COME HOME PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS MEET WORLD BOXING CHAMPIONS OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN, VISIT PARAJANOV’S AND HOVHANNES TOUMANIAN’S HOUSE-MUSEUM

Noyan Tapan
July 29, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 28, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The July 28 agenda of
the Come Home program was very busy and full of many surprises. There
was an unusual activity at Yerevan School 168 after Vazgen I. World
boxing champions Vakhtang Darchinian and Susi Kentikian waited for
the Diasporan Armenian young people after the regular course on the
Study of Native Land subject held for participants of the Come Home
program. RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobian invited them to go
to school with her.

The school administration organized a special reception: the guests
were accompanied to the school hall with the traditional Armenian
hospitality.

The hall was completely full of not only Diasporan Armenian young
people but also of many guests. The guests were greeted by school
Director Sona Galstian who expressed her gratitude to the RA Minister
of Diaspora and Armenian champions on the occasion of visiting the
school. Then the school pupils presented nice dancing and reciting
performances.

The RA Minister of Diaspora warmly greeted the Diasporan Armenian boys
and girls and wished them always to have victories in their life like
Susi and Vakhtang. She emphasized that the champions of the Armenian
origin reached those succeses setting themselves an object, owing to
their everyday hard work. The Minister called on that every Armenian,
like Vakhtang, keep the honour of the Armenian flag high, devotes
himself to the Armenian, Armenians and Armenia. Then Hranush Hakobian
handed diplomas of the Ministry of Diaspora to Vakhtang Darchinian
and Susi Kentikian for assisting development of the Armenia-Diaspora
cooperation, keeping high the rating of the Armenian sport and an
Armenian on the international scene.

The young people from Armenian and Diasporan Armenians who were
present at the hall addressed the questions they were interested
in to the champions of the Armenian origin. If the questions given
to Vakhtang related to his sporting career and future programs,
questions given to Susi were of more private character. Susi,
particularly, mentioned that she started going in for boxing when
she was 12. She also confessed that she is not going to marry yet. At
the request of the trainer of the boxing group functioning at School
168, Vakhtang told beginner boxers his formula of reaching succes:
"Victory is possible only owing to hard work."

According to hayernaysor.am, on the same day there was a surprise
for the Diasporan Armenians at the African Pandok (inn) as well. The
tiredness from the hot summer of Yerevan was immediately forgotten when
the nice cake decorated with flaming candles was brought in: it was
the 17th birthday of Aylin Traiean arrived from Egypt, on the occasion
of what the friends from the Come Home program prepared that surprise.

The second half of the day was cultural. Sergei Parajanov’s
house-museum where the boys and girls got acquainted with the
great artist’s life and activity, closely saw the canvases and
original collages created by him, was too impressive for the program
participants. By the way, Armenian young people arrived from Georgia
and Ukraine were well informed about the great artist’s work as Sergei
Parajanov lived and created in those countries for a long time.

The other cultural hearth visited by the Come Home 2009 participants
was Hovhannes Toumanian’s house-museum where they walked through the
halls accompanied by the museum employees, got acquainted with the
daily rutine and life details of "His Holiness Armenian Poet." The box
decorated with sculptures fixed on the wall of one of the rooms where
the great writer’s heart was kept during long years was especially
impressive.

This was the July 28 agenda of the Come Home program full of sporting
victories and feelings of the beauty.