NO-SHOW ARMENIAN GROUP IRKS FLORIDA FARM OFFICIALS
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Palm Beach Post, FL
Sept 28 2005
Where in the world are the Armenians who were to spend 10 days touring
the farms of Florida?
University of Florida officials – who spent three months planning an
itinerary, reserving motel rooms, booking vans and making arrangements
for the 10-person group – want to know. They’ve contacted the federal
Department of Homeland Security after the group failed to show up
Sunday night at the Gainesville airport.
Gene McAvoy, a UF agricultural extension director, waited for several
hours at the airport for the Armenians, finally giving up close
to midnight. It was only Tuesday morning that he heard from them
via e-mail.
“What it said is they went to L.A. The tickets cost so much, they
could not afford to come to Florida,” McAvoy said.
The Armenians apologized, he said, but “it seems like a pretty lame
excuse.”
“This is America. There are cellphones,” said McAvoy, who spent the
morning Tuesday canceling the remaining hotel and other reservations
for the group.
Their stay, scheduled for Sept. 25 through Oct. 5, was to include
a statewide tour of farms and farmers’ markets, including stops in
West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce and Florida City.
Leah Yoon, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
said Tuesday she did not know whether an investigation is under way,
but said the details of the Armenians’ non-arrival in Florida sounded
“highly unusual.”
McAvoy said immigration officials at Los Angeles International Airport
would not tell him anything, and they didn’t return calls seeking
comment Tuesday.
McAvoy said he had someone call Armenia to talk to the Agro
Association, the sponsor of the group, which included Andreas Melikyan,
eight farmers and a translator.
“They said they didn’t know anything, but said they knew them and
wanted us to let them know if we found out where they were,” he said.
Melikyan, who could not be reached by phone and did not reply to an
e-mail message, visited Florida in 2001 on a similar agricultural tour.
Lisette Staal, assistant director at UF’s International Programs
office in Gainesville, did not want to discuss the episode in depth.
She did say she had heard from the group, however.
“They told me they had a flight problem, and they have canceled their
program here,” she said. “We are as puzzled as the next person.”
Southern California is home to an estimated 350,000 Armenians, the
largest Armenian community outside the Republic of Armenia itself,
according to the University of Southern California.
Varoujan Der Simonian, executive director of the Armenian Technology
Group Inc. in Fresno, Calif., which works to help Armenian farmers,
was not familiar with the Agro Association.
However, he said, travelers from Armenia to the United States must
state their destination and it must match their airline tickets.
“Something is wrong, either with the airline or the connection. Ten
people can’t just change planes,” Der Simonian said. “You can’t just
change your mind and decide to go to L.A. instead of Florida.”
Ken Gioeli, a St. Lucie County-based natural resources agent for UF,
also waited in vain at the Gainesville airport with McAvoy.
“They either ran out of money, or something happened,” Gioeli said.