Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

A Camp At Proshyan Village

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • A Camp At Proshyan Village

    A CAMP AT PROSHYAN VILLAGE
    BY CATHERINE YESYAN

    http://asbarez.com/105090/a-camp-at-proshyan-village/
    Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

    A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being at the opening ceremony
    of a day-camp at Proshyan village about 12 km outside of Yerevan. We
    arrived at around 11:30 a.m. at the village. Our driver took us
    directly to the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) center where boys
    and girls were playing in front of the two story building.

    This was the second year that AYF Youth Corps had put together a
    week-long day-camp for kids ages 6 to 15 at the village. The camp was
    in the memory of Karot Mkrtchian, a Proshyan son, who had sacrificed
    his life in the war 20 years ago.

    Kevork Parseghian, the director of the center, welcomed us and told
    us we were right on time. They were just about to start the opening
    ceremony by taking the kids to the main square of the village where
    Karot's bust was erected.

    The leaders and counselors of the camp gathered the kids in rows
    according to their heights and together we all proceeded on foot
    towards the square which was right at the corner.

    Just before entering the square, I had a chance to chat with Nareh
    Kupelian, one of the camp counselors. She explained that all 14
    counselors, between the ages of 20 to 27, were college graduates from
    the United States and had come to Armenia as volunteers for AYF youth
    corps program to help coordinate day camps in villages throughout
    Armenia and Artsakh.

    The group had arrived a month earlier from the US and had already
    organized two-week long day camps in four different villages. This was
    the last camp that they were going to coordinate. Before assembling
    all in Proshyan they worked in groups of seven.

    As we entered the square I was pleasantly surprised to see how
    tastefully it was landscaped, with a lawn in the center and white rose
    bushes surrounding it. Karot's bust was visibly placed in the middle

    The campers line up at AYF Youth Corps camp

    With the kids lining up in front of Karot's bust, the counselors
    began to recite patriotic passages to heighten the energy level
    and encourage the kids to respond.  Watching the scene, with the
    colorful flags waving in the background and kids chanting, stirred
    up my patriotic emotions.

    The kids each received a long-stemmed white carnation, to place at
    the foot of Karot's monument.  But before flower dedication, they
    sang the Armenian National anthem, which integrates the theme of
    sacrificing one's life to free the homeland.

    We all grew up with the reverberation of the words of our national
    anthem, but the meaning of the words had never been so striking to
    me than at that moment when I stood there in Proshyan square at the
    foot of Karot's bust, and listened to the kids sing in Armenian:
    "Everywhere death is the same.  Everyone dies only ones.  But lucky
    is the one who is sacrificed for his nation."

    Karot is one of an estimated 4000 soldiers missing in action.  The
    last time Karot was seen was June 13, 1992, when he was fighting in
    mountains of Artsakh at the age of 28.  Karot was the commander of
    his troop and his friends and subordinates remember that he refused
    to retreat in that intense fight in the mountains...  Nobody has
    heard from him since then.

    Every year on June 13, Proshyan village comes together to remember
    him and to make sure he is not forgotten, hoping that one day he will
    return.  He, alongside other Karots, sacrificed his life to fulfill
    our dream of a unified Armenia and Artsakh.

    I should admit that I was very impressed by the whole affair.  I had
    not expected to see such an orderly procession and such neat buildings
    and landscaping in a village.  Later, I learned that Armenians from
    the Diaspora have been responsible for rejuvenating the village.

    The building that houses AYF has been there since the Soviet time. 
    The two-story center was renovated recently and has a gym/recreation
    room with showers.  The center provides weight lifting, boxing and
    marshal arts training as well as a folk dance classes.

    It was gratifying to see how the Proshyan AYF center, under the
    tutelage of Parseghian, is working hard to build future leaders with
    strong patriotic dispositions.  Parseghian has moved from Pasadena,
    California to live in Armenia to fulfill his father's dream who was
    an Armenian Genocide survivor.

    I'm so glad I had the pleasure of being there and meeting the leaders,
    who work day and night for the Armenian cause.  This was another
    layer of our homeland that I was not aware.

    Catherine Yesayan is a contributor to Asbarez. You may reach her at
    [email protected] or read her stories on her blog

Working...
X