Nanor Shokayan (left) Nicole Minassian (right)

Sydney and Yerevan - This year Nicole Minassian, Nanor Shokayan and Tamar Nazarian represented the Australian youth at the Hamazkayin Student Cultural Forum from the 19^th of July until the 4^th of August. This two-week program was hosted in Yerevan, Armenia and brought together youth from the diaspora, Armenia, Karabagh, and Javakhk.

I recently sat with Nicole and Nanor, and from the beginning of our meeting they were most excited to tell me about was how this trip was the most eye opening cultural experience each of them had taken part in.

Initially, they admitted to not really wanting to take part in the events of the forum, rather looking at the trip as a casual summer getaway.

“In the beginning we were not too keen on going to all the group things. I just thought this was a standard trip to Armenia with my friends,” Nicole confesses. “But after the first day we woke up everyday wanting to go to and participate in all the programs.”

Nanor even admits to the girls planning to “act sick” so that they did not have to go the seminars and lectures or take part in the day’s activities so that they could “tan, chill and go shopping.”

“…But we found ourselves wanting to go and take part in everything,” she says. My favourite activity was the seminars because the questions that they asked really made us think. One of them was who is an Armenian? This discussion really opened my eyes, making me see myself and my culture in ways that I had never thought about.”

Nicole and Nanor felt something that only a very few of the Armenians who live within the diaspora are able to – not only an affinity towards their cultural and family roots, heritage and motherland, but a sense of belonging to their environment.

The girls were astounded and overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the Armenian language everywhere. Sure, they were in Armenia, but like most countries today, they expected to see a lot more English, at least in public. Nicole even told me how when she went clubbing there would be Armenian music playing, which she was not at all used to. She laughed profusely as she told me, but insisted that it was such a delight to hear her mother language during nights out.

“…It was like WOW! The Armenian writing was on buildings, signs and even Armenian music was always in taxis. It was crazy. I have never seen anything like that in Sydney, even in Ryde or Chatswood where so many Armenians live. ”

But it was the other members that really made the Hamazkayin Cultural Forum a profound and unforgettable experience for the Australian girls. They made friendships which they are convinced will last a lifetime, and were quite confronted and overwhelmed by how friendly, welcoming and culturally comparable the Armenian youth of the diaspora were to them.

“We went down stairs to have breakfast in the lobby on our first day, and all the members greeted us saying “pari looys” (good morning in Armenian), recalls Nicole. “I was not used to this. It made me nervous. But by that night we became best friends. And everyday we just got closer and closerand closer because we were all in the same boat – we were in a foreign country but in our motherland at the same time.”

Nanor even told me that since being back she has kept in touch with the many friend that she made on the Hamazkayin Forum, and they are already planning a 2015 reunion overseas.

“I feel closer to some of them than than I feel towards people in Australia. When I see them again it will be like a family reunion.”

The Australian youth were also inspired by how much the diaspora of other countries, especially the Middle East, spoke the Armenian language, even during everyday conversation.

“They spoke Armenian all the time. I found that so cool and it made me speak Armenian so much more,” reminisces Nanor. “Initially I thought it would be weird and they would be different from us but we are so similar. We eat the same food, talk the same and do things the same even though we live on the other side of the world. We are all Armenian.”

The girls with their new friends from Armenia and the diaspora in front of Mamig and Babig in Stepanakert

Nicole and Nanor reminded me that this was their second trip to their homeland, and had been to Armenia a few years prior on the Galstaun College Pilgrimage Tour.  Although, they insisted that this trip was far more eye opening, and that the Hamazkayin Forum sparked a very distinct passion and kinship towards their ancestral homeland inside of them.

“There was a huge difference from when we went with school because we went with people that we knew. Everyone was the same and we came back the same,” explains Nicole.  “We also got involved in discussions and debates. We did not feel like the foreigners in a strange country, we felt like we belonged.”

Nanor puts it down to being a tourist during her first visit, and experiencing it a lot more anthropologically with the Hamazkayin Cultural Forum by seeing and living the hardships that her fellow Armenians endure everyday.

“We did not see the country through tourist’s eyes. We actually saw the difficulties, the ugly truth. Not everything was sugarcoated.”

Experiencing Armenia as members of the Hamazkayin Forum has made Nicole and Nanor feel more for a respect and responsibility towards their mother country, understanding the hardships that their ancestors have gone through and how lucky they are to be living in Australia.

“One things that opened my eyes to how lucky but selfish we are as Australians,” recalls Nicole. “We went to a camp with 700 young Armenian orphans as soon as we stepped onto the bus they started yelling “pari kaloosd, pari kaloosd” (warm welcome in Armenian). They were happy to see us, asked for our autographs and put on a mini concert for us which made my heart sink because it should have been us trying to please and entertain them.”

Nanor even described her personal hardships as “stupid first world problems.”

“They have nothing,” she tells me, “but they are happy and grateful and do not want more than what they have.”

Since returning to Australia, the lucky country, Nicole and Nanor have yearned to aid their motherland and preserve their heritage by becoming more involved in the Australian-Armenian community.

“Since being back we have really wanted to help our homeland,” says Nanor. We want to be apart of the community more and have been talking about joining AYF (Armenian Youth Federation).

This desire also stems from the involvement that the youth of the diaspora of other countries have for their motherland. They were amazed at some of the sacrifices that children from as young as 12 make for Armenia.

“A 12 year old boy from America wanted to go to one of the orphanages we were at to volunteer. He was 12,” Nicole tells me, shocked. They did not let him because he was too young, so now he is living with orphans, he became one of them. That is so crazy!”

Assistance to the youth of Armenia goes far beyond just the diaspora. Nanor explained how a group of French boys “with no Armenian blood” travel to Armenia every year for 2 weeks and help out at the orphanage.

“If they are doing that and they are not even Armenian, it is our birthright and responsibility to do what we can to help these kids. We should be doing it for our people. We could have been the kids in those orphanages.”