On May 28 Policy Forum Armenia held a reception on the occasion of the Independence of the First Armenian Republic (1918-20). Held at the historic University Club of Washington, the reception was well attended by community members and friends of PFA from in- and outside of the Washington metropolitan area. The event also served as the first in a series of introductions of members of the Sardarapat Movement's Initiating Group, film director Tigran Khzmalyan and informational technology expert Garegin Chugaszyan - who are visiting Washington at the invitation of PFA - to the Armenian community and policy circles in the nation's capital.

In his keynote address, Dr. Rouben Adalian, Director of the Armenian National Institute, stressed the importance of the battle of Sardarapat for preserving culture and identity as well as regaining statehood in those darkest of times for the history of Armenia. As improbable as it seemed at the time, he noted that the success in Sardarapat became an important milestone for measuring successes of the future.

Tigran Khzmalyan emphasized the need for continued fight for independence in the present context, amid worsening governance and external dependence of Armenia. Stressing that independence should not taken for granted, he called on Armenians worldwide - irrespective of party affiliations and geography - to help regain Armenia's true independence, one that will guarantee dignity, freedom, and prosperity.

Recalling Yeghishe Charents' poems written at the dawn of the First Republic, Garegin Chugaszyan reminded participants that the foundations of a strong statehood lie in people's unconventional love towards country in the most desperate of times. He referred to the dark winter of the Third Armenian republic, which will undoubtedly end soon and be followed by the spring of the Forth Republic to come.

In his closing remarks, PFA's co-founder David Grigorian called on the community members to intensify their search for new ways of engagement with Armenia by focusing on civil society groups, such as Sardarapat. He stressed that the existing mechanisms have offered little, if any, incentives for the successive ruling regimes in Armenia to reform and do better, emphasizing the need to scrap them in exchange for new models of engagement that will have allegiances to people of Armenia (as opposed to their rulers) in their core.