish diasporas. The task of the 21st century is to convert this "network presence" into a unified system, turning the minus (the dispersal of two-thirds of Armenians outside the country) into a plus, by leveraging the value of human talent.

The problem of leadership and trust
A separate section is devoted to the deficit of leadership: the survival model is incompatible with the optimism and vision required of a leader. It is noted that:

among Armenians, lobbyists and "deputies" predominate, rather than creators of large organizations;
there is mutual disrespect and a problem of the legitimacy of leadership within the nation;
there is an entrenched distrust of authority, a legacy of living under foreign rule.

Elites and cultural policy
Vardanyan analyzes the crisis of Armenian elites after the collapse of the USSR, pointing to their lack of demand within the new, smaller-scale system, and proposes concrete initiatives: the establishment of a translation prize (together with Artashes Emin) and international-level scholarly prizes to be awarded in Armenia, in order to preserve cultural and scientific potential.

Conclusion
The key conclusion of the interview is that overcoming the psychology of survival and moving toward a strategy of prosperity require the formation of a new type of leadership, the restoration of trust — both within the diaspora and between the Spyurk and Armenia — as well as the systematic use of human capital as the nation's main resource in the age of globalization.