My Armenian Rubicon

I crossed my Rubicon. Six months that I am already in Armenia. Six months that I am away from my Ukraine. Three months still to go. Three month of accomplishing what is still unfinished.

A move to Armenia for me turned out to be, not a very easy decision. With other more western and perspective options on the table, I decided to tempt myself with this post-soviet state which is more or less Russian speaking, which is situated in an interesting region, which is involved into conflicts with its neighbours and which could give to me something OTHER than Europe could at the moment. A state with a long, fascinating and sometimes sad history. I took this challenge. And I don't regret.

Everything what was happening here, had or have influence on me, and I want to recall that. Not for the past memories, but for the future steps.

Since my stay here, I managed to get in touch with a lot of interesting young people, share common and different ideas and take part in fascinating events and what is more important - broaden my knowledge and views to the extent I wasn't expecting.

Those who know me, know that I adore travelling, and I did manage to travel in the region quite a lot. I discovered a beauty of Tbilisi, which reminds me Lviv so much. I went to Azerbaijan, to face the life of this "land of fires". I travelled across Armenia, to see historic and religious sights. But more importantly that more travel is still to come. Turkey and Georgian sea-side are waiting. 

I did manage to upgrade my skills in Russian and English languages. Thanks to some circumstances I used English so often that I began to think in it. Splendid! Also Russian words infiltrated my western Ukrainian a lot, and it begun to lose it charm. To me anyway. However that is a subject to a change. One must understand that it's quite a challenge to live in a society without often hearing your precious mother tongue. 

Sunny and hot weather, hospitable people and great landscapes are other reasons for which I like my residence here.

Other things have also influenced me. Sometimes not in a good way. I faced a very specific Armenian mentality, which one could call conservative. Before coming here I did more or less not believe in all this mentality stuff, and was "for" world without prejudices. Nevertheless Armenia changed my view about this point. However this is a cultural thing, so let me leave Armenians to themself on this issue. I just decided not to get involved with such particular talks or actions, cause that is something that frustrated me sometimes.

And the biggest disappointment to me so far, were the Armenian Presidential Elections. With lots of young people crying for changes and other life, their show-up on election day was very low, with after-election talks about "we cannot change anything", "it is already decided" and "i was too lazy to go". My answer to them - "be the change you want to see".

And the biggest personal failure to this moment is that I haven't mastered the Armenian language to the level I was going to. Maybe later I will regret it, but I still have 3 months to get closer to this aim. I will have to put a lot of effort into this.

I hope that upcoming three months will continue bringing something new and special into my life.

Carpe diem.

Georgia. Armenian Community in Georgia. NY party

As part of my New Year's celebration in wonderful Georgia, a New Year's party with Armenian community was planned. My friend David, invited me there, as also provided me with a bed for two days. The party took place in the district called "Avlabari", which is known to be a former Armenian one. Near Avlabari metro station there is an Armenian church and also traders of Armenian decent can be found there. It is also on the way to Sameba (the new church of Holy Trinity) which is worth visiting for sure.

The party started at about 8 p.m., so as we arrived there I got acquinted with David's friends, who gave me a warm greeting. After some preparations were done, the celebration started with some official greetings from the priest of Armenian Church and leader of Armenian Federation. What was kinda sad, was the fact that embassador didn't show up, but instead send his assistant. I hope he had a valid reason to be absent, as I think that this community trully deserves to be prized for all the efforts they are doing and a show up of the embassador would trully be appreciated, even for a while.

The celebrations proceeded with a lot of dances which I liked; moreover I managed to almost master one. I am very proud of it. It is called Kochari. Also now I know some traditional Caucasian dancing moves, which are quite funny, but nevertheless joyfull. Also there was a lot of Armenian traditional songs performed both by organizers and members of community. 

Besides celebrating New Year, one of the aims was also to collect money for Syrian Armenians, who at the moment are facing war. The part of ticket price was devoted to this, as well some auctions were held to gather some costs.

In general lots of songs and events were perfomed, however, what I think is not a good thing, that they are held simultaneously with eating, which causes some lack of attention. But I suppose it is such a tradition here.

I would like to thank this community for great organization and fun I had, and personally my friend David for the invitation. My acquitance with Armenian culture continues...

photos by Sergo Arekelyan

Armenia. Getting to know Gyumri

Finally, after having dealt with all the obstacles, I managed to visit Gyumri - the second biggest town in Armenia.

There were several options how to get to the city. But we have chosen to go there by train (ticket price was 950 drams/almost 2 euros). The train was departing at 8 a.m., so me and David (armenian from Tbilisi) departed from our house at 7. David's friend - Sergo, was already wating for us at the station. Being a little late (little Armenian tradition ;) ) we run to be in time. Luckily - we managed to get in. We were almost alone in the waggon of this eleсtric train and also managed to get a little nap until the final destination. What was a little interesting that there were no toilets in the train. Something to keep in mind, if you travel with you liquid friends. 

