Our Story - Part 5
August 2018 - The ANA Plant Sprouts New Leaves
Donald Wilson Bush continued mentoring a small group of young Hayastani professionals on a regular basis—teaching them the fundamentals of attaining political power in the United States—and the numbers started to grow. Initially, the group called themselves RUMA (the Regional United Minority Alliance), and then, after several months, discussed changing the name to HYESPIRIT.
Initially, the group called themselves RUMA (the Regional United Minority Alliance), and, then, after several months discussed changing the name to HYESPIRIT.
At this same time, another Spyurk initiative called ArmeniansOfLA emerged through its affiliation with pro-Pashinyan supporters living in Hollywood, Glendale and the San Fernando Valley.
Kristine Halajyan, Arthur Sahakyan, Aram Ter-Martirossyan, Margarita Khlghatyan and Armen Antonyan were among the new Hayastanci leaders that came together to form this new group.
October 2018Unfortunately, in the same way that Dr. Demirdjian’s unified Spyurk initiative had quickly dissolved because of disagreements and divisions among the Armenian organizers, so, too, the ArmeniansOfLA died out only two months after it had begun for the same reasons.
“Late one evening in early October I was driving along the Interstate in North Carolina when I received a phone call from Gurgen Mkrtchyan, an aspiring young Hayastanci attorney from North Hollywood who was a part of my small mentoring group,” Donald Wilson Bush, recalled. “I could hear a serious tone in his voice.”
“Gurgen had been invited to the third public meeting of the ArmeniansOfLA and he was calling me from the parking lot of the Anoush Restaurant in Glendale after the meeting had broken down from too many arguments and fighting,” Bush continued.
“From Gurgen’s retelling of the events, I learned that Aram Ter-Martirossyan had invited Harut Sassounian to attend the ARMENIANSOFLA meeting,” Bush said, “and, apparently, Harut began to promote a continuation of Dr. Demirdjian’s ‘Old Spyurk’ unity plan from the USC symposium.
“Specifically,” Bush elaborated, “Harut was there to sell the group on joining, yet, another Top-Down organization tied to his original Spyurk unity idea called HyeID. According to its website, the mission of the HyeID campaign is to ‘Establish the Diaspora Armenian Parliament (DAP) by HyeID diaspora Cardholders, through a transparent and democratic election process, utilizing HyeID electoral regions,’ and its structure is clearly Top-Down: The HyeID Card organization is managed by executive board elected by HyeID diaspora Cardholders through transparent elections.”
“Unfortunately, a number of the Hayastanci in attendance were offended by Harut’s autocratic and imperious attitude when he stood up to use the microphone and the group shouted him down,” Bush lamented.
“The meeting was suspended earlier than planned,” Bush said in conclusion, “and although the ARMENIANSOFLA leaders were never able to reconvene the same group again, Aram Ter-Martirossyan has since joined Harut Sassounian’s HyeID board of trustees as they continue to promote the project.”
“Upon my return to L.A. the next weekend, Gurgen introduced me to half a dozen or more Armenians in this emerging group of Hayastanci leaders who had rejected Harut Sassounian’s Top-Down approach, but, who still wanted to learn how to play American politics and to get organized to help Armenia,” Bush recalled.
November 2018“At this point,” Bush remembers, “the most significant and transformative thing to occur was a re-connection to Dr. Sarkis Mesrobian, a Deacon at St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Los Angeles.”
“We had met briefly some years before,” Bush disclosed, “But during the Nikol Revolution, we were re-introduced. The timing was providential, and I welcomed the opportunity to connect with him on a regular basis.”
“Clearly, with Gary Bedian’s passing six years before, I was missing an Armenian mentor myself, and Dr. Sarkis was gracious with his time and patience to answer all of my questions,” Bush concluded. “He is a veritable polymath and absolutely brilliant. When the war against Artsakh broke out in September 2020, Sarkis Mesrobian was the first to call me with information that was vital to understanding the backstory on Erdogan’s attack.”
January 2019Beginning with the new year, Gurgen Mkrtchyan, Armen Antonyan and Arthur Sahakyan began hosting meetings on Thursday nights with various members of the new Spuyrk. Week after week, the meetings continued.
February 2019Hayastanci leaders with the RUMA/HyeSpirit group made history by becoming the first group of Armenian Spyurk ever to hire an Odar political consulting group to assist them in institutional development, lobbying and effective political campaign strategy.
Hayastanci leaders with the RUMA/HyeSpirit group made history by becoming the first group of Armenian Spyurk ever to hire an Odar political consulting group to assist them in institutional development, lobbying and effective political campaign strategy.
June 2019After seeing how the Odar power game really plays out in Washington DC, the group decided against building one more Top-Down, centralized organization of Armenian organizations that haters could attack because of the personalities involved. Instead, the group chose to harness the power and potentiality of building a decentralized organization of individual Armenians who were committed to a single purpose that everyone could support.
The group decided against building one more centralized organization of Armenian organizations that haters could attack because of the personalities involved. Instead, the group chose to harness the power and potentiality of building a decentralized organization of individual Armenians who were committed to a single purpose that everyone could support.
The group continued to meet every Thursday night, taking the advice of Odar professionals. It was decided to work on building a new Spyurk strategy for organization without committing to any set schedule or plan.
Regular, weekly meetings continued throughout the summer and fall but nothing solid or concrete was decided.
“I know this slower, indirect approach frustrates a lot of people,” said Gurgen Mkrtchyan (one of the Hayastanci attorneys who wrote a check to the Odar professional political consultants). “Because Armenians like me are impatient. When we put down our money on something, we want to see results immediately!”
“But, the Odar political culture isn’t like that,” Mkrtchyan continued. “There is a lot of time devoted to relationship building and even more time and money spent on testing strategy.”
Gurgen Mkrtchyan smiled, “Armenian’s go a lot on emotion and they quit something really fast if they can’t see the results that they want right away. But, in real power politics, the Odars spend a lot of time and money getting the right facts and building relationships that will give them a winning political strategy—now it’s our time to do the same thing!”
“Armenian’s go a lot on emotion and they quit something really fast if they can’t see the results that they want right away. But in real power politics, the Odars spend a lot of time and money getting the right facts and building relationships that will give them a winning political strategy—now it’s our time to do the same thing!”
September 2019After taking a break for the late summer, the RUMA/HyeSpirit group resumed their Thursday night meetings during the second week of September 2019. On this particular night, September 12, 2019, the attendees began to discuss strategies for converting Facebook and Instagram followers into real political action teams. They also debated a number of possible name changes for the group that would sound more professional.
Then, just as the meeting began to wrap-up, someone noticed that at all of the meetings in the past nine months, only men had been present. It was suggested that the group consider inviting women to attend their meetings in the future.