-I got married and since then have been living in Kharkov for 26 years. Otherwise I would have never abandoned my prosperous Armenia. There I used to work as a teacher of Economics in one of the economic colleges in Armenia. I loved my profession very much.

– How did you begin your career towards preservation of the Armenian identity in Kharkov?

-I left Armenia as a teacher and found myself in a country with a different language and a different culture. It was shocking. I couldn’t imagine my life without my language and culture. Five years later, in 1990s, I thought to myself: “Who should found an Armenian school if not me?” After the Patriotic War it was the first Armenian school in Kharkov, with me as the headmistress. Armenians, 60-65 years old, attended our school. It was very touching. We had 11 classes then.  Some came to learn the language; others wanted to be close to the Armenian culture. I could understand them; you cannot live on without your culture. Thus, I devoted myself to preservation of the Armenian identity. In 1991 I opened the first Armenian cultural center in Kharkov. Today we have a 2-day school, a song & dance group and courses of national instruments taught at the center. It is noteworthy that with the aim of pleasing their husbands foreign language-speaking women attend our courses more actively than Armenian mothers and their children. Presently I see one immediate goal before our center – to present Armenian culture to the whole world and lead it to international recognition.

-When did you feel the necessity to write?

-I began writing at the age of 7. But my writings underwent certain thematic changes after I left Armenia. The thing is that my feelings had changed. I saw Armenians who spoke no Armenian, whereas the language saves the nation, if the nation itself preserves its language. Within the framework of the Armenian cultural center in Kharkov, which has come to be recognized also outside the city, I had my writings published and translated into Russian. So, I already have 13 published books. “Through the Eyes of Spirit” is my 14th book.

-And what do you see “through the eyes of spirit”?

-In this book through the eyes of spirit I saw the Armenians in Syria. Depicted on the cover of the book, there is the Column of Resurrection that rises up in the museum of the Armenian Genocide Martyrs’ Memorial complex in Deir ez-Zor. I deliberately chose this picture, so that Armenians could see where the life takes us if we are out of our homeland. Through the eyes of spirit I also saw the hills of Armenian martyrs’ bones. It was a dreadful scene, whereas the depraved world denies the Genocide. With these emotions I returned from Deir ez-Zor and committed to paper my thoughts and feelings.

-Why did you choose to move to Syria?

-My Syrian Armenian readers invited me to Aleppo to deliver a lecture on the life of the Ukrainian-Armenian community. Armenians in Aleppo were interested in particulars about Armenians residing in the Ukraine, USSR and Armenian SSR. I was so unhappy to have to speak Russian with my Ukraine-living countrymen, but was relieved to find out that Armenians in Syria had preserved the most important national element – their language. I was baffled to see the high level of national consciousness in children studying in an academy of 13000 pupils, where all the subjects were taught in Arabic but the children considered Armenian to be their mother tongue.

-What problems does the Armenian community in Kharkov face in preserving their national identity? Can it be compared to the Syrian Armenian community?

– The situation in Kharkov is different from that in Syria. The one-day schools in Kharkov cannot give intensive national education. For Armenians residing there Armenian is not a mother tongue, and it’s disastrous. And generally, not only the Armenians in Kharkov, Ukraine but also the Armenian Diaspora all over the world faces the problem of assimilation, as far as their national and cultural values are concerned. Based on the example of Kharkov I can say that only 30% consider Armenian to be their mother tongue, and these are those people, who left Armenia not so long ago. The one-day schools cannot manage to teach the Armenian language deeply. I believe Armenia herself must preserve the Armenian language by founding 5- or 6-day schools in diaspora.