Palm Desert, CA - Internationally renowned Actress Arsinée Khanjian spoke on the need for a "national agenda" at the Armenian Assembly of America's annual gala, held in Palm Desert, California, November 1, 2003. She had been invited to the national event to be honored for "Excellence in the Performing Arts." Khanjian is the recipient of a number of top acting awards, most recently for Best Performance at the 24th Durban Film Festival in South Africa, October 13-26.

After thanking the Armenian Assembly of America for the award and expressing her long-standing appreciation for the work of the Assembly, Khanjian discussed the importance for the Armenian people of creating a national agenda. Her remarks, in part, are given below.

In the last three years, since the inception, the making and the release of Ararat, Atom Egoyan and I have found ourselves raising various questions. Nothing unusual, except, this time, it soon became evident that many answers had ramifications in areas unfamiliar to us. Once the script was ready, we started sensing a pressure that went beyond the usual. Slowly, it dawned on us that we were no longer only responsible for our voice but also, this time, we were accountable to a larger community of people. Living and working in a democratic society, we were ensured artistic freedom. The nature of the subject, however, was now imposing a new prerequisite. The film, like the ones before, had to speak about itself, tell a story, present characters, but, most of all, this film had to make sure that 6 million other people would also be able to project their own claim on this story.

Many Armenians offered to be involved, that is personally, actively. Armenian organizations were extending their support in the promotion of the film (never financially of course, but, in that matter neither did Alex Yemenidjian at MGM); Turkish organizations were contacting us to request reading of the script, to see rushes, to talk about it before it hit the screens - they wanted to make sure that no wrongful impressions would be created as a result of the release of Ararat; individuals were calling in to share with us their family histories, their own stories; young and old wished to appear as extras to pay tribute to those who had perished in the circumstances described by the film; and there we realized that the movie we had given life to was claiming, in turn, hundreds of thousands of other lives, other dreams. We were slowly shifting towards a completely unprecedented new role, that of spokespeople, all the while making sure that out discourse was kept as initially intended and formulated. Now, however, this discourse was being heard differently by various audiences, the critics, festival directors, distributors, in short anyone, hearing us talk about Ararat, or seeing Ararat, or being exposed to the buzz around Ararat.

When I complained to Atom that this was getting too oppressive and we did not even know what consequences this was going to have, in the long run, on his career as an artist, and that he should have waited until much later in his life to tackle a subject and a role of this magnitude, he said

- Don't you see, this is the time to do it because of the attention I enjoy within the film community and from the general public. If anyone is going to listen to our story it would be now, when we know there is disposition to do so. I can't be sure who will know or remember me when I'm 70. I can't miss this chance.

I knew he was right, but, also, at that moment, it became clear to me that it was not the film he had made that was political, but the intention, the timing and the decision to make it…which brings me to the heart of my thought.

Do we need to be political? My answer is a definite YES. Do we need to become politicians? Not necessarily. What we need, as I mentioned earlier, is to know how we may convert our successes, our accomplishments, our talents, our knowledge into currency-- a currency that can be at the service of the changes that we wish to see taking place around us and for us. I also believe that for this approach to succeed we need to have in place this other thing, this thing I call a National Agenda.

A national agenda that will serve every Armenian in the Diaspora and every Armenian in independent Armenia. A national agenda that will cross the oceans and the continents to unite us in a wish: a wish for an informed collective consciousness, a wish for a national security, a wish for modern self-determination, a wish for a solid self-definition, a wish for a federation that works within and manages our differences while turning them into assets. I stress further that this national agenda has to combine our two peoples, the one living in the Republic of Armenia, defined by the present-day borders of our ancestral land, and the one living on a large expanse called "the Diasporas" and defined by the world in its entirety. I see this National Agenda not any differently than a wonderful musical opus, where different instruments play different sounds but in a harmony imposed not only by the composer, but also by the conductor and every musician playing at that moment. What I am saying is that the American Armenian, the Canadian Armenian, the French Armenian, the Lebanese Armenian, the Russian Armenian the Karabagh Armenian, the Armenian in the homeland, are perhaps different in their voices but this may very well be where our strength lies. We can make a difference with our differences if we are curious about others, if we choose to share with others, if we prefer to be involved with others. A national agenda will give direction and legitimacy to the work of our intellectuals, our political institutions, our spiritual leaders, and our economic foundations. In short, a national agenda will give us security, as people, as a nation, as a living history.

The Genocide Memorial Museum in Washington will be a place for all of us to converge, so that we continue remembering our past, so that we think of our present, so that we believe in our future. A national agenda will ensure the support, trust and excitement necessary for this deserving and essential endeavour. A national agenda will give added meaning to the work of an academic institute like Zoryan, and help instill its ideals in the hearts of the people who should benefit most from its research and publications. A national agenda will empower our artists and writers in bringing to our culture a universal meaning and status. A national agenda will allow every Diasporan Armenian to really understand the challenges that face Armenia today as a society, as a tangible place. A national agenda will stop giving the children of Armenia away for adoption outside the homeland. A national agenda will help us understand who we are today, how we got here, and how we can secure our place in this world.

I would like to ask us all to make a pledge tonight; to think differently but together, to do it now and here and everywhere we call ourselves Armenians; to do it by ourselves and for ourselves - because we are players in history and we want to continue making our own history.

This is what I have learned from the experience of making my "Ararat," and a "national agenda" is the road, I truly believe, to forging our future as children of our ancestral Ararat.