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Fund for Armenian Relief
Media Release
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Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR)
Press Office
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
email: press@farusa.org
web: www.farusa.org
blog: farusa.wordpress.com
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An Armenia For Everyone: The FAR Young Professionals Trip 2009.
By Daniele Faye Sourian Sahr
Americans are a special breed. Not many other nations are comprised of countrymen regularly and openly asking one another the question, "Where is your family from, originally?" The Armenian-American is no stranger to this question and often faces a particular complexity in its answer. While the inquisitor often expects the answer to be Armenia, it is quite likely to be Turkey, Lebanon, Iran and points East. As a displaced people, sometimes even twice removed from family origins (driven from eastern Turkey into the Middle East and then eventually to the US, for example), we have to carry our culture with us, packed in the travel bag, ready to adapt wherever we can, ready to answer "My family is from country X, but I'm Armenian."
Such a level of displacement eventually breeds a level of curiosity. So what exactly, then, is this place called Armenia? Many Diaspora children grow up familiar with the places, symbols, and stories of this land. Who doesn't know the shape of snow-capped Ararat, the legendary sweetness of a never-tasted apricot, and the story of Mesrop Mashtots' magical alphabetical vision? While beautiful in imagery, without the opportunity to go and see, such symbols remain intangible, passed down through word of mouth many generations and many miles away.
Fortunately, this year, a few of those children were the right age to discover the source for themselves. Lead by Arto Vorperian, The Fund for Armenian Relief's ("FAR") Young Professionals Trip was proud to embark upon its 14th annual tour from New York City to Armenia. While the group was smaller than usual (seven to the average 20), the enthusiasm held strong with the immediate ties these young travelers created with one another. Questions buzzed quickly: Do you speak Armenian? Have you been there before? Where were you born? Why are you taking this trip? The last question seemed hardest to put into words, especially for me. But when the airplane landed at Zvartnots airport and I stared out the window to see Ararat majestically peering in at me (instead of from a painted picture!), I knew.
What I did not know was how this sense of awe was to develop. Over two weeks, FAR's program would not only expose our group to the Armenia of history books and familiar living room paintings but also to the Armenia of today and the people living in it. Through a well-choreographed tour that intertwined visits to ancient monasteries with lunches of every imaginable local barbecue (called "khorovatz") and informational gatherings at FAR project sites with meetings at Echmiadzin and the Foreign Office, we imbibed a rich feeling of being Armenian and what it meant for us to be there. Though Western cultural trappings made us look different (as a little boy on a school bus recognized, saying to his friend "Amerigatzi en"), through each experience and each interaction, the feeling of being an outsider, a tourist, fell away.
While crossing 10 regions of the country, the meaning of being a Diaspora Armenian in Armenia unfolded. Reading Armenian billboards and street signs in Yerevan left me with a sense of amazement. Visiting the Genocide memorial, grandly set overlooking the capital, made me feel understood. Meeting young music students and their teachers in Gyumri over coffee, cognac, and chocolates created friendship and camaraderie. Speaking Armenian at a FAR soup kitchen with an elderly lady, eager to show me pictures of her own Diaspora-strewn family, showed me how distinctly we can understand one another's feelings, despite our difference in age and nation. And in Tatev, amongst the lush grassy peaks surrounding the Vorotan Canyon, looking up at the priest while he firmly placed his hand on each our heads as he smiled to say a blessing made me feel safe.
Each experience, location, and person had a way of bringing to life the symbolic images we carried to Armenia with us and unfailingly introduced us to the palpable realities of daily life. While there was no question of the difficulties faced by so many in this country in need of modern infrastructure, more jobs, and greater security, there was a consistent underlying feeling of vibrancy, hope, and wide-spread intelligence that I could not help but want to be a part. From the beautiful and mature artwork by orphans at the FAR Children's Center in Yerevan to the dedication and enthusiasm of those taking care of them, something greater than even the striped-white peak of Ararat shined through. The ancient histories captured in the Khatchkars strewn field to mountain and the abandoned factories from a Soviet empire long gone seemed to connect into the present with the acts and passions alive in the people today. From the moment Mesrop Mashtots wrote his first Armenian letters until now, the strength of being Armenian, remembering what it is to be Armenian, and remaining Armenian had clearly never faltered.
Diaspora Armenian or Armenia Armenian, the two meet as an organic duo. We may never stop moving around the globe, laying down new roots, opening our travel bags to start the next community. But the more we stay connected to our stories and one another's stories, it won't matter where we are. Together, we can help each other from far or from near. We can understand one another's unique paths, unique homelands, and unique dreams. Carrying inside of us what it means to be Armenian is as important as letting others know who we are, as a people rich with a past, strong in the present, and with an eye on the future. And no matter where you were born or where your ancestors were born, it will bring you ever closer to yourself to take a little trip to a land of pomegranates, apricots, and many people ready to meet you. As the Minister of Diaspora put it to us: Don't love Armenia because it is good and beautiful, love it because it is yours.
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About FAR
Since its founding in response to the 1988 earthquake, FAR has served hundreds of thousands of people through more than 220 relief and development programs in Armenia and Karabagh. It has channeled more than $265 million in humanitarian assistance by implementing a wide range of projects including emergency relief, construction, education, medical aid, and economic development.
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For more information on FAR or to send donations, contact us at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016; telephone (212) 889-5150; fax (212) 889-4849; http://farusa.org; e-mail press@farusa.org.
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