News

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Thoughts of an Armenian Atheist

And then I am soon reminded by the many crosses that our country bears that we are apparently a very dedicated Christian people. The sadness I feel then slowly turns into anger. Personally, it baffles me at how submissive people seem to act when it comes to religion. Despite pain, suffering, death, war, famine, disease, and genocide; people still have an undying love for God and their religion. How can people suffer through so much hardship and still bear to turn the other cheek.
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Our Home away from Home

Vrej Haroutunian came to pick me up from the Zvartnots airport a day too soon. Vache Tomassian waited at the airport for four hours until he saw my face. My poor leaders. It was a troublesome journey getting to Armenia and it seemed like all these obstacles in the way didnt want me seeing Armenia for the very first time. But I got my way and had the most amazing summer ever.
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Not Goodbye, But See you Later

It has been over a week that I've been “home”. A week of seeing friends and family that I hadn't seen for six weeks, but the people and buildings I was missing the most were the people I lived with for six weeks and my homes that I had in Armenia. Instead of turning the radio on and listening to the new popular songs in Los Angeles I have a CD of songs that we would always sing in Armenia whether it be “Made in Armenia” by Grisho (our Gyumri theme song) or “Kharapaghtsi”.
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The Modest Approach: Traditional Feminity in Armenia

Preparing a visit to Armenian cities like Gyumri and Shushi oftentimes requires a reevaluation of the standards of female modesty set in the United States. Our leaders were careful to instruct and remind the women, who comprised the majority of the group, not to smoke in public, not to drink profusely in public, never to walk without male supervision, and in general not to be revealing in either clothing or behavior. While this task might seem conservative, sexist, or daunting at first, many of the rewards prove to be well worth the temporary adjustment of our social mores.
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Overcoming My Fears

This has been a life-changing six weeks, and I am definitely not prepared for it to end. The first blog I wrote was at LAX as I was getting ready to head to Armenia. It seems appropriate that I finish up my final one in LAX again, this time as I wait for Delta Airlines to figure out what happened to my luggage. During my first attempt at blog-writing, I was nervous that the kids might not like me, but now I’m trying to not cry as I think of all the smiling faces we would see everyday. I’m really going to miss all the hugs and excitement at camp.
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I Left my Heart in Shushi

Wednesday at 9 pm the decision was made for a few of the AYF Youth Corps participants to join AYF youth from all over the world for a pan Armenian panagoom (camp). Those of us who were fortunate to participate were very excited by this decision and knew that it would be an amazing addition to our trip. Because the decision was last minute, we needed to leave Thursday at 3pm before the closing of our Shushi jambar. Not only did we have to do laundry, pack our stuff, and prepare to leave, worst of all we had to leave our kids in Shushi.

The Hrayr Maroukhian Foundation: Social democracy in practice

The Hrayr Maroukhian Foundation (HMF), a social democratic think tank founded in 2009 in the Republic of Armenia is a non-profit Armenian foundation committed to the development and advancement of public policy issues that espouse the basic values of social democracy through education, training, research, and regional and international cooperation.
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