Stories of Armenian repatriates

[Federate]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

Unbelievable yet not so much...
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Armenia: Iraqi-Armenian Refugees Looking to Move On

September 23, 2010 - 1:48pm, by Gayane Abrahamyan

The reverberations from US President Barack Obama’s recent declaration on the end of US combat operations in Iraq are being felt in Armenia. Hopes are rising among hundreds of Iraqi-Armenian refugees that they might soon be able to return to Iraq and regain a sense of economic security that has remained elusive in Armenia.

“In Iraq, we felt more masters of the country than we do here,” said Arshaluis Eghiazarian, an Iraqi-Armenian refugee who formerly worked as an energy company manager in Baghdad.

Prior to the US-led invasion in 2003, about 25,000 ethnic Armenians called Iraq home, according to the National Administration of the Armenian Community in Iraq, a Diaspora organization. Today, approximately 8,000 ethnic Armenians remain; most in Baghdad, with some population clusters in northern Iraq.

When fighting erupted, thousands of Iraqi Armenians opted to take advantage of Armenian Embassy’s offer to gain refuge in Armenia. The refugee experience proved hard for many, however. Most had difficulty finding jobs, and had trouble adapting to the new customs that they encountered in Armenia. As a result, the majority are hoping to resettle in third countries. And now returning to Iraq is another possibility.

Armenia currently has an official unemployment rate of 7.3 percent; a number that some researchers believe is actually closer to 27 percent. While jobs are scarce, the cost of essential goods and services, especially food, keep on rising. The negative economic trends are a major reason why refugees like Eghiazarian expressed mostly bitterness about their experience so far in Armenia.

Among the 26 Iraqi-Armenian families living in one apartment building in the village of Darbnik, a hamlet of 1,300 people eight kilometers from Yerevan, some blamed the United States for its intervention in Iraq, while others praised Washington for promoting democratic reforms. Regardless of their stance toward the US intervention, though, all of those interviewed recalled their lives under Saddam Hussein as a time of relative bliss.

“If not for the war, we would never have left Iraq,” said Mouna Barseghian, a mother of five, whose family moved to Armenia from Baghdad in 2004.

The three-storey apartment building where Barseghian and 150 other Iraqi-Armenians live was renovated with the assistance of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Viva-Cell-MTS, Armenia’s largest mobile phone operator. The refugee families were given full ownership of their apartments in 2009.

While thankful for their 70-square-meter flat, the Barseghians claimed that their Darbnik apartment was as big as the lobby of the Baghdad mansion they say they used to own. They complained about Darbnik’s dirt roads and lack of public transportation, but acknowledged that their lives were safer in this village than in Iraq.

“At least we know that if we go out, we’ll come back,” said Barseghian. Nonetheless, she complained, “living is expensive, wages low.” Barseghian’s husband works as a communications engineer, but she alleged the family could not make ends meet on his salary.

Since 2003, the UNHCR and Save the Children have provided monthly financial assistance and clothing vouchers, plus classes to give Iraqi-Armenian refugees needed language and job-hunting skills. This year, Save the Children also started a project to provide refugee families with farm animals. “If not for the UN and Save the Children programs and their assistance, we wouldn’t have survived,” Barseghian claimed.

The Armenian Migration Service has also provided assistance to help integrate Iraqi- Armenian refugees. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Diaspora plans to offer language training and job training opportunities to facilitate employment.

Azat Khachatrian, the village head in Darbnik, whose population is mostly made up of ethnic Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, suggested that Iraqi-Armenians have had a far easier transition than that experienced by other refugee groups.

“Many Iraqi Armenians are in a better condition now than compared to the Armenians who fled from Azerbaijan two decades ago,” Khachatrian said, in reference to the 1988-1994 conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh. “They were given newly restored apartments quite quickly. Their employment issues are being solved; it’s easier since the majority of them are craftsmen.”

Nonetheless most Iraqi-Armenians are eager to leave, said Vigen Ktikian, vice-president of the Iraqi-Armenian Union of Armenia. “It’s natural. Even locals do not have jobs here, and it is even more difficult for Iraqi-Armenians” who may not be as familiar with the language and customs, said Ktikian. “The best dentist in Baghdad, with a large clientele there, is now unemployed here.”

Reminiscing about a 100,000-dinar [about $85] bonus she once received from Saddam Hussein for a good job performance, refugee Eghiazarian mulled over the trade-off between being safe and being back home. “Our life turned upside down, but now I am thinking that if we are going to [experience hardship in Armenia], I’d rather we die of a bomb explosion in Iraq,” she said.

