Harout Ekmanian
The Syrian crisis began in the spring of 2011, but it wasn’t until violence hit Aleppo in late July 2012 that the first wave of Syrian Armenians began trickling into Armenia. Within just a couple of months, 3,000 refugees were living in the country. While their numbers have continued to increase—just past 11,000, according to a recent report by the Armenian Ministry of Diaspora—a significant portion have left Armenia for Europe, the U.S., or other Western countries.
In 2012, President Serge Sarkisian required that all government
efforts to support Syrian Armenians be coordinated by the Diaspora
Ministry. That summer, the Ministry created a working group to deal with the
ever-increasing problem. The prime minister then formed a coordinating
committee comprised of deputy ministers of health, education, and
justice, and headed by Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan.
The Ministry, however, has been broadly criticized for its
incompetence and inaction. Lusine Stepanyan, the head of the Department
for Armenian Communities of the Near and Middle East at the Diaspora
Ministry, disagrees. She recently told me that even before the conflict
had started to affect Armenians directly, the Ministry had asked experts
at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia to prepare a report
about the history of the region and its Armenian communities. Since the
early stages of the Syrian conflict, she added, several meetings have
taken place with representatives from the Syrian-Armenian community to
discuss what should be done in worst-case scenarios.
It was perhaps Hakobyan’s old-fashioned approach towards the Armenian
Diaspora, her Soviet lexicon, or populist public appearances that left
many people dissatisfied. In August 2012, she was criticized for acting
like a “wanna-be Mother Theresa” during her many orchestrated TV
appearances. One such event took Hakobyan to a maternity hospital to
congratulate the “first Syrian-Armenian baby born in Armenia!” This, of
course, ignored the fact that many Syrian-Armenian repatriates had given
birth in Armenia for decades before the Syrian crisis (in fact, perhaps
as early as the 1940’s). Similar made-for-TV moments continued that
summer, including frequent visits to the airport to welcome Syrian
Armenians with flowers. Ignored was the fact that these newcomers had
been exploited by Armavia, the Republic of Armenia’s carrier, which had
just raised Aleppo-Yerevan ticket prices to record highs.
Despite such blatant missteps, officials at the Diaspora Ministry say
that Hakobyan’s personal charisma and character have helped to solve
the bureaucratic hurdles and to “get things done” as fast as possible.
In October 2012, the Ministry founded the Center for Coordination of
Syrian-Armenians’ Issues NGO. Its Board, fully comprised of Syrian
Armenians, is tasked with the issue of humanitarian assistance. In the
meantime, the Ministry coordinates assistance with legal, health, and
education issues with its respective ministries and governmental bodies.
As part of these efforts, the government began issuing visas for
Syrian Armenians on the border, instead of mandating they be obtained in
the home country through Armenian embassies and consulates. Refugees
were also exempt from visa and residency fees. The government took
another step and allowed Armenians from Syria and Lebanon to apply for
and be granted citizenship from their embassies, instead of traveling to
Armenia for the application process. Here, too, they were exempt from
fees, as well as custom taxes on cars, for example.
The government is also offering free medical care to all Syrian
Armenians at polyclinics regardless of citizenship, as well as the same
support for major medical operations that citizens receive. Young Syrian
Armenians have the same rights to education as Armenian citizens. Even
university students have had their 2013-14 tuition fees paid for by the
Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation.
The Diaspora Ministry is working with the Armenian Catholic Church
and the “Armenian Caritas” to provide accommodations to the many
families, especially those from the northeast region of Syria, who are
less familiar with the Armenian language and have greater integration
issues. It is working with the Armenian Evangelical Church to provide
lodging, medications, and dental care, as well as with other
organizations, such as the Children of Armenia Fund, Vision Armenia, the
Red Cross, and several UN agencies. Most of these activities are being
coordinated by the Center for Coordination of Syrian-Armenians’ Issues
on behalf of the Ministry.
Stepanyan says it’s been surprising to see the large numbers of
business owners and individuals who have offered jobs, assistance, and
goodwill since the early days of the conflict. One individual from the
impoverished Berd border town donated 5,000 AMD (12 USD), which may not
be a lot by U.S. standards, but is almost a week’s worth of meals for a
family in Berd. “People are not indifferent to each other,” she says. In
another case, a generous donation came from Iran, from a man whose
sister had passed away in Syria. He hadn’t been able to help then, but
wanted to donate to other Syrian Armenians.
The Diaspora Ministry is also organizing courses that introduce
Syrian Armenians to the tax and customs system in Armenia, as well as to
Eastern Armenian and Russian.
In recent months, Hakobyan launched her “New Aleppo” initiative,
which will house approximately 630 Syrian-Armenian families. The land is
being provided by the Ashtarak municipality. According to Ministry
representatives, construction will soon begin. For some, the idea of
gathering all Syrian Armenians in one place, 20 kilometers from the
capital, is reminiscent of Soviet policies to ghettoize repatriates in
the 1940’s and 1950’s. Stepanyan, however, stresses the financial
difficulty in providing hundreds of families with permanent
accommodation in Yerevan, which is already expensive and over-populated.
The choice of location and all other steps, she says, were mainly
decided through public gatherings with Syrian Armenians. Rather than
ghettoizing, this project will help them preserve their Western Armenian
language and traditions, she adds.
Considering the social and economic circumstances that led many to
leave Armenia, the government’s efforts to support Syrian-Armenian
refugees, albeit late or half-hearted at times, have been better
organized than in the past, when refugees arrived from other war-torn
communities. It has also eclipsed the relief work being carried out by
neighboring countries who have taken in refugees from Syria.
"The Armenian Weekly," January 21, 2014
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