Khachig Joukhajian Reflects On His Youth Corps Experience

“One thing that comes to mind, which puts the entire trip into context for me is this; we were almost at the end of our trip, on our way to the last housing we would stay at together (a hostel in Yerevan). My pants were torn from the hike up to the peak of Arakadz, half my face sunburned from taking a nap next to some rocks on the hike down, and generally exhausted from the long journey that was this summer, and suddenly, I started singing to myself. “Verkerov lii, jan fedayi enk, taparagaan dooon choonenk…”

Thats when I stopped, and thought to myself, “that line describes us.” We had a rare opportunity, to go from Yerevan to Artsakh, to Gyumri, to Javakhk, to Broshian and now back to Yerevan again, meet comrades from all over this country and from all over the world, develop friendships with all of them, have deep meaningful conversations, drink to heartfelt toasts, and sing songs of our ancestors together. We had the opportunity to share messages of justice and hope with the children at our day camps, through the stories we told and the songs we taught, to leave lasting (and hopefully exemplary) impressions upon them, and to learn so much from the process and from our interactions with every person we met.To record our work through media interviews, blog writing, video recording and to share it with the local and international community in the hopes of inspiring further action. Always in constant motion, moving from one place to the next, in the brief flash that was that summer.

And that line of Verkerov Li is just that. The legacy of our fedayis, the Tashnagtsagans of the 1890s who traveled from city to city, village to village, spreading the same message, through the same ways, that we were also lucky enough to be a part of.” If you want to experience what Khachig did, make sure to fill out your application now! www.ayfyouthcorps.org/apply …applications are due March 31st!