Sunday morning in Yerevan

I woke up this morning to the shocking beauty of snow falling outside the window of my hotel in Yerevan, Armenia. I am not talking an occasional snowflake, but a major snowstorm, with six-inch thick piles on the balcony ledges. Now, as I sit in the hotel restaurant, I see just a few people outside on what would normally be a bustling Sunday morning, trudging through foot-deep snow. I had planned to spend the day showing my wife some of the sights around Yerevan that have changed in the 7 years since she has been here. But I think instead we will be spending the day inside.

I have been to Armenia so often that I needed extra pages added to my passport, and in fact am now the proud owner of an Armenia residency passport. It feels like home away from home for me. When I tell my Armenian friends who live here how much I love it, they tell me “that’s because you can leave.” Touché.

Yesterday I spoke on “Inclusion: Best Practices” at Yerevan State University. The chair of the psychology department, in typical Armenian fashion, welcomed me warmly, and I owe a debt of appreciation to Narine Vardanyan, the director of International Child Development Center, for planning and executing the SRO presentation. I believe Shant TV even was there; it’s not difficult to make the evening news in Armenia.

For readers who don’t know it, Armenia is a tiny country, the size of the state of Maryland, with a population of under 3 million. It is a country with a proud, ancient history with archeological evidence of civilizations here dating to before the Bronze Age (4000 BCE), although the kingdom of Armenia officially began after the fall of Urartu about 500 BC, give or take a hundred years. The kingdom of Armenia was once huge, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Caspian and Black Seas, encompassing all of what is now Syria, huge parts of Turkey and Iran. In 301, it became the first nation-state to officially declare itself Christian, making the Armenian Apostolic Church the oldest state church in the world.

More ethnic Armenians live in the diaspora than in the country itself, not unlike Jews. Largely due to their location on critical trading routes, and also because of their religion, they have been associated with the “merchant class,” and have both benefitted and suffered as a result. During the Ottoman Turks’ conflict with Russia in the early twentieth century, amid fear that the Armenians living in the area would side with Russia along with widespread racism, the Turkish military systematically murdered, raped, marched and starved a million Armenians. And, just as there are rabid Holocaust deniers spreading inane ideas on the internet, there are those who deny the extremely well-documented genocide of the Armenians.

Another similarity between the culture from which I came and the Armenian culture is the strong emphasis on education and the arts. 99% of its population is literate, and the list of prominent Armenian singers, scientists, politicians and artists is wildly disproportionate to their numbers.

But this list of facts is hardly relevant as the snow continues to fall on the buildings and streets of Yerevan. In the next week I will continue to observe staff, meet with government officials and other stakeholders in order to promote partnerships in continuing the success of the school for children with special needs that, at the behest of a small group of caring and courageous parents, began here almost a decade ago. In that time we grew from a core group of just a few students to treating over 80 children today. If we can successfully raise the needed funds, we will soon move from a crowded, converted apartment to our own facility. The continued survival of the school and its remarkable growth is a testament to a group of parents trying to do the best for their children, but mostly to the incredible dedication and hard work of our loving and talented staff. Apres!
For more information about the school in Armenia, see www.autism.am