Interview with Armenia's new consul in LA

Armenia’s new consul in Los Angeles pledges better constituency services and outreach
Interview with newly appointed Consul General Grigor Hovhanissian
by Emil Sanamyan
Published: Thursday February 19, 2009

Grigor Hovhanissian comes to Los Angeles after two and a half years as executive director of the Shushi Revival Fund, an Armenian government entity. Prior to that, Mr. Hovhanissian worked from 1993 to 2006 for the United Nations in field offices in Armenia, Africa, and the Middle East. Born in 1971, Mr. Hovhanissian is a graduate of the Middle East Studies department of Yerevan State University and has a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Mr. Hovhanissian spoke with the Armenian Reporter's Emil Sanamyan on February 12, about a week into his posting. They discussed Mr. Hovhanissian's background and plans in the new assignment.

From Arabic studies to the heart of Africa

AR: How did you begin working for the United Nations?

GH: I did a year of postgraduate study in Beirut, where I met some UN people working with Shiite refugees in Lebanon and did some research work for them.

And when I went back to Armenia, I had an offer from the local UN office to do something similar, working with Armenian refugees displaced mostly from Azerbaijan but also from Central Asia. That was my first exposure and experience with international civil service. In 1993-94, I helped design and implement shelter projects for refugee resettlement in various parts of Armenia.

AR: And from Armenia you went to Congo. . . .

GH: Yes, it was actually the Great Lakes region of Africa, specifically the province of Kivu in the eastern part of what at the time was known as Zaire. Since I knew French [which is widely spoken there] and already had experience with refugee protection and resettlement, I was offered [a chance] to go there.

It was in the early aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, and we had to deal with a number of issues from security to crisis management. Those countries - Rwanda, Burundi, as well as Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the Central African Republic - are still coping with the aftermath of that genocide.

AR: It must have been tremendous for someone learned about the Armenian experience to find himself in Rwanda immediately after the genocide. . . .

GH: That was a real issue for me. Imagine a relatively inexperienced young man getting involved in things like forensic expertise of mass graves and seeing an army, millions of people fleeing in search of security. I was grateful to my colleagues who realized the special sensitivity I had to this situation. [That experience] marked me big time.

From the Great Lakes I was posted to a more political-coordination position with the UN office in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, dealing with UN mediation in the civil wars both in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) and Congo-Brazzaville.

AR: This is a bit off topic, but our readers like to know about Armenians in exotic places. Did you meet many in Congo?

GH: Yes, of course. Not just in Congo, but in even less frequented places. There are plenty of natural resources in that area, diamonds in particular, and our compatriots from as far away as Lebanon and France reached all the way to the rainforest.

I saw a small Armenian chapel in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. And in fact one of the senior officials in that country's former regime was a Lebanese Armenian.

And in Zimbabwe, there was a prominent doctor Levon - I forget his family name. He first arrived there with the Soviet mission to UNESCO, and eventually settled down and opened his own clinic. There were a few [Armenian] families in Namibia. Armenians from Armenia found their way to South Africa.

Since I traveled most of the continent, and was specifically looking for compatriots, I could find at least a few Armenians in almost every country I visited.

AR: And then it was on to the Middle East. . . .

GH: Yes. From 2000 to 2004 I was working in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, dealing with the crisis in the Palestinian territories. And from 2004 to 2006, I was with the UN Mission for Iraq, which because of the security situation was remote-operated. I was senior advisor to the special representative of the UN Secretary General, based in Amman, Jordan.

That was the period when the U.S. was transferring authority to the Iraqi government, and we were dealing with capacity building for that government. But our real presence [in Iraq] was extremely limited. We were doing in-and-outs to the "Green Zone" [area of central Baghdad heavily protected by U.S. forces].

AR: And I imagine you had come into contact with Iraqi-Armenians who were displaced to Jordan?

GH: Yes of course. And in Iraq itself, the UN mission as well as other international offices had a number of ethnic Armenian employees as well.