Iraqi-Armenians who have had better economic luck in Armenia are naturally not as eager to leave. Thirty-five-year-old Ani Margarian’s husband and his brothers have set up a successful car repair service in Yerevan. After four years in Armenia, Margarian says her family has adapted to their new life. “It seemed [at first] that government should have done more then they did, but now I understand that the country has so many problems,” said Margarian. “[W]e have settled here and it is safe. … So I won’t go back.”
Editor's note:
Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62004

[arakeretzig]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

“It seemed [at first] that government should have done more then they did, but now I understand that the country has so many problems,” said Ani Margarian. “[W]e have settled here and it is safe. … So I won’t go back.”
Editor's note:
Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62004

I was born in baghdad too, and I used to know Ani. She's one of the three families i used to know, who live in armenia now and will stay there. They are all fairly well off money wise, so they'll have no problem living there. But for people who are less fortunate and go there to look for a job, it's of course difficult.

If you have money and live in Armenia, I can't think of a more beautiful place. So good on them. I'd do the same if I win the lottery

[Roman83]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

Thats a nice story Federate, thanks for sharing.

[Federate]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

Corporate Commitment: VivaCell GM is a change factor in Armenian business world


Ralph Yirikian has been the most effective and influential corporate leader in independent Armenia.

Unfortunately for Armenia, there has not been much competition for such honors.

Yirikian – through his leadership of VivaCell-MTS communications company – has practically single-handedly introduced, defined and demonstrated behavior of a contemporary global professional, bringing a refreshing and clarifying presence onto the scene of Armenia’s closed, oligarch-dominated business world.

As General Manager of the Lebanon-based company (which includes K-Telecom, providing mobile communications for Karabakh), Yirikian has become as recognizable as any politician or celebrity in Armenia. His frequent appearances at public events make him a target for desperate appeals from the needy, for whom his face has become the symbol of compassion.

VivaCell was among the first (if not the very first) company to introduce Corporate Social Responsibility in Armenia. It has been five years since the first VivaCell phone call was placed in Armenia, and within its first three years the company had already invested about $11 million in social/cultural/educational programs.

As a result, Yirikian has received numerous awards, including the Movses Khorenatsi Medal from the president of the Republic of Armenia and the Saint Gregory the Illuminator decoration of honor from Catholicos Karekin II.

The company’s reputation for benevolence seems also to have yielded commercial rewards. As of this year, VivaCell claims more that two million subscribers – about 80 percent of the market share, where before its appearance in Armenia, Armentel (now Beeline), had a monopoly on mobile communications. (A third provider, Orange, entered the market in 2009.)

Born and raised in Lebanon, Yirikian grew up as many Diaspora, with impressions of Armenia as the land his grandparents might have rosily remembered (and which no longer exists), but with little relevant information to prepare him for his first visit, in 2001.

He describes his first encounter as “a psychological shock”. What he found was not the idyllic “motherland”, where open arms greeted all who wished to return, but rather a place with more concern for survival than for community, in a society struggling to yet overcome 70 years of communism’s promises unfulfilled.

“All I saw was darkness, gloominess, sad people, unshaved men . . .,” Yirkian recalls. “My mind failed to interconnect with my eyes.”

But he met disappointment with optimism.

“We (Diaspora) have to be practical in the way we look at things,” Yirikian says. “In Diaspora, children are taught a certain ‘Armenian’ lifestyle, a culture, a way of thinking. All this builds up a fantasy world. Growing up in Armenian schools (abroad), not only do they teach you, they ‘vaccinate’ you (against the reality of anything unappealing about Armenia). Then when that person touches the soil of the homeland, reality is very different.”

The gap between reality and perception, however, should not be polarizing, Yirikian says. It should, rather, be part of the “blending” of both.

Yirikian says the “winning ace” in the gamble to unite Armenia and Diaspora is to “appreciate the rich mix of both, and then bring both ends together”.

In that effort, Yirikian, an outsider who has become a favored son, has established a business ethic in Armenia that takes the ideal Armenian character – loyalty, hard work and reliability – and blends those traits into the necessities of a 21st century multi-national cooperation.

In appearance and behavior, VivaCell-MTS employees are expected to be exceptions to the Armenian norm. Of 1,200 staff, only seven are Diaspora, and the average age company-wide, is 32.

VivaCell has prided itself, too, in employing disabled. Ramps for wheelchairs outside VivaCell offices are a public notice of the company’s exceptional attitude in a society where “handicapped” usually means isolation and expulsion.

