Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
When I had lived and worked in Armenia in 1981-2, I had met many Syrian Armenians,
who had been sent by their families to study in what remained of their ancestral homeland,
in the tiny Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. Those students had always seemed a bit
exotic to the native born Armenians. They spoke a slightly different version of Armenian
(Western as opposed to Eastern Armenian, with its different lexis and pronunciation). Their
English was often good and additionally, they also spoke Arabic and sometimes French.
They came from different political systems, and were more exposed to and had greater of-
ficial access to desirable consumer goods than the locals, which made them very popular.
They also had hard currency, which made their lives more comfortable in the less affluent
Soviet republic. The cultural diversity of the returning Armenian diaspora, whether they
were students or tourists from France, Los Angeles, Iran or Argentina and many places in
between certainly undermined a lot of the Communist propaganda against those places and
made Armenia a fascinating place, with complex cultural and political influences from East
and West.
In Jdeideh, there was a lot of tolerance for the Armenian minority, who were highly valued
as craftsmen and traders. They had also lived in peace and harmony with their neighbours
for around a century. The Armenians, in turn, were thankful to the Syrians for their support
and protection.