And you will recall that for many years our compatriot [from Cyprus], Benon Sevan, headed the very important [oil-for-food] operation dealing with Iraq. It was a great regret and disappointment when unverified and outright accusations made this very prominent person resign after a very long and productive career with the United Nations.

And back to Armenia

AR: How did you make the leap from working for the UN for over a decade to going back to Armenia and working for its government?

GH: It was a pretty gradual process. At some point I decided that despite my career at the UN, for full professional satisfaction I needed to move back to Armenia. I am very attached to our country and everything happening there affected my life and work, so I decided that it would be better to experience it from inside. So I moved back and did not regret it.

I began by teaching at the university - Arabic studies and country studies. Then I was offered [a chance] to establish and lead the Shushi Revival Fund, which is both a political and a development venture. I was very happy doing that job until very recently, when totally unexpected for me, I was offered [a chance] to become Armenia's consul general in Los Angeles.

AR: What was your mandate at the Shushi Fund and who were you in effect answerable to?

GH: The fund has a Board of Trustees chaired by the mayor of Yerevan. The mission statement was to create a framework to facilitate investments and development of the town of Shushi.

It was not a charity per se, since charity is good for building schools and hospitals; but to really have a city that is developing and economically viable, you need more than that. So we went about designing a master plan for Shushi's development. We did that with help from an Orange County-based company. And we did some basic infrastructure work, like water supply.

We thought of ourselves as sort of a vector that underscores the importance of Shushi as a historical capital of Artsakh (Karabakh) to attract wider involvement in Shushi's future.

AR: And in two years with the fund, what were you most happy and most unhappy with?

GH: Unhappy with the pace of programs. It has been slower than initially expected. Perhaps initial expectations were really too high. There were also some setbacks related to the international economic crisis over the past year affecting the flow of investments.

And I was certainly happy that with our small team we managed to organize a telethon between Shushi, Bethlehem, and Moscow, which was an unprecedented thing to do and was broadcast on Orthodox Christmas Eve in 2008. It drew quite a bit of attention as well as support.

The Los Angeles mission

AR: What did President Serge Sargsian ask you to do as consul general?

GH: I was given a very clear sense of mission.

I am here to serve the needs of our community; interpret the government's position vis-à-vis various issues the community has, including repatriation; try to smooth over any tensions between various community groups; work to improve Armenia's image; and maintain our diplomatic presence to promote political and economic relations with the United States.

We are here on a service mission, and that I think that is the key word. We will particularly be focusing on improving the quality and expanding the quantity of services of this consulate for our compatriots and all people with goodwill for Armenia.

AR: You are the sixth head of the mission since the consulate opened in 1995. Before speaking with you I spoke to a number of my colleagues and friends and heard repeatedly the refrain that the consulate is widely perceived as an OVIR - the Soviet era-legacy passport and visa agency known for its bureaucratic hassles - and that there was not nearly enough outreach to the community.

GH: To be perfectly blunt and frank with you, I heard these same things in Armenia. But I should note that I found this office well-managed and quite efficient.

I know that there have been issues of a logistical nature and with the efficiency of consular services. Sometimes the overall discontent comes from a very basic thing - our inability to deliver services in a well-managed and timely way. We will be assessing these issues as a matter of first priority.

In terms of outreach, the complicating factor is that the consulate is located in the Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, which is not the most convenient location relative to where most of our constituency lives - in Glendale, Pasadena, Hollywood, and elsewhere. We will try to reconcile these [disconnects].

What is clear is that we need to improve the outreach and quality of services.

AR: What have you done in your first week in Los Angeles other than moving in?

GH: Meeting with community members, getting introduced to leaders of the Church, political parties, civic groups, and various organizations. I am trying to complete this introductory part as quickly as possible to be able to get down to practicalities and tangible things. I want to note that I found these briefings extremely important and I am very grateful to all our community leaders who have been very forthcoming.

In the future, being the field person that I am, I will try to be out with our constituency as much as I can.

connect:

Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia
50 N. La Cienega Blvd., Suite 210
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Tel: (310) 657-6102
Fax: (310) 657-7419
E-mail: armconla@aol.com

The consulate does not currently have a web site.