In a European or Western environment, VivaCell would be just another player, performing good business practice, well-known and common to the environment. Here, however, its approach of making customer satisfaction a priority is revolutionary, in a consumer climate where customer complaint is usually met as an insult or an attempt to take advantage of the infallible product provider.

The company, also, has distinguished itself by resisting doing business “the Armenian way” – meaning taking shortcuts (bribes) through under-the-table negotiations that cut out bureaucracy, but form unhealthy relations between those who benefit from kickbacks, and those who are beholden as a result.

“If you work clean and transparently, you won’t have issues,” says Yirikian, whose company, understandably, is of such high profile as to escape the common offers to do business in the shadows. He says that those who yield to the corrupt expectations of conducting business in Armenia have no right to complain about the inevitable result of being owned by the system.

For Yirikian, however, being an exception is not a matter of doing something extraordinary.

“We simply believe in what we do,” says the 43-year old general manager, who was first a company manager at age 26, in Cyprus.

For all his social concern and patriotism, Yirkian knows his place in the world of corporate business.

“Shareholders care about one thing,” he says, “returns.” Still, he says he has been given liberty to run the company according to his own vision. Fortunately for Yirikian, the style of business he has cultivated at VivaCell has been good not only for Armenia, but also for company investors.

And, he says, life in Armenia has been good for his wife and his two children, ages 10 and six.

He calls his move to Armenia the “golden decision of my life”, saying that he values the opportunity for his children “to breathe, to read, to learn, to study, to live the Armenian experience in the homeland”.

Which is not to say that all is as “golden” as his preconceptions might have predicted.

“Expectations are not always met,” Yirikian says. “This is the way life is. If you meet your expectations from the very first day, what do you have left to do?”

This notion, he says is at the center of Diaspora impatience.

“Armenia is 19 years old,” Yirikian says. “Look 10 to 20 years from now (before making a judgment on progress). What is important is the vision in the long run. It is not enough to love your Armenian identity. You love your identity by giving your best effort (to make change).”

http://armenianow.com/special_issues/agbu_magazine/26857/ralph_yirikian_vivacellmts

[KanadaHye]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

"It is not enough to love your Armenian identity. You love your identity by giving your best effort."

[prateik]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

The lady who wrote the "Karvatchar Diary" on page 1 of this thread is truly great and visionary in her outlook. She is right when she says that peace can be secured only if the liberated territories are defended and not handed back to the enemy. May such a great lady always be happy and free from troubles.

[Federate]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

Some interesting comments by Mr. Hadjian. Bravo Kevork jan.
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Kevork Hadjian: “Art can change many things; even politics”

[ 2011/02/21 | 11:00 ] Feature Stories culture
Sona Avagyan

Armenian musician from Aynjar finds new home in Armenia

Musical director and singer Kevork Hadjian would like to change many things in Armenia.

Number one on his list is that Armenians greet one another, even complete strangers, on the street with a simple “hello” or “how are you doing?” This is the norm in the Lebanese village of Aynjar where Kevork was born. Armenians politely greet each other whether they know the person or not.

Aynjar, a village populated with Armenians who trace their roots back to Mousa Ler, is the only community where all the residents are Armenians. There are three churches and schools in the town.

“Saying hello to someone lifts their spirits. It’s considered an insult not to say hello. When the Sharakan Ensemble went to Slovenia, the locals would say hello to us while walking around. It was such a nice and sincere gesture. It puts a smile on your face,” says Kevork.

In 2005, Kevork moved to Armenia with his wife and young son. “My life is here. I have some land and a house. My wife and I have become dual citizens. You can say that I have arrived home. I should have made the move earlier, but I thank the Lord above that my dream finally came true.”

Before relocating for good to Armenia, the family visited on several occasions. Local Armenians advised him against settling here for good. His Armenian friends in Lebanon told Kevork he was taking a big risk and that Armenia hadn’t yet become the country they had read about in their history books. “Don’t look at Armenia through rose-colored glasses and don’t go”, was their advice.

Despite the warnings, Kevork packed up whatever he had back in Lebanon and made the move to Armenia. He brought about two tons of stuff – he wasn’t going back.

Problems began the first day he arrived. Kevork had a document from the Armenian ambassador in Lebanon stating that the used furniture he brought wouldn’t have to be declared and levied at customs if the owner was permanently relocating to Armenia. Kevork, however, had to pay customs duties on the goods.

