For Young Armenians, a Promised Land Without Promise

[svoy]

from The New York Times
source here

Originally Posted by http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/09/international/asia/09armenia.html?ex=1103583103&ei=1&en=58a54634e6085 84e

YEREVAN JOURNAL
For Young Armenians, a Promised Land Without Promise
By SUSAN SACHS

Published: December 9, 2004

YEREVAN, Armenia - In a smoky corner of the Red Bull bar, a favorite hangout for university students, Zara Amatuni mulled over the reasons she would leave her homeland.

"It's poor, it has no natural resources, it has an undeveloped economy and it's unlikely to be developing in the next 10 years," she said with a small apologetic shrug.

Ms. Amatuni, 21, imagines herself in London or perhaps Moscow. Her language skills might land her a well-paying job, and plenty of Armenians have marked the trail before her.

"We can fit in anywhere," she said. "The only place we can't is Armenia."

For young people who have come of age in an independent Armenia, a country the size of Maryland with a population of barely three million people, it is an awkward paradox.

Their parents grew up in a captive republic of the Soviet Union. Their grandparents escaped the massacre of Armenians by Turks in the years of World War I. For them, and for the four-million-strong Armenian diaspora, the creation of a sovereign Armenian homeland 13 years ago was the fulfillment of a dream.

Yet the promised land has proved too constricting and its promise too distant for the next generation's ambitions. Those who want to leave and those who want to stay are all trying to reconcile what it means to be Armenian.

For some, no longer being part of the empire that was the Soviet Union means a loss of significance in the world. Then there were opportunities for well-educated Armenians to work in Moscow and elsewhere. Independence, they had hoped, would propel Armenia into the wider world, important on its own. Instead, they find themselves in a backwater with a double-digit unemployment rate and where most of the decent-paying jobs are with international aid organizations. "Let us build Armenia here," said Artyom Simonian, an acting student in the struggling town of Gyumri, 75 miles northwest of the capital, where residents are still recovering from a devastating 1988 earthquake.

He is one of those nostalgic for an imagined past. Like many of his fellow students, Mr. Simonian, 21, was uncomfortable with what seem to be the country's choices, integration with Europe or tighter bonds with Russia.

"We are trying to love foreigners too much," he said.

He and some other students, gathered around a small table in the chilly cafeteria of the Gyumri Arts School, understand they have fewer opportunities than did their parents, who learned to speak Russian and assimilated Russian culture.

So they long for a bigger, more muscular Armenia, a land that would embrace what is now southeastern Turkey where their ancestors lived a century ago. The snowy crest of Mount Ararat, now on the other side of the border, floats on the horizon beyond Gyumri as a reminder of that phantom homeland.

"I won't consider myself Armenian until all of sacred Mount Ararat is in Armenia," said Alexan Gevorgian, a theater student. He saw the world as essentially hostile and neighboring Turkey, just 15 miles to the west, as "an animal waiting for its prey to weaken."

His bitterness was too much for Ludvig Harutiunian, the student council president.

"We young people should leave this hostility behind," he protested. "I'd like Armenia to be known for good things, not genocide and wars and victims and mourning."

Mr. Harutiunian had evaluated his prospects. His father was already working in Russia, his brother was working in Spain and he was resigned to finding a chance for artistic expression elsewhere.

"Leaving the difficulties aside, Armenian culture is not developing and you have to go out," he said.

Mr. Simonian interrupted, chiding, "It's wrong to leave the country." The other students fell silent.

The insular views of some of these young people dismay older Armenians who have a sharp sense of how their own horizons have shrunk since independence.

"For 70 years we lived in a different country, where we were open to Russian culture and history," said Svetlana Muradian, a mother of six in Gyumri who used to work in Russia but now supports her family with odd jobs. "Kids now see nothing beyond Armenia. My only hope is that my three sons will grow up and leave."

The students gathered in the Red Bull bar in Yerevan were struggling with a different facet of the same predicament. Fluent in English and Russian as well as their native Armenian, they were impatient with the growing pains of a post-Soviet state and cynical about politics.

To Gevorg Karapetian, a doctoral student in computer engineering, the ideal leader would be a businessman, "someone educated and clever enough to make relationships with the neighboring countries."

The present crowd of politicians did not measure up. "Our president and all the presidents before him just want to be president," Mr. Karapetian said.

Unlike the less privileged students in Gyumri, he and his friends in the capital have reached out beyond Armenia's borders. They get their news from the Internet and use the Web to chat with English speakers from around the world. They regularly meet Armenians from the United States and Russia who come to visit Armenia, to teach at the universities, plant trees or to set up charities.

But their relative sophistication also makes them keenly aware of the contrast between their aspirations and their country's opportunities.

Victor Agababov, 22, earns the princely sum of $650 a month working as a computer programmer in Yerevan, making him the best paid member of his university class. Yet he tends to mock his own achievement because his job involves doing outsourced work transferred from the United States and Japan.

