From the cold and distant Barnaul to the sunny Yerevan-another story about repatriation
![](https://old.hayernaysor.am/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Մարիամ-300x225.jpg)
It was necessary to step out of the Altay region at least once to understand how far it is from the rest of the world. Barnaul, which is where Mariam moved to when she left Tbilisi, was an ordinary city for her until the move, and only when she and her family traveled to Sochi to spend their vacation for the first time did she understand how far and cold Siberia is.
Mariam Gasparyan was born in Tbilisi. Mariam and her family moved to Russia when she was only four years old. She says the Armenian community in the distant Barnaul was quite organized. Let us mention that the Armenian community of Altay was established in two stages. The first stage was between 1947 and 1953 when Altay received nearly 70,000 people who had fallen victim to Stalin’s dictatorship.
The second stage began between 1991 and 1993, and the number of Armenians grew so much that it slowly led to the emergence of the need to establish serious community structures and organizations. The Armenians of Altay created the Armenian Cultural Center NGO, which has an Armenian Sunday school and an Armenian magazine. Later, they created the Aragats football team of Barnaul and built the Saint Hripsime Armenian Church, which was consecrated in 2005. Basically, even in the most active stage of establishment and development of the community, Mariam became an active member of the community and played an active role in the organizing of cultural events as a young Armenian with potential.
It was during that period that she became familiar with Armenia from a distance, but only after some of her friends visited Armenia through the “Ari Tun” Program and returned with great impressions did she feel the desire to see the homeland. “When I saw their pictures, I sort of envied them,” Mariam says, laughing and adding that “she told her parents that she also wanted to visit Armenia.”
That summer, she and her family went to Sochi to spend their vacation, and that long trip finally made her face the reality and see how far away they are and how cut off they are from the world. Mariam not only thought of seeing Armenia once, but also daring to take a decision to move to Armenia. At the time, she was studying at the Russian International Academy or, as she calls it, the Tourism Institute. Suddenly, she found out that the Academy had a branch in Armenia.
It seems as though she had all the preconditions for moving to the homeland. In 2010, Mariam visited Armenia for the first time through the “Ari Tun” Program. She is happy that she visited the homeland for the first time through such a program since it helped her have a good first impression of Armenia. “I was very impressed. I visited many places and got to know Armenia up close, in a good sense.”
Later, Mariam was joined by her brother, who is also continuing his studies in Yerevan. Two years later, after Mariam graduated from the Institute, she left for Barnaul to see her parents and with the purpose of returning to Armenia in a month. “It might sound surprising, but I didn’t even want to go to Barnaul for a month. True, I had missed my parents very much, but going back was very traumatic for me. When I reached Barnaul, I started crying at the airport. Basically, I suffered for about a month and returned.”
Mariam confesses that everything was so strange to her in Barnaul that she didn’t even want to step out of her house and was impatiently waiting to go back to Armenia. Mariam’s parents were happy that their children had become attached to the homeland, but the distance was a serious problem. It wasn’t easy to take such a long trip even once a year. One beautiful day, the parents decided to join their children. Mariam’s parents are state employees. They didn’t have a business, and in that sense, it was easier for them to return. They were also happy to have returned, and they love Armenia. True, they have already seen the problems in the country, but they haven’t regretted returning for one second.
After graduating from the Institute and staying in Barnaul for a month, Mariam returned to Yerevan. Two weeks later, she found a job at a travel agency. She still works there and is content with her job. Her parents haven’t found serious jobs in Armenia yet, but they have some income from Barnaul and are at ease for the time being. “The problem in Armenia is not that we are unemployed, but that the money isn’t enough. If we have normal jobs, Armenia will be the best place for us to be. True, I understand the people who leave Armenia, but in any case, they’re not doing the right thing,” Mariam says.
She believes that a person who tries to create something can create it in Armenia as well. It’s just that unlike, say, Russia, in Armenia, you can achieve success later. “If you go abroad and achieve something in a foreign country, there comes a moment when you want to return, but you can’t just lose all that you have done for years in one day.”
Despite all the problems in Armenia, Mariam, who has lived in the distant Barnaul for nearly 20 years, doesn’t even want to compare that city with the sunny Yerevan. “Our city is warm, beautiful and familiar. Yes, I would use those two words to describe my country-warm and familiar. I only want to live here.”