The ride took us 3 hours. While arriving to the city, the train passes through a very big cemetery. When we arrived, we discovered, that it was much colder in Gyumri, then in Yerevan. So having caught the breath of winter and having some little time before the meeting with a friend, we took off exploring the city. 

What catches the eyes immediatly - is a lot of signs in Russian (unlike Yerevan, where things are mostly written in Armenian and English). Though it's easy to explain - the city hosts Russian military base, and also lots of Russian citizens reside there. Not to forget that the previous name of the city was Leninakan. Isn't that a perfect place for a true communist?! I also wondered across the city looking for signs of post-soviet rule, unfortunately, I have nothing specific to mention. Maybe those builings were ruined during the earthquake in 1988. To point out, that it was REALLY a terrible one. And Gyumri was basicly the epicentre of it. That's why I mentioned the big cemetery. The biggest church is still under the reconstruction and very few old building servived. 

The main square is quite big, with very beautiful ancient church. City hall is also cituated there. Main square is also filled with some restaraunts and cafes. And one, with the very funny to me name - "Ponchik-monchik". Also one curious eye may see a faeton galoping round the square, and which is used mainly for wedding ceremonies.

From the very beginning of our exploration we accidently bummed into interesting street-art. It looked very nice. I have no clue how many such things are in the city, but we managed to find 3 of them.

The city also appears to have several monuments. We didn't manage to find all of them. And some of them weren't signed in Russian nor English, so an interested foreigner may get upset with that fact.

There is a joke - "In Russia, state officials steal money devoted for roads, buy expensive cars instead of repairing them, and later destroy these cars at ruined roads". True story for Gyumri. Roads are awful, but one can enjoy them with quite fancy cars riding around.

The city seems quite dirty as well. If generally, it is somehow common everywhere, what surprised me that area near monuments was quite messy. But the worst situation was near The Alley of Heroes. Apparently under whole alley there is a little stream, which also serves as canalization. But on your way you can see that the road is broken. Literally a hole. That is very strange thing to understand. I am just getting acquinted with history of ARF and cannot speak about their role nowadays, but if they are called heroes, why aren't they treatead like one's? Anyway, they are the part of history. NGO sector could solve this problem. With huge amount of NGO's in Armenia and great money getting-funding experience from EU programs and other sources, they could make a little difference, instead of making another conference on smth "very important".

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Another bad fact for me was also that museums were closed on Sunday. A surprise to me, cause I really wanted to visit some museums.

Generally, I don't have ultimate expectations to anything. Because I believe that even a tiny thing could make a major difference. In Gyumri, I did experienced that, so I liked the city. Also a huge factor is the company you are with. My company was awesome. Even darkest cell could become fun, when you are surrounded by people who's presence you enjoy. Big thanks to David, Sergo and Tamara for the company, history lessons and geography of Georgia and Armenia (especially the city names). 

In very near future, I will visit the city once more.

all photos by Sergo Arakelyan
collage by me

Armenia. "Trip" to nuclear station

One of the evening was turning to be a boring one, so me and my friends decided to go out. Initially we wanted to go to the city, but then David (Armenian from Georgia) said "let's go to the nuclear station". Idea was sold fast and good.

So approxamitely at 5 p.m. we (me, Kostia (Ukrainian), David and Gio(my Georgian roommate)) left the house and headed to the bus station in order to go to Metsamor (name of the city near station). Bus trip took us approxamitely 1 hour.

When we arrived the city was already in a very sleepy mood and quite dark and the inhabitants were already settling for a sleep after a hard day.

Meanwhile four strangers to these places were seeking a road to the station. Some people in the street were quite surprised to our questions, but later were showing us the direction. Having finally found the road, we took a fast tempo and went.

It turned really dark and what was left was darkness, some red lights far away and our fears. Why fears? During the road we had some "funny" suggestions that we would be attacked by some monster-dogs fed on the nuclear waste. If talking serious stuff - the thing was that we didn't had any documents with us, and had two knifes. What is more funnier, I also discovered that I had a badge of Baku in my bag (it was a gift from a participant of the seminar in Odessa). Taking into the consideration the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, one can imagine what would be reaction of the guards if they decided to search us...

During our walking two cars came by. We tried to stop them in order to get some tips. But you know - one doesn't stop in the middle of the field, on the road to nuclear station to answer the question of four guys. 

Luckily, the third one was a police patrole car. Why luckily? Cause they agreed to take to the station. Moreover, if not for them, we would spent our night in jail. Cause, as we were explained, it's now allowed to walk to that post and take pictures or videotape. That is because it is the object number one of state importance. Why jail? See the apart with no passports above. Quite legitimate to me.  After some talking with police officers they took us to the nearest bus station, from which we headed home.

To conclude, out trip failed to achieve the main goal, to see the station from very close distance, but in return we got an interesting adventure. Swap approved. Another try to achieve the aim - pending...