Interview with Ambassador Sarukhan

First published in November 1, 2008 Armenian Reporter.

Mexico's ambassador to the United States discusses his Armenian heritage
An interview with Arturo Sarukhán, Washington’s other Armenian ambassador
by Emil Sanamyan and Lusine Sarkisyan



Washington - In an October 9 interview with Arturo Sarukhán Casamitjana, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, the Armenian Reporter's Washington Editor Emil Sanamyan and intern Lusine Sarkisyan asked him about his unique family history, his thoughts on Armenia, and Mexico's foreign policy priorities vis-à-vis the United States.

Armenian Reporter: How does someone of Armenian descent get to lead one of the most important embassies in Washington, representing Mexico, a country of more than 100 million?

Arturo Sarukhán: Hard work! I'm a career diplomat. I've been in the Foreign Service for 14 years. This is my second tour duty in Washington. I was here earlier as chief of staff to the ambassador. I arrived as a chief of staff to the ambassador in 1993 and stayed on with the next ambassador, and then [in 1998] I went back to Mexico.

How did I arrive to this specific post? Well, I was consul general in New York and I asked for a leave of absence from the Foreign Service, resigned my commission as consul general in New York, and joined [then presidential candidate] Felipe Calderón as his chief foreign policy advisor and his international spokesperson. I then headed the transition team on foreign policy and became ambassador in 2007.

AR: Can you tell us your family story, particularly the Armenian part?

AS: My grandparents arrived in Mexico in the early 1930s. My grandfather was a Russian-Armenian also named Artur Sarukhanian, but when he arrived in Mexico he tried to make it easier on the Mexican authorities [and cut the "ian"]. He was an aide to Alexander Kerensky [head of Russia's "Provisional government" in 1917]. After Kerensky was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, he left Russia and came to Venice, where he was trained at the Armenian seminary.

My grandmother fled the Genocide in 1915. Most of her family was killed in the Genocide, but she was able to escape to Thessaloniki in northern Greece. From there she went to Venice and my grandparents met and were married in Venice.

At the time Benito Mussolini came to power [in Italy and was establishing his Fascist government] my grandfather said: "This smells bad."

So, they went to Mexico with the idea of coming to Canada. My grandfather spoke 9 languages, English among them, but he had read a lot about Mexico, so he decided to stop in Mexico on their way to Canada. They never left. My grandparents fell in love with Mexico and they stayed in Mexico.

That's how I was born in Mexico.

AR: What is the Armenian presence in Mexico?

AS: It's a very small community. A lot of those who arrived as a result of the Genocide actually did end up doing what my grandfather wanted to do, which was move north to the U.S. or Canada. So, a lot of the Mexican-Armenian families after World War II - most of them ended up in Fresno, California. The Armenian community in Mexico is very small.

Armenian resilience and unfinished Armenian Genocide agenda

AR: Although at a distance from Armenia, I imagine you over time have followed the events in Armenia. What is the most striking thing about Armenia for you?

AS: I was [in Armenia] once with my father when I was a teenager, when it was still a part of the Soviet Union. I have not been back to the independent Armenia.

It is certainly what I look forward to because it is important to, number one, understand one's roots. But also, [even though] I am a Mexican diplomat and I represent my country in the most important country for Mexico, which is the United States, there is such a thing as a global citizenry. These pasts and origins have the ability to connect and create networks regardless of passport, nationality, ethnicity, and color.

[Such networks] are the only response to some of the challenges that many countries like ours face. Challenges like security in the post-September 11 world, environmental degradation, social-economic development that is also just and fair.

Armenia and Mexico have lived next to big, powerful countries. Armenia is near Russia and Mexico near the U.S. We've both had traumatic historical experiences with our neighbors: Armenia with Turkey and to certain extent Russia, Mexico with the U.S. after the war of 1847. So, I think there is a lot of common ground that can be built on by engaging.

