"The Choice of Words" (continued) - Interview with Migran Dabaghyan

Armen Khechoyan's article is devoted to the continuation of an interview with Professor Migran Dabag — director of the Institute for Diaspora and Genocide Studies at Ruhr University Bochum — published in issue No. 2 (29) of the journal ANIV as a continuation of the conversation begun in the previous issue.

Introduction and Biographical Context
Opening the piece, the author introduces his interlocutor: a native of Diarbekir (1944), founder of the specialized institute, editor-in-chief of specialized scholarly publications, and laureate of international awards for his work in the field of genocide and human rights studies. The interview is then structured into thematic blocks, each revealing a separate aspect of the understanding of the Spyurk (diaspora), the politics of memory, and the personal history of the Dabag family.

Diaspora as an "Environment" and a "Rejected Structure"
Dabag introduces the concept of the Armenian "vayr" — a shared intellectual space necessary for the exchange of views within the diaspora. He states that:

• nation-states perceive diasporas as temporary and auxiliary formations;
• the Armenian diaspora itself, after the formation of the Republic of Armenia, tends to underestimate its own intrinsic value, seeing itself merely as a function of the state.

Critique of "Dinkism"
A separate substantive node of the interview is the analysis of the figure of Hrant Dink and the phenomenon Dabag calls "Dinkism." While acknowledging the historical significance of Dink's activity, the author of the concept points to the danger of:

• equating the positions of denial and the demand for recognition of the genocide as "equally nationalistic";
• the instrumentalization of reconciliation rhetoric in the interests of Turkish denialist strategies;
• turning the Armenian diaspora into a "risk factor" in the eyes of international politics.

Problematizing the Concept of "Reconciliation"
Dabag distinguishes between political reconciliation (following the model of Franco-German dialogue) and the impossibility of such a model in the case of genocide, where relations are built not between equal parties to a conflict, but between the successors of "perpetrators" and "victims." He emphasizes that genuine reconciliation presupposes the acknowledgment of guilt and the reworking of history, not negotiations and forgetting.

The Anarchic Nature and Resilience of the Spyurk
A key proposition advanced in the interview is the thesis that the decentralized nature of the diaspora is the source of its strength: the absence of a rigid power structure makes the Spyurk resilient to state pressure, and the historical experience of 95 years of the diaspora's existence demonstrates its viability despite constant predictions of its disappearance.

Personal History
The concluding part of the conversation is devoted to the biography of the Dabag family: the fate of the father — the sole surviving member of his family, head of the Armenian community of Diarbekir — as well as Migran Dabag's own childhood, his dual identity (a Turkish and an Armenian name), his education at the Karagözyan boarding school in Istanbul, and his separation from his brother.

The key conclusion of the interview lies in affirming the intrinsic value of the diaspora as an independent, though decentralized, structure whose historical memory and institutional work stand against both the politics of denial and the dangerous simplifications of contemporary "reconciliation" rhetoric.