Armenia – Overall Perspective

So I’ve been slack lately… I wanted to write a blog but been busy enjoying the life in Yerevan. It’s been gr8. I’ve been here for more then a month now and I’m just trying to digest all the soviet beauty around me. I’ll give you a rundown.

The architecture: Well the architecture here is quite boring to tell u the truth… there are no colours, no gr8 designs. Majority of the dwellings look alike and have very similar purpose. Apparently if you look at them from a plane it writes (CCCP). The people: The locals in Armenia are growing on me. They have very different perspective on life and they talk funny. They’ve got this very strong Russian influenced accent and they use very different words to us, the diaspora Armenians. There is a large number of Armenians from Syria, Iran and Lebanon who are coming to live in Armenia and they will soon be citizens. It is interesting as massive numbers of Armenians migrated to America during 1990’s because of the economical depression that came from the earthquake and the break down of the USSR. But the Armenians who have stayed are a lot happier now and they do not want to leave the country even though the wages are minimal and the living conditions less then appealing.

 

The local Armenians, who r also known as, mahallies (Arabic word), are very rough people. At the beginning I was talking using words such as “please, thank you, if its not a hassle, etc” but soon realised that I was being left behind in public transport and not getting served etc etc. so I improved my vocab and increased my tone of voice. I almost scream now when I need the mini-bus driver to stop and I say “khatkhmerougi gaknir”. I said that yesterday and the driver looked at me from the mirror (They don’t usually do that unless ur a terrorist) to who was talking to him. Well it takes a bit of time to find the balance and knowing how to talk like the locals…

 But also I got to appreciate the locals… mainly because they kept the land for us. You see, I was told by another Syrian, Armenian today, that because the local Armenians are discourteous and rude, they’ve been able to keep the land from the Turks and later won the war with Azerbaijan. You see, we, the polite, westernised Armenians have always lived under the influence of either the Turk or the Arab or the English or the French and had to adapt to their culture and always feel like we need to give in more then take. Whereas the Armenians in Armenia who were associated with Russia and Iran are a lot more discontent to give away their identity and their land and hence we (all Armenians around the world) do need to thank the Armenians in Armenia for giving us the 29,800 skm of land and the other 4,000skm of karabagh to us. As if it wasn’t for their Russian discourteousness we may not enjoy the land that we now call Armenia…