LANGUAGE KEEPS MINORITIES UNITED
By Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter

Gulf News
Dec 14 2007
United Arab Emirates

Dubai: "I’m Iraqi, Armenian Iraqi," says Gulizar Jonian, an architect
in Abu Dhabi who also heads a weekly Armenian school there. "I am
attached to Iraq. The Iraqis treated my grandparents very well when
they moved there from Turkey, but Canada has also been very hospitable
to me," said the Iraqi-Canadian citizen.

"What unites Armenian minorities around the world is the Armenian
Apostolic Church, and the Armenian genocide," she said, referring
to the mass killing of Armenians in First World War. "We remember
the dates and stories very well. They have been passed on through
the generations."

Although Jonian’s family adopted the Iraqi identity and learned the
Arabic language, her parents and grandparents found it important
to instill the family’s Armenian identity in her. "If you loose
the language, you loose a whole generation. It’s important to keep
the torch lit." Similarly, Jonian finds it important to teach her
own children their language, as well as the children of many other
Armenians living in Abu Dhabi as principal of the Armenian school.

Since it was difficult to travel to Armenia during the Soviet era,
Jonian says independence for the state in 1991 was a breath of fresh
air for those who wanted to visit their ancestral homeland. "Soviet
stamps on our passports could cause trouble before. But that’s not
the case any more. I love Armenia. We often go there on holiday."