The puzzling Diaspora dichotomy over Armenia’s eclectic grid

 Vaհe H Apelian

 

I also know and have long accepted the immense diversity of the Armenians across the globe and the futility of speaking about it as a single entity and call it a diaspora. Whenever I use the term diaspora, I simply speak as an expatriate whose Armenian experience is confined to Lebanon, Syria and the United States. By extension I also have assumed the liberty of conceptualizing it to be similar in Canada, and in West Europe. My puzzling of Diaspora’s dichotomy over Armenia’s electric grid ownership is meant to be within that context.

Taking the Armenian electric grid ownership from a single person or entity to public ownership, surprisingly has raised the sentiments of segments in the Diaspora against the government of Armenia, against their own experiences in Lebanon, Syria and in the United States.

In my days in Lebanon everyone knew that the state owned the electric grid that continued to bear its French colonial rule name “Electricite՛ du Liban”. I asked a friend in Lebanon with whom I converse often. He said the ownership has not changed, other than the private, often local cooperative generators that have come about due to the state’s inability to provide adequate electricity.

I have spent a good part of my life in Kessab, Syria. Most of that time, there was no electricity in Kessab to be concerned  about its ownership. There came a time when the Kessabtsis had their own electric generators installed, such as in our village Keurkune, where Stepan Panossian, the father of Dr. Razmig Panossian, had smartly devised a system tying the generator to the handle of a mechanical clock for timing purposes. I remember to this day when I drove to Keurkune, Kessab for the first time in our Beetle Volkswagen, when to my chagrin, I saw that the government had piled electric poles in the village as the government was extending the electric grid to Kessab as well. A way of life I knew had come to its end. That day, with my cousins Vatche and Albert, has remained etched in my memory. They still were there but figuring a way out of the country. Both passed away in the U.S.  Wikipedia notes that Syrian Ministry of Electricity primarily owns and operates the electric grid in the country. Anyone who has personal ties in Syria knows the terrible situations Syrians faced and may be facing due to I inadequate supply of electricity and escalating costs.  

Let us pause for a second and ask ourselves, who owns the electric grid in the most capitalistic society, the United States? 

I had not wondered about it before but I had an understanding that no single entity owned the U.S. electric grid but that it is a consortium made up of private and state ownership. Surely, complex laws regulate a nation’s electric grid which, needless to say is a primary component of the nation’s security. When I posed the same question to Google, the AI validated my understanding and summed it as follows: “The U.S. electric grid is not owned by a single entity, but rather by a mix of private, public, and cooperative entities. The majority of the grid is owned by privately held, investor-owned utilities, while some is owned by public power utilities and electric cooperatives. Additionally, the federal government owns and operates some power generation and transmission facilities.” 

After 34 years of independence, it is the present Nikol Pashinyan led government that had the political will to take away Armenia’s electric grid from a single ownership and have it owned publicly. It was the right decision the government took. Diaspora, across the board, would have supported Armenian government’s decision, I thought. But the vocal segment of the Diaspora verbalized against the said "take-over".

I remain puzzled when I read sentiments by Diasporans against the ruling of the Armenian government over the ownerships of the nation's electric grid, and wonder why. After all, their own experiences are for public or state ownership of the electric grid of the countries whose citizenship they rightly and proudly proclaim.