February 9^th was a day to remember for ARS Armenia Chapter’s Handwork and Hand Art Committee since that day marked the first anniversary of the Committee.

It was either a coincidence or providence that Hayern Aysor’s correspondent met with the members of the Committee on that very day. There was a lot of commotion inside the representative office. Women were sharing their stories, setting the table and decorating the room.

In an atmosphere of cordiality and sincerity, all the members were taking the oath to live for each other. The Syrian-Armenian women members of the Committee amazed everyone once again with their optimism and endless faith in the future.

Around a festive table, we talked to chairwoman of the ARS Handwork and Hand Art Committee Flora Akdavoukian-Gahvejian and representative Diana Hovsepian.

Diana Hovsepian-ARS Regional Committee member, member of the Handwork and Hand Art Committee

“The Committee has been around for a year now. The key members of the Committee are our women who have moved from Syria for reasons known to us all and who have been members of the Syrian Relief Cross. We came up with the idea of developing this branch of culture in Armenia by using the experience that our Syrian-Armenians had gained. As we know, Syrian-Armenians stand out with their talent of organizing.

And so, we established a committee of Syrian-Armenian women with great expectations. In the course of a year, the Committee managed to become recognized. Evidence of that are the 100 members, including women of Yerevan and Persian-Armenian women.

We work like a family and try to help each other.

Besides disseminating Armenian culture, our main purpose was to create conditions for Armenian women to become engaged in social life and be able to work and earn a living by their professions.

This also serves as a wonderful opportunity for Syrian-Armenian women to become integrated in Armenia. They really want to learn, and they attend the courses with pleasure. They also become familiar with women of Armenia and establish close ties. We also believe dissemination of Armenian culture is part of the mission of Armenian women.

As you know, handwork has been characteristic of women. For centuries, they have been the ones disseminating handwork. Throughout the past year, we haven’t thought about terminating our activities. On the contrary, we aspire to grow and move forward.

All the members of our Committee generously solve all the organizational issues. They are willing to support each other to solve any issue. They truly don’t spare any effort. It should be mentioned that, in addition to learning the secrets of handwork, they also establish warm human relations.

Flora Akdavoukian-Gahvejian-chairwoman of the ARS Handwork and Hand Art Committee

“We had a similar regional committee in Syria where we would actively participate in activities aimed at preserving Armenian culture. I have very fond memories. In Syria, we would do everything we could to preserve the traditions of handwork that we had inherited from our ancestors, and we continue to preserve them in Armenia. We are more than grateful for the opportunity to continue our job in Armenia.

There are clubs for crochet making, carpet weaving, mending and miniature painting. All the courses are held eight times, twice a week and for two hours. The participants of the courses receive certificates. Each course is devoted to a certain region.

Women in Armenia are interested in handwork, attend the courses with pleasure and try to gain as much knowledge as they can. The main source of consumption is the exhibition-sales that are mainly organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora. The exhibition-sales provide us with the opportunity to showcase our works. We also receive offers. We mainly bring the materials from Lebanon. We plan on having a sales outlet, which will make our job easier.

We took part in the events dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The Committee had just been established when we decided to sew a flag with the image of the Forget-Me-Not and climb to the top of the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex on April 24^th to pay tribute to the innocent martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. In fact, we were joined by 27 members of the ARS who had traveled to Armenia from different Armenian communities of the Diaspora.

I thank our Committee’s members, including Arpi Khoubiarian-Arakelian, Maida Stamboulian-Demirjian, Elizabeth Karkotsian-Gabrielian, Taleen Meguerditchian-Kaprielian, Sona Sarajian and Liza Baboghlian-Miansian. They are truly a helping hand and a great support.”

By Gevorg Chichyan