Armenia. Ukrainian Diaspora

On 18th of November I had a pleasure to be invited to a meeting with Ukrainian Youth Community "Unist". Two of my friends, one from Holland and one from Poland (EVS volunteers from APY) are doing some photo shooting, so I decided to come with them. 

Mo, Bartek, Meri and me

The road to the place, where the meeting had to be held, was quite an exiting one, cause I was told to come to Main Post office, which turned out to be the new main post office, but the meeting was at another place - soviet post office - a big 16th floor building. Nevertheless, I just managed to learn more places on my way, so I have nothing to complain about.

Finally managed to reach the meeting, I got acquinted with the organizator of the meeting. Her name is Mari, and her grandmother comes from Zaporizhia. She is also the president of this youth organization. After chatting a little bit with her, we were waiting for the performances to start. By the way, meeting was called "Osin zbyrae druziv"(Autumn gathers friends) and was planned as a concert, as well as ceremony to award winners of the photo competition "Under the sky of Armenia".

Girls performing song "Ukraine, Ukraine"

The presenter started with a beautful poem by Sosyura "Love Ukraine". She also said that part of the programm will be in Russian in order for others (Greek community and some Armenian guests) to understand it. However still almost whole programm was in Ukrainian. I have to admit that the reality of Ukrainian diaspora in Post Soviet states has to strongly cooperate with russian speaking society. As Mari also told me, their meeting are conducted in Russian because a lot of ancestors, members and those who are interested in Ukrainian culture - simply doesn't know Ukrainian. But very soon this community will start Ukrainian Lessons Classes.

The programm advanced with poem by Kostenko. Later there was a passionate song from  Greek participant. later two girls performed song "Ukraine, Ukraine". I liked their voices and the way they performed (and even with some technical problems they managed to keep their head).

Participants of the concert

The concert was also made in cooperation with Greece society, which was actually easy to explain - minority societies have to cooperate strongly with each other. And I think it was a good choice, both sides had a lot of fun. As I was also told, Greek community is the most active one. They have quite charismatic persons within their members. And I really enjoyed their dances. There was also some classic music played by Armenians on guitar and fluite. 

Ms. Romaniya, the head of Ukrainian Federation, actually raised a question of low attendance, and she was completely right, but considering the fact that the organization is quite new, but at the same time very passionate and has desire to work, I think they have the capability to work successfully.

I was very pleased to listen to Ukrainian songs, see Ukrainian dances and just to chat a little on my native language.I know that this is not my last attendance of such evenings, and I will do anything in my power to help of the development of the organization.

Armenia. Yerevan Zoo

While spending some time in another city which I visit, besides of football stadiums(which is my passion), I also try to go to the zoo. Yerevan Zoo wasn't an exception as well. 

I understand the view of those who say that zoos are bad because animals are kept in cages which restricts their freedom. Hard not to agree with that. However, the counterargument I always use is the fact, that for some animals, zoo is a only way to survive, because otherwise they would either be killed by poachers or deprived from their areas and environment by specific activities of people. In addition, the zoo is a chance for people who have limited resources to actually see the animals. For example biologists and zoologists. Not to mention the joy of children, who see the heroes of their favourite cartoons and books.

At first glance, the zoo is quite good, the entrance is decorated with figures of animals, which are created from plastic bottles. Quite original style (overall I must say that there are a lot of such compositions in the city that is made from recycled tires, bottles, etc.). Also which immediately caught my eyes on the lawn was freely walking ... pheasants. Impressive view.

However, as I proceeded further to the middle of the zoo, the sadder it become. Dirty and dark cells, hungry and poor animals. In addition, I saw some rats running around! Emotions are just "wooow". I caught a glance of hate in the eyes of a tiger. Actually cencere abhorrence rather than look at the victim.

Also, the behaviour of some Armenians towards the animals impressed me negatively. Some of them were knocking on cages of poor animals, thus behaving, sorry for the word, worse than animals.

Structure (the planning) of the zoo is not also good. Everything is situated very chaotic, and in order to get to one of the departments, one needs to come back and return. I had the opportunity to visit the Berlin Zoo. And that to me is just now a standard. So while visiting other zoos, I try to comparise them with this ideal.

Selection of animal species is quite big, but it actually only means that more animals suffer. I understand that Armenia is not a very developed country with relatively limited resources, however, if one want to change something, they should start with small things. My favourite quote is "Think global, act local". At the same time, almost all  people ride expensive foreign cars, and almost every family has a car (but that's another story). There are also a lot (really a lot) of organizations which could make the difference. 

Luckily, I was there with my friends, so despite general sad situation we had some good time there.

To summarize, my emotions were very contrasting.

Also, according to Wikipedia,- in April 2011, "New capabilities will be created for animals, so that they will  feel they are not in the cage, but in their natural habitat. The territory assigned to each animal will be increased." I hope it's not just words, and some actions will really be taken. I will visit zoo again in the spring to see whether some changes are made.

Official site of the zoo:

http://www.yerevanzoo.am/