My last few hours in Armenia: and a more positive post

Nine hours from now I should be sitting in the Air France lounge, waiting for my flight back to Ottawa via Toronto and Paris: three planes, 22 hours. My Paris layover is thankfully brief, but regrettably, I have a 5 hour layover in Toronto, Air France having altered my original 2 hour-long layover... no issues, it's all part of travel. I'm one of the few Canadians these days who took the risk to travel, knowing full-well that stricter restrictions could be on the way. Fine, I didn't come here to sit on a beach, I came to offer a hand if I could to a country (my country?) in difficulty, at a time that was propitious for me: it was a month of my life. I have no regrets.

My 2 weeks in Yeghegnadzor were great: educational, interesting, useful. It took a while to break the ice, but I met some wonderful people and have amazing memories, I felt like I was among friends. Composed mostly of a hard-working group of young university graduates (economics grads mostly), a Bishop with an eye to economic development and fostering bright minds, and other individuals keeping the whole thing afloat: the whole thing is held together somehow, and it works. Vayots Dzor is a relatively low income province/մարզ, but a bourgeoning tourism industry helped improved things somewhat, and could do so again, post-covid. The people I met were salt of the earth, decent people, on-the-side farmers many of them, apart from the two or three other jobs most needed to engage in to earn a living wage. They were interesting and educational meetings, all of them.

I have been tougher regarding my 2 week stint in Yerevan in my blog posts. Not because it is not an amazing, interesting, art-infused, vibrant city, but rather because I felt personally unwell with my wealth here, considering the state of the rest of the country as a whole (or even, 3 km in any direction outside of central Yerevan). As anyone who has been to Armenia knows, the country is small enough to enjoy the cosmopolitain life on offer in Yerevan, and since nearly everywhere else in the country is a day trip away, people could stay here mostly, with possibly a few overnight stays elsewhere (longer if going to Artsakh, which is still possible but I didn't indulge), and see the amazing landscape on offer in most of the country within a few short weeks.

But also, I have been tougher on Yerevan because I did not come here as a tourist, to vaunt the praises of the country: I came here to offer a bit of humanitarian aid and to work, and Yerevan made me relax too much. It is easy to relax here. In the midst of a near complete lockdown in Canada, the cafés, bars and restaurants here are open and bustling, as they were several months ago back home, and I will admit that I appreciated the opportunity to be out and about, enjoying great food at affordable (for me) rates (I am currently sitting in a pub near the Cascades called Eden). Which, after working hard in Yeghegnadzor, was kind of welcome: but I felt like my time in Armenia was limited, and I wanted to make the most of it.

Not that I didn't: given my goal of meeting people in Yerevan with whom to connect, to network, to consider how I (and others) could help from back home if at all possible, I met a great number of people in Yerevan and enjoyed or learned a lot from many of those meetings. I met old friends and made new friends, or acquaintances at least; I was offered a lot of information about the country; I heard opinions that were diametrically opposed, and everywhere in between, with no two that were too similar. I now have a few people I will or can contact and possibly offer assistance from Canada, and I established what I am sure are lasting ties. I experienced some personal issues with loneliness, but that's only because whenever I was not constantly busy, I was basically on my own.

Of the people I knew and met here, there were Hourig Attarian and her mom, Vartkes Melkonian and Anahit Armenakyan (both unexpectedly), my former classmate and dance troupe member Raffi Niziblian and his wife, activist Lara Aharonian, another former dance troupe member (and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the French University) Garine Hovsepian, the guy who got me and my good friend Shant Manoukian in the Army and soon after moved here, Jirair Poladian, my fellow Ottawans of yore, journalist Raffi Elliott and Transparent Armenia founder Haik Kazarian, Artsakh Strong founder Raffi Keuhnelian, and the former Canadian Ambassador Armen Yeganian (did I forget anyone?) A completely unforeseen adventure, one of several I have had since here, was unexpectedly participating in a meeting today for future collaboration on a project with the newly established office of the Zoryan Institute in Yerevan, an organization I value very highly. (And through which, btw, I met my wife...)

I met so many new people working here: those born and raised in Armenia, such as the staff at Syunik NGO and other individuals from Yeghegnadzor, filmmaker Jivan Avetisyan (with whom I will collaborate in the future on a TV series project on the life and times of the first female Armenian diplomat, Diana Abgar), Head of the Department of Comparative Genocide Studies at the Genocide Museum Institute Suren Manukyan, singer, voice instructor and volunteer worker extraordinaire Luciné Azaryan, and MP Hamo Danielyan. I also met so many transplanted here, such as Nareg Kirakinian from Mission East, AUA Dean Sharistan Melkonian, and Chief of staff of the Diasporan High Commission Sara Anjargolian. A truly unexpected pleasure was meeting Syunik NGO consultant Tilo Krausse, a transplanted East German who has lived here for 6 years and gave me a particular, non-traditional viewpoint of the country, and who also twice took me on soul-searching tours of parts of the country. Among so many others.

What people need here isn't charity, or money thrown at their problems, any more (if you'll allow this comparison) than many Indigenous communities in Canada do: they need infrastructure, ideas, business investment, interested aid. They do not need opinions based on ignorance. Overall I would say they could use support, and maybe some gentle swaying or convincing at times; but not, in my humble opinion, aid or money proffered with too many strings attached, nor with a gun to their heads. The Diaspora is an incredible resource: we have so much to offer. If even a small percentage of Diasporans would offer a few hours of their time every week in some way: to foster ties, to offer expertise... they would do more than millions of aid dollars. Which doesn't hurt: but, as experience shows, such aid should not be a way for Diasporans to absolve themselves of guilt, via money sent here to "feel better" about Armenia's ills. There should be follow up. There should be interest in human capital. Armenia may lose a huge proportion of people, especially the youth, in the coming years: this is normal, these people need to work, they need to earn a living. What is needed is a reason for people to want to come back here. There should be real objectives offered. Telling Armenians not to depopulate the nation, often for nationalistic reasons, is ridiculous and uninformed. It won't work. If interested Armenians aren't willing to move here, vote here, pay taxes here, or even follow the social and political life here, they may want to restrict their complaints about the country. There is incredible potential here if we work towards a common goal. Or even differing goals: but with an eye to Armenian's future being brighter than it is now.

I am not telling anyone reading this blog what to do, but I am suggesting that they may want to get in touch with me, personally, if they are interested and want ideas on how they could offer more tangible help to this country. I don't claim to know exactly what to do, but I have established ties with people who might. Unlike so many here, who are in shock after the war, seeing enemies left and right, seeing Turks and Azeris attacking them, with a lack of interest from most of the world (what else is new), and Russia's (or Vladimir Putin's) national self-interest in establishing geo-political control over the region, with covid only making things worse... nevertheless, I personally think Armenia is going to have a boom year, and for years to come. Truly. This country may have hit rock bottom, in a sense, but (barring another war), things are potentially bright for the future. What can be done here? Lots! From the little I saw here, any interested Armenian person living in the Diaspora, or for that matter, practically any Westerner, can potentially do much with little to improve the lot of the average Armenian.

I am going to reflect on this a bit more in the coming weeks (I will surely have time while quarantined) and try to offer more tangible suggestions, if I can, in a future post.

Huge thanks to all who read or were interested in this blog and my trip: checking to see how many people viewed my posts and your comments encouraged me to write as often as I could.

Some pictures for today: