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BY ALLEN YEKIKAN
HOLLYWOOD–With its majestic architecture and
storied past, the city of Gyumri is a living museum to Armenia’s
greatest catastrophe following the Genocide. The devastating
earthquake in 1988 killed some 20 thousand and nearly leveled
Armenia’s second largest city. Yet, the people of Gyumri are an
inspiring example of how Armenians have the unique ability to
look beyond disaster and despair, to come together, regroup, and
work toward a better and brighter future.
Although Gyumri’s pre-Soviet structures still
stand, many parts of the city still remain in ruin. It’s hard
not to feel the pain this city has endured when walking through
its dilapidated streets. Little economic development has
occurred here since the earthquake, and Gyumri’s people continue
to struggle to survive. They live much more modest lives than
their counterparts in Yerevan and lack many of the amenities
capital city residents have enjoyed during the last few years.
Employment opportunities in Gyumri are limited and sometimes the
prospects for change seem bleak. Only recently has the Armenian
government become serious about rebuilding what was once the
industrial center of the Caucasus.
Despite the adversities they face, the people
of this storied town posses an uncanny sense of humor. They turn
despair into laughter and sorrow into cheer. This becomes all
the more apparent when looking at its energetic youth. Their
future may seem gloomy and their material possessions may be as
meager as the third-hand clothes they wear, but these children
and teens find joy and excitement in the most modest of things.
This summer nine young diasporans from
California traveled to Gyumri to set up a day-camp for the
city’s youth—to live among them, share in their experiences, and
make a small but positive impact on their lives. They were not
surprised that dozens of boys and girls flocked to the camp,
excited that Armenians from abroad had come to their hometown to
spend the summer with them.
Youth Corps counselors and campers
take a picture at Gyumri's ARF center
A mission for the youth
Youth Corps began in 1994 as AYF’s response
to the desperate needs to rebuild war-torn villages in Artsakh.
The program sent groups of young Armenians from the Diaspora to
the Homeland every summer to help in reconstruction efforts
throughout the region. In 2008, the program changed its focus
from rebuilding shattered buildings to reviving broken spirits.
Gyumri was therefore chosen as the pilot
location for what is becoming an entirely new archetype for
Diaspora-Homeland relations.
“It’s easy to blindly send money, but the
impact and real value in rebuilding our people’s confidence in
the Armenian nation is priceless,” explains Sose Thomassian, the
Director of the Youth Corps program. “The Youth Corps camp has
given us an opportunity to interact with the children and youth
of Gyumri, to build bonds with them, to teach them and learn
from them, and show them that people outside Armenia have a
vested interest in their future.”
Fifteen-year-old Arax Manoukian was among the
150 children who attended the camp this summer. Seeing
first-hand how much her Diasporan brothers and sisters really
care about her existence and future was inspiring, she says,
describing her feeling about the group in her winning entry in
the camp’s essay competition.
“The Youth Corps group is really inspiring
the kids here,” says Arax. “Their love of nation is motivating
because they show us how supreme the fatherland is for them,
even from thousands of miles away.”
That love of nation, and the invisible bond
connecting young Armenians in the United States with their peers
in the Homeland is evident in the effort Youth Corps volunteers
make year-round to make their projects in Armenia a reality.
AYF members worked tirelessly, year-round, to
raise the money needed to execute their visions for the Youth
Corps program. Their work enabled them to connect Armenians
regardless of distance, borders, and financial obstacles.
“Fundraising for the program began early in
the year,” explains Sose. “AYF chapters worked with the Youth
Corps committee to organize events in their communities, and
they raised money for the program. Chapters worked with the
Youth Corps committee to sell merchandise. They organized car
washes, breakfasts, dinners, and bowling nights.”
Alongside the fundraising was a thorough
effort to plan the camp’s day-to-day activities. Camp Gyumri’s
curriculum, schedule, and mode of operation were adapted from
the program used by AYF Camp Big Pines for the past 32 years.
The schedule consisted of morning exercises, breakfast, English
lessons, song and dance practice, Karate lessons, lunch, art &
crafts, and group activities.
Touching down in Armenia
After months of hard work and preparation
Serop Chalian, Levon Abrahamian, Berj Parseghian, Kevork Babayan,
Kevork Kebabjian, Sanan Haroun, Arianna Deleon, and Nora Injeyan
arrived at Yerevan’s Zvartnotz airport on July 11 to begin their
mission in the Homeland. They were joined in Yerevan by Manuk
Gerbinyan, a local AYF member who volunteered to work with the
group during their stay in Gyumri. A few weeks later, an anxious
and jet-lagged Alex DerAlexanian landed in Yerevan, hopped on
the first bus to Gyumri and also joined the group.