Kevork says that the duties he paid went to the state budget and that he has the receipts to prove it. “That was the law back then. Now, I don’t know how it is handled. I never mentioned any of this to my friends back home. I didn’t want the news of our problems to spread and come back to bite us here in Armenia. I have come to accept my country as a young adult. What more will they demand from a 19 year-old? First and foremost, this is my country, Armenia. It is not the country itself that will provide for my wants in life. Rather, it is individuals that must satisfy those wants. One must come here and participate in life,” says Kevork.

He believes that Armenians can’t survive for much longer outside Armenia. They’ll eventually assimilate. It may take 50 or even 150 years, but in the end they’ll disappear.

“Here in Armenia, we are eternal. Of course, if we adopt a correct national politics. I feel pity for those Armenians living on foreign shores who create and waste away.” says Kevork, adding that many Armenians living in Russia, the internal diaspora, don’t speak Armenian even though they don’t live that far from Armenia.

Kevork attended the Zarehian Seminary at the Catholicosate of Cilicia and the Parsegh Ganatchian Musical College in Lebanon. He also serves as a senior deacon in the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“As a child, my first steps were taken as an altar boy in the Saint Boghos Armenian Church in Aynjar,” Kevork recollects.

In 1994, he moved to Kuwait and spent the next ten years directing both the young people’s choir at the Armenian National School and the Armenian Church Diocese’s Naregatsi coed adult choir.

After moving to Armenia, Kevork attended musical director classes at the Komitas Conservatory. He takes master classes of academic solo singing from world opera singer, Barsegh Tumanian. In 2005-2008 Mr. Hadjian attended Hovhannes Vartanian`s professional classes at the Yerevan State Komitas (Gomidas) Conservatory.

Kevork doesn’t like to brag about his achievements saying such talk would only make him lazy. “I am never fully satisfied with my work performance. If and when I feel completely satisfied, then I’ll lose my drive.”

He doesn’t even think about composing songs. Kevork is convinced that first he needs to distribute just half of what he’s already created.

Kevork has performed on the stages in various countries – Syria, Iran, Cyprus, Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada and the U.S. In 2006, He had his first solo concert in Yerevan. Later on, he staged a tour of Armenia. His repertoire consists of Armenian spiritual songs – Komitas and others.

“For me, Armenian music is first Mesrop Mashtots, Narekatsi and Komitas. A singer must perform works that on a [personal level have a spiritual affinity and that speak to the heart. In my case, I am attracted my spiritual music.”

Kevork is quick to point out that non-Armenians understand the beauty of Komitas better than the youth in Armenia today.

He recounts that at his solo concert in Canada, Zhuan Wang, the Chinese pianist accompanying him, was amazed at the musical simplicity and richness of Komitas. The same effect also took place at Kevork’s performance in Iran. There, attending Swiss and German clergy were spellbound by the music of Komitas even though they understood not a word.

“Just imagine their amazement if they had understood the words as well, the thoughts and feelings expressed through the music. It would have been magical for them.”

Kevork doesn’t like the fact that there isn’t even one TV station in Armenia that showcases Armenian art alongside normal show business fare.

“Nowadays, given that Armenian TV programming gets beamed around the world via satellite technology, Armenian kids overseas get bombarded with these Turkish rhythms and songs. The young people like this kind of stuff with a beat that goes one ear and out the other. It gets you up and dancing but leaves you empty as well.”

Kevork believes that musical directions imported from the outside can be compared to national culture like water and oil. They are both liquids but can never mix. Rather than preserving and passing down the inheritance of one’s own parents, the love of foreign things leads to inheriting that owned by one’s neighbors.

The singer is convinced that tourism to Armenia could easily double if only Armenians would showcase their true national songs to the wider world audience.

“It’s like when a person sits down to eat breakfast. They eat a bit of bread, butter, jam and cheese; a balanced meal to get the required nutrients. Today, we are presenting all the nutrients except for our Armenian, national ones. Through art, we can change a whole lot of things, even political issues, if we get serious.”

Kevork has released three CD’s in Armenia. In 2008 he released the first, entitled “Firstling Inspired by Gomidas” which includes 19 songs by Komitas with Levon Javadian`s piano accompany. The second is devoted to spiritual music. The third CD is a collection of songs from western Armenia rearranged by Daniel the Musician.

The singer has a series of concerts scheduled in the coming months in Yerevan Stepanakert and Shushi. He also plans an overseas tour.

Kevork is now working on his fourth and fifth CD’s. The next CD, also showcasing works by Komitas, will be devoted to the 25th anniversary of the St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church in Vancouver.