There are two things that surprise me. One is the resiliency of the Armenian people and culture. I see that at home with my father and mother. (She is also a refugee, but from another side of the Mediterranean. She is a republican refugee from the 1930s Civil War in Spain.)

The other thing that surprises me is how the Armenian diaspora has not had the ability to forcefully portray and make its case as the Jewish-American community has. How the resources and the capital, manpower, and even the celebrities - even though some of them do it very actively - has not been translated to a full-fledged recognition, explanation, coming to terms with what happened in that part of the world.

AR: Has Mexico been confronted with the Armenian Genocide issue either in the context of international organizations or directly, and how does it perceive the issue of genocide?

AS: I think Mexico is one of the countries that have supported resolutions condemning genocide. For reasons that have to do with geographical distance and the fact that there is a small Armenian community in Mexico, it is not an issue that is on top of Mexican diplomatic agenda.

AR: But is the Armenian Genocide debated in Mexico?

AS: No, not really. Some people know, some people are interested, some people have written about it but again it’s not a top issue. We don’t have the size that other countries like Argentina, France and others have in terms of the Armenian population. It’s not something that comes from the grassroots.

RS: Uruguay, a Latin American country, was I fact the first country to formally adopt a resolution on the Armenian genocide, in part since it does have a substantial Armenian community. Do Latin American countries develop common policies on issues such as this?

For example, earlier this year there was a United Nations General Assembly vote on the Karabakh conflict, an issue of key concern to Armenia. And Azerbaijan relied on support from Islamic countries, most of which basically joined in support of Azerbaijan’s position, while the vast majority of countries, including Latin American ones, abstained or did not vote.

Is there a similar solidarity among the Latin American countries in the UN or elsewhere?

AS: There is a Latin American group and they usually vote in block, but not always, depending on the issue. The closer the issue is to the core diplomatic priorities in the region it becomes more difficult to vote in block. The farther away you get, whether it is an issue of security or development, it will change, but there isn’t a paradigm that forces the group to vote in block. Many times on many issues in nations decide to go their own way.

Immigration debate and Mexican-Armenian relations in California

AR: While there is a big distance from Mexico to Armenia, Armenians and Mexicans definitely meet in Los Angeles. One of the major issues on Mexico’s agenda is immigration and how the U.S. government treats immigrants.

The Armenian-American community, although themselves mostly recent immigrants, does tend to lean to the conservative side of the debate on Latin American immigration. What case does Mexico make to the U.S. on this issue?

AS: I have very good working relations with Congressman Adam Schiff who comes from one of the districts [including Glendale and Pasadena, north of Los Angeles] with the highest concentration of Armenians and Mexicans. We always joke that if one day he decides to run for a higher office then I would be a good candidate for his district. He is doing a terrific job in speaking for the issues and some of these tensions that exist.

There are a few issues today in America which are as divisive as immigration. And for a good reason substantial portion of citizens of this country feel that immigrants have broken the law, that it speaks to the challenge of how you improve border security and how you make sure you know who the people living on your territory are.

At the same time, it rubs against what this country is. It’s not a coincidence that the motto of this nation is "E pluribus unum" [“From many, one” in Latin]. The successive ways of immigrants into this nation have made what this country is. It’s a vital plural-ethnic, plural-cultural tolerant society because it is a nation of immigrants.

There are two challenges here. Number one is that the recent waves of Latin American migrants who are coming to this country especially after the last serious immigration reform in 1986 have faced obstacles that no previous immigrant communities faced. That is they have been now undocumented for more than twenty years. And if you look at previous waves of immigration they all faced at some point nativism and anti-immigrant sentiment but in a generation they were able to successfully integrate into the fabric of American life and lifestyle.

You now have more than twenty years of waves of migrants who’ve come from Latin America and are living in the shadows because of the rules and lack of reforms. They have not been able to integrate, and at a time [of economic] uncertainty this feeds into a creeping fear which exists in American public over globalization and free trade, goods from China, trucks from Mexico and undocumented migrants.