In the days leading up to the flight, Asbarez
Newspaper established a blog page for Youth Corps to let the
participants chronicle their adventure and share it with the
community back home. It was through this blog that Youth Corps
volunteers shared their experience of being in Armenia, many for
the first time.
“As we arrived to Zvartnots it hit me like a
bag of bricks,” says Levon Abrahamian. “I was in my Motherland
for the first time. The only thing I wanted to do at this point
was step out of the plane and say ‘Parev’ to everyone that I
saw. I didn’t know what to expect of Armenia once I got there,
but I had a feeling this would all be worth it.”
The group spent its first week in Armenia
touring the sites they had read about growing up.
“We wanted to experience it all,” says Levon.
“From the hectic trek across Yerevan’s streets to find a 24 hour
grocery store, to the exalting feeling of standing at the foot
of the Sardarabad monument.”
Along the tour through Armenia, the group
made stops at the National History Museum, where the 4000-year
history of the Armenian people resides. A visit to the Holy Sea
of Echmiadzin left the group breathless. The volunteer were in
awe at the vast sea of Armenians gathered from across the world
at the soul of Armenian Christianity.
“The designs and details and size of each of
the buildings are truly unbelievable, especially after you find
out that the churches were built around 600 AD,” says Serop
Chalian, vividly recalling the red and blue colors and unique
imagery of the religious icons. “I know I might sound generic
when I use words like ‘amazing’ and ‘unbelievable’ but it’s
impossible to find words in any language that can describe the
places we’ve seen. They really are places that you need to see
for yourself.”
At Yerablur – the final resting place of
Armenia’s heroes – Serop laid flowers for fallen soldiers who
had died for home and country. The cemetery is nestled a top one
of three hills located immediately outside Yerevan. With its
name meaning three mountains, Yerablur is a shrine for family,
friends and strangers, who make regular pilgrimages to remember
and pay their respects for men and women who put their lives on
the line to fight for freedom and justice.
“You walk around and you read each
tombstone,” Serop says. “Some names you recognize from songs and
stories, and some you don’t recognize. Some died when they were
only 19-years-old. But, you realize that each made the ultimate
sacrifice for our people.”
The weight of that sacrifice was all the more
amplified for the group as they trekked across the mountains of
Artsakh and visited the proud city of Shushi. The fog shrouding
the fortress city – once the cradle of Armenian culture in this
isolated region – was a breathtaking sight for most who had only
seen this ancient place through photographs.”Be it a statue, a
symbol, or a grave, nearly every corner of this mountainous
republic serves as a testament to the soldiers who fell while
fighting for freedom,” says Berj Parseghian. He is at an
internet cafe in Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert, ready to
update his blog and write about his many encounters during the
trip.
Here, amid the lush forests of Artsakh, Youth
Corps volunteers spoke with locals and witnessed first-hand the
limitless strength of the Armenian people, their determination
to struggle against the odds, and their embrace of life and
freedom.
After the volunteers’ visit to Stepanakert,
the group began its journey to Gyumri to start a project that
many in group say has changed their lives forever.
Camp Gyumri
“Imagine your summer filled with
breath-taking landscape, food that entices your senses,
monumental structures, endless laughter, meeting locals that
will offer everything in their household to you, and taking on
the responsibility of being a mentor to a group of children
thousands of miles away,” says Sanan Haroun, describing her
first few days in Gyumri. “Reality transcends imagination when
you find yourself in Gyumri.”
Camp Gyumri opened its doors on July 22 at
10:30 AM. By 11:00 AM, the the run-down Armenian Relief Society
(ARS) center used for the camp site had been flooded with more
than 80 kids. “They were overwhelmed with excitement,” says
Sanan, recalling how the campers couldn’t sit still in their
seats. “The smiles on their faces and eagerness to start the
camp session was absolutely priceless.”
The first few days of camp were difficult for
the group. Though most had served as counselors at AYF Camp,
nothing could have prepared them for the kids of Gyumri. The
campers were unrestrained and full of limitless energy.
“The kids in Gyumri are like AYF Camp kids,
but on steroids,” says Alex DerAlexanian. “They are constantly
moving at 100-miles-an-hour, and they have no brakes or any
intention of slowing down. However, they are the most humble and
the sweetest kids I have ever worked with. They joke with us,
they pick us flowers, and they never complain.”
Alex, who participated in Youth Corps through
the Birthright Armenia Program, landed in Armenia a few days
after the camp began its operations. He says recuperation from
jet lag would’ve been a waste of time, so he set out to
immediately experience Armenia.
“It took us all a few days to get the hang of
the whole thing,” recalls Kevork Babayan. It’s past midnight,
and he hovers over an authentic wooden backgammon board at the
Youth Corps house. In this moment of meditation and reflection,
he says, “the hardest part of it all was coming up with daily
agendas and work for the kids. But we eventually grew into our
jobs, and it became sort of natural.”