The 5th CD will highlight songs of the liberation struggle in western Armenia during the second half of the 19th century.

http://hetq.am/en/culture/kevork-hadjian/

[Federate]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

Birthright supports follow-on experiences in Armenia

Published: Friday July 22, 2011


Birthright Armenia alum, Mher Azezian, with his wife and son, at home in downtown Yerevan.

Yerevan - When designing the concept of Birthright Armenia from scratch in 2003, there was great excitement of starting something so new and unique, and being able to push ideas across traditional diasporan community lines. Utilizing the total freedom it had to think outside the box, Birthright Armenia gave birth to the concept of sponsorship of youth to Armenia for immersion-style professional internships and study abroad programs. It launched with aspirations to make it more commonplace for youth from all over the world to be living and working toward a common good, side-by-side with their peers in the Republic of Armenia.

Now almost eight years later, it is exciting to see how the Birthright Armenia concept is taking hold. The non-profit organization continues to expand services to larger numbers of participants, as it reaches deeper and wider into unknown pockets of Armenian communities of youth across the globe, all the while growing its existing alumni base. Most refreshing of all are the results taking shape in meaningful and impactful ways, that are actually seen and felt, propelling the organization that much closer to one of its longer-term goals, namely mental repatriation.

To date, 525 young adults in the alumni association have received Birthright Armenia sponsorship of their volunteer experience in Armenia. Eight percent of the alumni base has already made the personal choice to return to Armenia for a longer-term, follow-on experience. With professional and personal connections behind them resulting from their prior internships, 40 alums to date have made the commitment to start anew as returnees, choosing to spend that next step of their young adult lives in Armenia.

Surely there are a variety of motivational issues that come into play when making such a decision to move to Armenia. But to hear it directly from them, their true passion and belief in what they are embarking on resounds loud and clear. Most want to know how these young people are making the transition to Armenia work.

Some Birthright alums opt to continue working unpaid in their existing job placements, while others are lucky to be offered paid employment to continue on. The vast majority has found a nice niche for themselves, securing employment in their field of interest. Liliya Djaniants (USA), Nigel Sharp (UK), Nyree Abrahamian (Canada), Gregory Bandikian (USA) are fortunate examples of alumni who are currently working in their chosen sectors of architecture, IT, marketing and business respectively. Bandikian, 27, the most recent Birthright Armenia returnee, arrived in Armenia in mid-April of this year, and within one week landed a salaried job he is thoroughly enjoying. Bandikian comments, "I first came to volunteer in 2006. Ever since I moved to Armenia a couple of months ago, I can see just how fast Armenia is changing... and the important part is that it's moving in the right direction!"

Then there are those who have also married, and have started their own families or have given birth to their own projects in Armenia. Mher Azezian, Raffi Kortoshian, Cristina Manian, Jeffrey Paretchan, Gabriel Meghruni, Areg Maghakian and Nyree Abrahamian met their spouses while doing Birthright Armenia, and three are currently raising their children in Yerevan.

While a small number of the Birthright Armenia returnees are still aggressively pursuing that "right" job opportunity, they sustain themselves economically with side jobs tutoring English, other foreign languages, or other part-time employment. The thought process is that it is easier to find a job in Armenia if you are already "in" Armenia. Alum Zaruhi Avetisyan, who was a paid translator living in Moscow, has been looking for translation work. "It's not easy to start doing the same work right away, because you're a new person in the market. You have to reestablish yourself and it takes time," she says.

There is a running list of alums by the dozens, curiously and carefully looking on from afar, awaiting their own turn to make it back to Hayastan. Most importantly, they have started the thought process of balancing, reflecting and taking steps to help make their vision of living and working in Armenia a reality. Birthright Armenia staff is eager to help them in every practical way. Vrej Haroutounian sees it this way: "Birthright Armenia participants are leaders, they are the youth that took the initiative to leave their status quo, to reach out to Armenia, and to create their realities based on their own core values. Armenia, in a way, is the New Frontier, a place where people can squeeze their brows, lean shoulder to shoulder with each other, and in a few years look back with pride and say ‘We did this together'.

Birthright Armenia's mission is to strengthen ties between the homeland and diasporan youth by affording them an opportunity to be a part of Armenia's daily life and to contribute to Armenia's development through work, study and volunteer experiences, while developing a renewed sense of Armenian identity. For more information, or to make an online donation, please visit our website at www.birthrightarmenia.org.

http://www.reporter.am/index.cfm?objectid=4DA6B2D6-B43D-11E0-A1C00003FF3452C2

[Federate]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates

[Federate]

Re: Stories of Armenian repatriates