In December, Deputy Head of the Sochi regional unit of the Union of Armenians of Russia in Krasnodar Marcos Kesyan and Deputy Head of the Khosta region and businessman Valery Muradyan came to Armenia once again to visit the children of the secondary school in Armenia’s borderline Chinari village, give them New Year’s gifts, wish them a Happy New Year and entertain the locals. With this humanitarian act, they show that even though they live abroad, they are concerned about the residents of borderline villages and share their hardships.

On December 29, Marcos Kesyan and Valery Muradyan visited the borderline village where they gave mobile phones to the first graders, while the graduating students and their homeroom teachers received passes to spend their fifteen-day summer vacation in the coastal city of Khosta in Sochi. The Armenian community of Sochi will also reimburse the tuition fees for the three alumni of the school pursuing their studies at universities in Yerevan.

During the festive event held in the local square and attended by head of Chinari village Samvel Saghoyan, villagers, teachers and other guests, Pastor of Berd city and Berd region of Tavush Province, Fr. Priest Aram Mirzoyan gave his blessing, Head of the Division for Relations with the Armenian Communities of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova at the RA Ministry of Diaspora Edgar Hovsepyan conveyed the welcoming remarks of Minister Hranush Hakobyan, after which the participants listened to performances of Armenian songs and watched performances of Armenian dances that lifted the spirits of the attendees even more.

“As always, the residents of Chinari received us with open arms. Generally speaking, we have become very attached to the sincere residents of this village. It is as if we are relatives. We can’t wait to meet each other again and again. Valery Muradyan was Santa Claus this year as well and managed to put smiles on the children’s faces and convey warmth to them,” Marcos Kesyan told Hayern Aysor, stating that he and Muradyan felt spiritually calm after the visit.

Valery Muradyan also touched upon the story behind the visit to Chinari. “In 2014, we invited the five students having won the school Olympiads in Armenia to the coastal city of Khosta in Sochi. Among those students was a girl by the name of Aziz Makaryan from Chinari. One evening, during a conversation, I asked each of the children what he or she wanted to become, and Aziz affirmatively said that she had decided to become a sniper to suppress the enemy’s shootings and take revenge since she can no longer tolerate the needless assaults of the enemy.

I was very touched by this and immediately came up with the idea of visiting the Chinari village on the occasion of the New Year and Christmas.”

Valery Muradyan also emphasized that after this third visit to Chinari, the visits will surely be ongoing since the people under the fire of the enemy in the borderline village, especially the children must always be in the center of attention.

Let us add that after the event, our Russia-based compatriots visited the secondary school in Chinari where they toured the classrooms and got acquainted with the results of the activities carried out at the school capitally renovated under the sponsorship of the Armenian community of Sochi.

Gevorg Chichyan