Every morning a group of youth from Diaspora gather near the statue of Shahumyan, and begins their journey to sightseeing and historic sites of their Homeland. The youth have already been in Sardarapat, Echmiadzin, Oshakan, visited the temple of Zvartnots. This time they’ll go to the Museum of Ancient Manuscripts, that is Matenadaran.
20-year–old Mkrtich Baghdasaryan is one of them. Mkrtich came to Armenia with his sister Ani. Despite the first time in Armenia, he speaks Armenian fluently.
“I wanted to see my homeland very much, to see my country and the places I saw in photos.I learned Armenian in my family- my mother, father, grandma speaks Armenian.There are 12 participents from Romania, but only me and my sister knows Armenian language,” says Mkrtich.
He is one of the hundreds of youth from Diaspora, who this year participates in the program “Come Home” organized by the Ministry of Diaspora in Armenia .
Every morning a group of youth from Diaspora gather near the statue of Shahumyan, and begins their journey to sightseeing and historic sites of their Homeland. The youth have already been in Sardarapat, Echmiadzin, Oshakan, visited the temple of Zvartnots. This time they’ll go to the Museum of Ancient Manuscripts, that is Matenadaran.
20-year–old Mkrtich Baghdasaryan is one of them. Mkrtich came to Armenia with his sister Ani. Despite the first time in Armenia, he speaks Armenian fluently.
“I wanted to see my homeland very much, to see my country and the places I saw in photos.I learned Armenian in my family- my mother, father, grandma speaks Armenian.There are 12 participents from Romania, but only me and my sister knows Armenian language,” says Mkrtich.
He is one of the hundreds of youth from Diaspora, who this year participates in the program “Come Home” organized by the Ministry of Diaspora in Armenia .
It’s already the third year that the Ministry of Diaspora organized this program. In the first year in 2009 more than 300 youngsters took part in this program. Last year, the number of participants was about 600. This year the Ministry expressed willingness to invite up to 800 children to Armenia.
This year’s program is carried out in ten stages, during which the youngsters spend 10 days in the host families, and 4 days in the camp. The first stage is already underway – 83 participants from 7 countries.
According to head of the department of Pan-Armenian programs of the Ministry of Diaspora Atom Mkhitaryan the purpose of the program is to bring to Armenia 20-year-old youth from different regions and to connect them with their homeland by different methods.
“For example, children live in families where there are children of their age in order to form a real friendship between them. Then they leave together for 4-5 days in camp. They know their country, get acquainted with the historical and cultural values, heritage, visit the museums,” explains Mkhitaryan.
During the camp days the youngsters listen to lectures , have meetings with public, cultural figures, as well as organize cultural events on their own initiative .
Mkrtich says, that he was informed about the program in 2009, but could not take part in.
“I read a lot and I’m informed about the culture and the history of Armenia. Now I see, what I hear in Romania during our Armenian Sunday classes,” he says.
Another participant from Romania 18-year-old Riki Martha doesn’t speak Armenian, and she communicates with the others with the help of English .
“ I’m here for the first time and I think Armenia is very beautiful country. I have no opportunity to learn Armenian. But we have a teacher in our city, who now teaches us Armenian. I like Armenian cuisine the most,”says Riki.
14-year-old Violeta Melikyan is from Georgia and it is not her first time in Armenia. She admits, that she likes Armenia a lot, but never thought of living here.
“I was born and grew up in Georgia, I do not think that I could live here.But every year we come to Armenia,we have relatives here. This time I visited new places, I have new friends. People have changed a lot, they are more free, communicative.”
Volunteer families keep children from Diaspora without any interests. Satenik Abrahamyan who lives in Yerevan hosted 18-year-old Haria from Romania.
“I like learning about lifestyle of families of the Diaspora, they are very interesting. Haria does not know Armenian, so we use English language to communicate with each other.We are very different in our lifestyles, and that is interesting for us. Haria ate apricot for the first time. She likes Armenian cuisine very much,” tells Satenik enthusiastically.
She talked about the differencies she noticed between Armenians of different countries.
“Georgian Armenians are not so much different from us in lifestyle and food. Armenians from Turkey speak another language, it is difficult to understand each other.Their dressing style is different from us, even way of thinking is different . No one in Romania have a little part of Armenia. Every child from abroad has some interests, this way they differ from ours.”
Ministry representative Atom Mkhitaryan says that they are also developing other projects for the youth up to 20 can also have connection with their homeland.
“For example, this year we have a program that is provided for adults, We are initiating a summer school for Young Leaders.”
Summer School will prepare leaders for the youth from different countries representing Armenian communities to enter to community life more active, and to have contacts with each other and with the Ministry of the Diaspora .
Source: JNews.am