The next morning Kevork holds up flash cards
of images for the children to identify during English class,
while Sanan Haroun and Nora Injeyan write down the words on a
giant piece of paper for the kids to copy down in their
notebooks.
“We check their notebooks at the end of every
class, and whoever has it all right gets a sticker. They really
loved this,” says Sanan. “We have review sessions at the
beginning of every day and have a quiz mid week on the words
they have learned.”
In a white-walled classroom furnished with
school desks, the campers looked toward the future, working on
essays about the Homeland. The essays will be entered in a
composition competition at the end of the session.
The campers also help design the logo for
next year’s camp t-shirt during arts and crafts. Between these
activities, campers spend half-an-hour every day learning Karate
with Berj, who holds a third degree black-belt. Berj says his
goal for the trip was to instill discipline into the kids.
Youth Corps
Volunteer Berg Parseghian teaches karatee to his eager
students.
Donning their white AYF camp t-shirts, the
eager students form lines in the center’s courtyard. Behind them
is the picturesque ravine with an ancient church on the other
side. In the patio, the campers stand firm in a defensive
position taught to by their sensei. They wait for Berj to shout
commands, orders, and names of moves they should perform during
their martial arts lessons.
“Everyone needs to know how to defend
themselves, so they don’t get taken advantage of or hurt,”
explains Hovo, a 10-year-old camper. Hovo says Karate lessons
were his favorite activity and that “those people who know how
to defend themselves need to take care of the weak, who don’t.”
“You could really see how much they loved the
Karate lessons,” says Berj. “It’s as if they have a natural
inclination for learning how to defend. Maybe this comes natural
to Armenians.”
To keep the campers organized and involved,
they were divided into tri-color groups–red, blue, and
orange–with each group working together to prepare for a final
song competition at the close of each of the two sessions.
The blue team twice took first place in the
song competition with enthusiastic performances that
incorporated music and fast-paced dance compilations, explains
Kevork Kebabjian. The groups also squared-off every day
competing in short quizbowls on Armenian history and trivia.
After jumping up with joy for answering the
winning question for the blue team in a quizbowl competition,
14-year-old Rouben Abrahamian darts toward Kevork, his group
leader, and thanks him. “I would be sitting at home, bored, and
doing nothing if it weren’t for you,” Rouben says. But because
of camp, Rouben was able to learn new things, meet new friends,
and spend his time “in a much more enjoyable way than at home.”
“Our schools don’t teach us the things they
teach us here,” Rouben explains. “They don’t go deep into
Armenian history, about the Fedayees or their victories and
struggles. But here, we have fun learning about our heroes and
their stories inspire us and make us proud.”
Early on, it was apparent to the entire group
that these kids never experienced a summer like this before.
“Every game, every song, every activity we
do, the kids genuinely enjoy,” says Serop. “Seeing their looks
of amazement when they watch Sensei Berj do some karate moves
and the giant smiles on their faces when they do the chicken
dance during morning exercises are all we need to let us know
that the kids are loving the camp.”
The beneficiaries of this summer of fun,
however, weren’t just the kids of Gyumri. On any given evening,
one would find the Youth Corps crew reminiscing about memorable
moments throughout the day as they walked down Gyumri’s
brick-laden streets to their home-away-from-home in the Turki
Mayla neighborhood.
“I have been a counselor at AYF Camp for
quite some time now, but it is different here,” says Sanan. “It
is very hard to explain with words, but there is this
self-satisfaction you feel here. Because you realize that you
are truly making a difference in these kids’ lives.”
Late one night, Sanan jots down notes into
her journal, so that she will know what to post in her next blog
entry. “Needless to say, this is worth more than anything in the
world, because you know that it will shape your own life, and
you will carry it on with you for the rest of your life.”
A group becomes a family
“The nine of us have gotten very close,”
Serop says. He’s sitting at the patio table of the Youth Corps
house, slowly sipping a muddy brown mug with dark Armenian
coffee. “We spend a lot of time in our living room just hanging
out. We do a lot of talking. We play backgammon, chess, and
different card games. And we joke around a lot.”
The home they stayed in was atypical of
Gyumri–a pre-Soviet two-story structure of mismatched rooms,
with old rusty pipes and walls lined with pealing wallpaper and
chipped paint. The house belongs to a family of five, who
survived the earthquake of 1988 thanks to its 19th century
Armenian-built home. The Youth Corps group rented out the top
level of the house, sharing the kitchen and only bathroom with
the family below.
“Deegeen Lillig, our host, was incredible,”
says Serop. “Everytime we saw her, she greeted us with a huge
smile and always asked if we needed anything. He remembers
ventured into Deegen Lillig’s garage to discover a mini bread
factory, complete with an Armenian tonir and a crew of bakers.
