ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA ORGANIZES VISIT OF DIASPORAN ARMENIAN REGULAR STUDENT GROUP TO ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
July 24, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 24, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. In 1988 the Armenian
Assembly of America, which is one of the biggest NGOs of American
Armenians, came up with an initiative of sending American Armenian
students to Armenia.

The first students came to Armenia by that project called Summer
Student Program in 1989. From 8 to 10 students usually come to Armenia
every year.

AAA assumes part of program’s financing and the other expenses are
covered by students. Students spend 2 months in Armenia and can live
with their relatives or stay at any Armenian family chosen by AAA or
can rent an apartment.

A group consisting of 8 students also came in 2009. "Students come not
for changing Armenia but for Armenia to change them," Arpi Vardanian,
the Director of AAA Armenian and NKR Offices, said. In her time she
was among the persons preparing this program.

Students – members of the group work 5 days a week and over the
weekends see Armenia’s sights, organize meetings with officials,
celebrities. According to Mrs Vardanian implementing the program,
they try to choose as interesting job for students as possible: they
often work at two places and spend their leisure as they like. Besides
office work, students as volunteers assist NGOs functioning in Armenian
villages. As most of the students do not know Armenian or speak Western
Armenian, they also attend Armenian language courses. Mrs Vardanian
said while presenting the goals of implementing the program: "Students
come to Armenia to be able to get acquainted with themselves better,
to know who they are as persons, to imagine and understand what is
Armenia, what challenges this country faces, how the Armenians live,
what problems they have. I do not want them to continue living by
only hearing others’ opinion of Armenia. Besides, coming to Armenia
they change, grow mature, become more independent. That work is very
important for them to understand that Armenia has grown very much but
in many things differs and even lags behind other countries: there can
be a problem of lack of equipment necessary for work, a problem with
computers or the electricity can be cut off. Students come here and
begin to understand how difficult it is to work under the conditions
and to succeed. Therefore any little success should be encouraged,"
Arpi Vardanian said.

Sofi Mnjoyan is among the participants of this year’s
summer program. She learnt of this program from last year’s
participants. "Formerly I came to Armenia as a tourist for a week
or two but I wanted to somehow improve country’s condition, to
work here, to find out whether I can get accustomed to life here,
to see not "tourist" but real life." Sofi plans to return to Armenia
after finishing her studies, in 4-5 years and to work here. She is
a pharmacist by speciality. She works here at AAA Yerevan Office and
drugstore, both voluntarily. As Sofi was born and for some time lived
in Armenia, she was more or less acquainted with the country. And
what about the others? Sofi says that the other members of the group
"were not disappointed very much." And adds: "They expected less from
Armenia, they expected to see that there is no water, no electricity:
they found Armenia in a better condition than had expected. Yerevan is
rather europeanized, especially the center. They were only disappointed
with the relations between a woman and a man. We speak much that women
and men are not in an equal condition in Armenia, no woman sits on the
front seat of a mircobus or taxi, coffee should be made by a woman
without fail, washing up the plates is also only woman’s business:
they are not used to such things in the U.S.

We also did not like the fact of deceiving us in shops or on the
market: from the manner of speaking or clothes they understand that
we are foreigners and try to sell to us for 3000 drams foodstuffs
costing 300 drams. As to the rest things, we are content with them,"
Sofi Mnjoyan said.

Students try to see Armenia with new eyes. They like the fact that
there are many department stores and in this respect Armenia is like
America and European countries. They like it that education quality is
higher here: even people having no higher education have idea about
everything: "People in America are not interested in such things:
few know where is Armenia, there are even people who don’t know the
place of such big states as India," Sofi says.

Commenting upon some American Armenians’ opinion that Armenia is not
a place to live she said that in some issues, certainly, it does not
correspond to American standards, but not all American Armenians are
of this opinion. Sofi herself knows many American Armenians, who have
left their comfortable life in America and have moved here. However,
in this case she attaches importance to other problems: "When we met
the Deputy Mayor, we asked him whether Armenia is ready to receive
Diasporan Armenians. It is known that there are many people here who
graduate from a university but fail to find a job. He answered that
now Armenia is really not ready for Diasporan Armenians’ return: it
will take 5 or 6 years for the situation in Armenia to be improved,
to be more or less brought closer to American or European standards. It
is also important whether a person can get accustomed to the conditions
here when you even do not know if the law will protect you or not."

"If people are ready to accept Armenia the way it is without trying
to artificially find a similarity between it and U.S. or European
countries, they can come here," Arpi Vardanian expressed her opinion
over this subject at the end.