[Secondly,] for countries like Mexico and U.S. it is important to measure the impact two countries have on one another. There is no bilateral relationship that is more important and more unique for the economic prosperity, for social well-being and security of two nations, Mexico and the U.S.

There is the 3,000 kilometer border and there are 35 million Mexican Americans in this country of whom 6 to 7 million are undocumented migrants. In fact Mexico is U.S.’ third largest trading partner. Every day there are 75,000 trucks that cross the border in both directions. It is an extremely dynamic relationship.

We in Mexico and you in America need to pause and think how do we ensure that a labor intensive country like Mexico and a capital intensive country like the U.S. can take advantage of that geographic proximity, human capital to be able to continue to compete on a world stage even with the likes of China and India.

In many ways, our loss is your gain. The fact that Mexico can’t hold on to 200-300 thousand people a year who can’t find better paid jobs in Mexico and come to U.S. is a huge loss to my country. Mexico cannot grow at a rate that it needs to grow to start breaking economic asymmetries that exist between Mexico and U.S., if we are bleeding bold entrepreneurial men and women who are crossing that border every year.

At the end of the day what we need to ensure that every single Mexican that crosses the border to U.S. does so legally, whether it’s with a visa or it’s a part of a temporary worker program but we have to ensure that as both countries work to ensure the security of our border. We leave the doors open so the free flow of listed goods and people can continue.

AR: In terms of the Armenian community in California, are you surprised there has not been more sensitivity to fellow economic migrants from Latin America?

AS: This is going to sound biased but I am a believer that communities like the Armenian and the Mexican communities are natural allies. They share agendas and challenges in this country. Many of them have come here driven by the same problems of lack of economical opportunities. Both are hard working societies. [In the past] the Armenian community faced the prejudice and racism and discrimination in this country that Mexican communities are facing today.

Mexican-Americans are already partnering with the Jewish-American community based on these common challenges and the need for these two communities to work together to ensure that this country continues to remain tolerant and open to diversity.

It would make more sense if Armenian and Mexican communities work together especially in the West Coast and New England where we have the highest concentration of Armenian-Americans to bring down the bombastic nature of the debate, to look at the opportunities and the challenges in an objective and forward-looking way.

AS: Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for remembering.

Arturo Sarukhán Casamitjana Biography:

Ambassador of Mexico to the United States since January 2007, Mr. Sarukhan was previously foreign policy coordinator for then presidential candidate Felipe Calderón (elected President of Mexico in 2006).

Since 1994, Mr. Sarukhan’s diplomatic career included postings as Mexico’s Consul-General in New York City, with the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and as Mexico’s representative at the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL).

He is also a professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), and has taught at the Mexican National Defense College, the Inter-American Defense College and at the U.S. National Defense University.

Mr. Sarukhan has a bachelor’s degree from El Colegio de México (1988) and, as Fulbright Scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow, he earned his master's degree in U.S. Foreign Policy from Washington’s Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (1991).

The Kingdoms of Spain and Sweden conferred on him the Order of Civil Merit of Isabel la Católica, Officers Degree, and the Order of the Polar Star, Commanders Degree, respectively.

Mr. Sarukhan has full command of English and of Catalan, and is fluent in French. He reads Portuguese and Italian.

He is married to Verónica Valencia and they have two young daughters, Laia and Ani.

Ambassador’s father José Aristeo Sarukhán Kermez was born in Mexico in 1940. An award-winning biologist he was President of Mexico’s National University from 1989 to 1997, and continues to do research on ecology there. In November 2007, writing in the leading Mexican daily El Universal, Dr. Sarukhán Kermez discussed the Armenian community’s efforts to win the Armenian Genocide affirmation in the U.S. Congress and his own family experience – see his commentary in Spanish at http://www.el-universal.com.mx/editoriales/38926.html.

The Armenian Reporter would like to thank its former Washington intern Nareg Seferian and the Mexican Embassy’s Press Officer Ricardo Alday for arranging the interview.