“She cared for us like we were her own, working nonstop in the
kitchen, taking care of the house, her husband, her three kids,
and our group, all while smiling and giggling at every little
funny or interesting occurrence.”
Deegen Lillig would make regular phone calls
to Youth Corps volunteers’ parents, ranting and raving about how
sweet they were and listing, in colorful detail, every single
positive quality she noticed in each member.
Having become a family over the course of the
6-week program, the participants often spoke regretfully of the
day they would have to part from Gyumri to return to their lives
in the States.
During late night conversations, Arianna
Deleon recounts the “awesome times” she’s had with her
co-counselors, about the jokes, the laughter and the adventures
she shared with her new family.
The defining moment for the group, however,
came on a rainy day deep in the mountains of Ijevan, at a
mysterious site by the river known by the locals as Lastiver.
“On that day we all began what would become a
treacherous hour and a half hike in the mountains, through
extremely muddy terrain, over slippery rocks, and underneath the
constant downpour of a heavy rain,” Nora recalls.
The group was guided on the high-altitude
trail by a man Nora describes as a “lumberjack-esque man,”
dressed head-to-toe in camouflage. “He was carrying a multitude
of seemingly unnecessary weaponry, and would effortlessly sprint
through the narrow passes on the cliff-side”
“The hike really took a lot of teamwork, with
each of us rotating turns carrying boxes of food and supplies
down the slippery slopes of the mountains,” she says. “The
experience did wonders for our bonding as a group, especially at
night when we had to huddle together under a tarp to keep warm
under the rain.”
Laying the foundations
For these young Diasporans, Youth Corps was
more than just summer fun; they were in Armenia for a specific
purpose, and each of them knew exactly what that was.
“The AYF sent us to Armenia to set the
foundation for a new generation that will take ownership of its
homeland and look forward to a future living on the land of
their forefathers,” explains Berj.
The Youth Corps program, from its inception,
has sought to close the artificial gap created by the Genocide
and widened by decades of isolation during the Cold War. The
program exists to encourage Diasporans to take on a more direct
role in the nation building process in Armenia.
“The homeland is very distant, and you can’t
fully comprehend what the situation is like here from watching
it on television,” says Artak Avedisian, the Chairman of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s Central Committee in Shirak.
He is also a volunteer counselor at the camp, and he says it’s
hard for Diasporans to understand how people live in Armenia,
what their needs are, and what are things that are to be
cherished and preserved without Diasporans seeing them and
experiencing them first-hand.
Sitting at a table at Camp Gyumri, Artak
talks about his experience with the campers. He talks about
working as a teacher and principal at a local school, and he
sifts through a bucket of colorful beads, assembling tri-color
bracelets for his campers.
“Through Youth Corps, the AYF volunteers
experienced first hand what it is that Armenians here struggle
with,” says Artak. The volunteers also saw the country and met
the people they work to promote, protect and empower through
their unique position in the United States. Armenia became real
for them here. It became more than something they read about or
talk about or a dream they work toward. I believe this
experience will inspire them to work much harder for their
ideals.”
Artak is 35-years-old, and he is a veteran of
the Karabakh liberation struggle. He has been working for years
with his fellow ARF members in Gyumri to establish regular
Sunday schools and day camps for youth in the area. There’s a
desperate need for it, he says, referring back to his own
experience in the school system.
“Quite frankly, the schools here don’t
instill love of country in the kids early on,” he says with an
air of concern while preparing supplies for his Arts & Crafts
class at the camp. “There is no school here that starts off the
day with the singing of the Armenian national anthem, and no
book that animates for them the achievements of our people
throughout history.”
Camp Gyumri is a welcomed change for Artak
and may parents who sent their children and teenagers to the
Youth Corps program. It gave dozens of kids in Gyumri a
completely different experience.
“Here the children sing the national anthem
with pride every morning,” says Artak. “They learn national and
patriotic songs, and about our greatest moments like the
establishment of the first Republic of Armenia, the Battle of
Sardarapat, and the liberation of Arstakh. These are historic
moments they can be proud of.”
He flips through the pages of an elementary
school history book that only allocated two paragraphs to the
liberation war in Artsakh. “These are things they learn very
little about in their schoolbooks.”
For Artak, and the families touched by the
camp, these nine Diasporans who came to Gyumri from California
had more of an impact than they may ever truly realize.
“Youth corps has laid the foundation for the
ARF in Armenia to set up Sunday schools and regular day camps
not just in Gyumri, but throughout the entire country,” Artak
proudly states. “At the end of the camp we had over 30 children
sign up for the local ARF youth club. This would have taken us
years of difficult work to do that without Camp Gyumri and the
Youth Corps project.”
AYF Youth Corps volunteers promise that
extending this impact will be the mission of the program in the
coming years. Upon their return home, volunteers quickly began
planning for a second camp in another one of Armenia’s less
developed regions.
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