«Կյանքն առանց պայքարի դանդաղ մահ է» - Հարցազրույց Գրանտ ՄԱՐԳԱՐՅԱՆԻ հետ

"Life Without Struggle Is a Slow Death" — Interview with Grant Markaryan, prepared by the journal "ANIV" following the international conference on Hamshen Armenians in Adler, presents a conversation with Grant Markaryan, a member of the Bureau of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, about the fate of Hamshen Armenians, the criteria of national identity, and the role of youth in the struggle for the Armenian Cause (Hay Dat).

Introduction and Context
The interview is timed to coincide with a scholarly conference devoted to the Hamshen Armenians of Krasnodar Krai and Turkey, and it opens up a broader topic — the work of the Dashnaktsutyun party with diaspora and assimilated groups of Armenians. Markaryan explains the delayed interest of the party in this subject through historical circumstances: the impossibility of ARFD activity on Soviet territory and the subsequent concentration of forces on the Karabakh struggle.

Key Points on Identity
Central to the conversation is the thesis of the indivisibility of Armenian identity. Markaryan formulates the single criterion of national belonging — a person's self-perception:

knowledge of the Armenian language is not a mandatory condition for belonging to the nation;
religious affiliation (Islam, atheism, another Christian confession) cannot serve as grounds for denying national belonging;
the decisive factor is recognized solely as the individual's personal self-identification as an Armenian.

Organizational Component
A significant part of the interview is devoted to the practical tasks of consolidating Hamshen Armenians: creating a network of Armenian schools, Armenian media (television, radio, press), and organizational structures in Krasnodar Krai. Markaryan insists that unorganized Armenians represent merely a "gathering of Armenians," devoid of real strength, and that the party's task is to transform scattered communities into an organized and unified structure.

The Theme of Struggle and Youth
A separate section of the interview reveals Markaryan's understanding of the significance of the struggle for Hay Dat for the moral upbringing of the younger generation. He distinguishes between the concepts of struggle and war, interpreting struggle as a source of human and moral development, standing in opposition to degradation and the "fruitless masochism" of passive existence. Justice, in his conviction, is indivisible: the struggle for the rights of one's own people simultaneously serves the cause of other oppressed peoples as well.

Biographical Section
The interview concludes with biographical information about Grant Markaryan: his birth in southern Iran, party activity in Greece, relocation to Armenia in 1990, participation in the Karabakh struggle, imprisonment under Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and subsequent election to the Supreme Body and the Bureau of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun.

Conclusion
The key conclusion of the interview is that the consolidation of the entire Armenian potential — regardless of language, faith, and place of residence — is an urgent historical task, and that active, engaged struggle for national interests is regarded as a necessary condition for preserving the moral and organizational unity of the Armenian people.