"We are a cheap work force," he said. "We're cheaper than Indians and probably 10 times cheaper than Americans."

Mr. Agababov is considering moving to Moscow to find a technology job that might promise advancement and independence.

As far the Armenian-Americans and other diaspora visitors who say they yearn to come to the new Armenia, Mr. Agababov and Zara Amatuni, the linguistics student, have a suggestion.

"We can swap," Mr. Agababov said.

"Right," said Ms. Amatuni. "They can come back and we can go there."

[Фиби]

эх, расстроила меня эта статья.. в самом деле, многое из того, что она написала, я не говорила.. Хотя, суть она уловила правильно.. Как-то все слишком мрачно и пессимистично получилось
во всяком случае, что касается меня, то я выражала свое сугубо субъективное мнение..

[Mono]

ХАХАХХ

Я только сейчас заметил что Армению поставили в Азию то да притом и Тихий Океан туда приперли .. Буахахах

Какая же тупая это журналистка, где Армения где Тихий Океан.. Это хорошая оплеуха всем армянам - европейцам.. Ваше место Азия так сказала Сюзан Сакс воистину сакс

Я сейчас напишу письмо редакцию этой газеты ... скажу спасибо за то что нас признали азиатами да притом с тихоокеанского берега

[Mono]

Кстати в НЙТ был журналист который насколько я помню написал 600 статьей про истории которых вообще в природе не было. Вернее было но лет 50 назад.. Он искал старые газеты и находил там интересные истории и писал их заново.. И целых 10 лет никто не замечал это жульничество.

[DaNYer]

Originally Posted by Mono

ХАХАХХ

Я только сейчас заметил что Армению поставили в Азию то да притом и Тихий Океан туда приперли .. Буахахах

Какая же тупая это журналистка, где Армения где Тихий Океан.. Это хорошая оплеуха всем армянам - европейцам.. Ваше место Азия так сказала Сюзан Сакс воистину сакс

Я сейчас напишу письмо редакцию этой газеты ... скажу спасибо за то что нас признали азиатами да притом с тихоокеанского берега

o chem eto vi? tam daje karta est'...

[Mono]

Данйер

NYTimes.com > International > Asia Pacific

это наверху статьи то есть раздел газеты куда поместили эту статью

[DaNYer]

Mono, sorry chto tebya ogorchayu, no Armeniya naxoditsya v Southwestern Asia...

[Mono]

Данйер

Сорри конечно что я тебя огорчу но ты тоже очевидно географию не знаешь... В НЙТ есть раздел Миддле Ист между прочим , могли би туда поместить. Но нет именно нужно был в раздел Азия Тихий Океан поместить..

[DaNYer]

net, dorogoi, eto ti geografiyu ne znaesh. Southwestern Asia.

[Mono]

Юго-Западная Азия термин очень мало используемая между прочим. В политике его вообще не используют. Повторяю если не хотели в Европу поместить то могли бы в Мидле Ист поместить.. Между прочим Иран который восточнее нас помещается именно туда.

[DaNYer]

nu na tom i poreshim

[aramx]

картезы ханек дрек ирар дем.

[Mono]

Dear redaction of NYT

The article about young armenians published by Susan Sachs in 9 December was placed in the Asia Pacific zone. Here it is

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/09/in...a54634e608584e

I don't know what kind of geography is studied in american school but i can assure you here in the Armenia we learn in the schools that Armenia is situated in the West Asia or in Middle East. After the collapse of URSS Armenia is pollitically situated in Europe. Armenia is a member of Counsil of Europe.

So there is no any rational reason for placing Armenia in Asia Pacific category of your newspaper. It is an error.

PS. The armenian schools are heritage of Soviet Period , but don't worry they are reformated by the advices and the money of World Bank , so in the near future the level of education will decline almost to american standards )

Best Regards Mono

Ну что скажете про мое письмо ??

[Vega$]

Моно, извини конечно, но Арменя в Миддл Ист не входит... этим термином уже давно обозначаются определенные, в основном мусульманские страны.
Это во первых.
Во вторых, это лично мое суб'ективное мнение, прежде чем писать op-eds, или письма в редакцию лучше сначала все продумать, а не кидаться в омут головой... импульсы на глав. редакторов и подобных species не действуют. Подобным письмом ты только подтвердишь многое написанное в статье... не дай бог еге еще и опубликуют...

з.ы.: без обид.

[RAMZES]

Ребята, не надо спорить....
им просто надо было написать об одной из стран 3-го мира, написать как им хреново живется, что у них нет никаких надежд на светлое будущее, и.т.д и.т.п.
В качестве подопытного кролика взяли Армению. Ну собсно получилось то, что получилось. И сколько бы не писать писем в редакцию, это не изменит их взглядов на Армению. Для них мы были и остаемся страной 3-го мира, своего рода недоразвитой цивилизацией. это факт.

[RAMZES]

Надо было догадаться, что сра верджы эса линелу...
ну, после драки кулаками не машут