65 replies to this topic

[Armen]

Young Armenians puzzle over their homeland
By Susan Sachs

International Herald Tribune

The New York Times Thursday, December 9, 2004

YEREVAN, Armenia - In a smoky corner of the Red Bull bar, a favorite
hangout for university students, Zara Amatuni mulled over the reasons
she would leave her homeland.

"It's poor, it has no natural resources, it has an undeveloped
economy and it's unlikely to be developing in the next 10 years,"
she said with a small shrug.

Amatuni, 21, imagines herself in London, or perhaps Moscow. Her
language skills might land her a good-paying job, and plenty of
Armenians have marked the trail before her.

"We can fit in anywhere," she said. "The only place we can't is
Armenia."

For young people who have come of age in an independent Armenia,
a small country with barely 3 million people, it is an awkward paradox.

Their parents grew up in a captive republic of the Soviet Union. Their
grandparents escaped the Turkish massacres of Armenians in the bloody
aftermath of World War I. For them, and for the 4-million strong
Armenian diaspora, the creation of a sovereign Armenian homeland 13
years ago was the fulfillment of a dream.

Yet the promised land has proved too constricting and its promise too
distant for the next generation's ambitions. Those who want to leave
and those who want to stay are all trying to reconcile what it means
to be Armenian.

For some, no longer being part of the empire that was the Soviet
Union means a loss of significance in the world. Then there were
opportunities for well-educated Armenians to work in Moscow and
elsewhere.

Independence, they had hoped, would propel Armenia into the wider
world, important on its own. Instead, they find themselves in a
backwater where most of the decent-paying jobs are with international
aid organizations.

"Let us build Armenia here," said Artyom Simonian, an acting student in
the struggling town of Gyumri, 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, northwest
of the capital, where residents are still recovering from a devastating
1988 earthquake.

He is one of those nostalgic for an imagined past. Like many of his
fellow students, Simonian, 21, was uncomfortable with the country's
apparent choices, integration with Europe or tighter bonds with Russia.

"We are trying to love foreigners too much," he said.

He and some other students, gathered around a small table in the
chilly cafeteria of the Gyumri Arts School, understand they have
fewer opportunities than did their parents, who learned to speak
Russian and became assimilated to Russian culture.

They long for a bigger, more muscular Armenia, a land that would
embrace what is now southeastern Turkey where their ancestors lived a
century ago. The snowy crest of Mount Ararat, now on the other side
of the border, floats on the horizon beyond Gyumri as a reminder of
that phantom homeland.

"I won't consider myself Armenian until all of sacred Mount Ararat is
in Armenia," said Alexan Gevorgian, another theater student. He saw
the world as essentially hostile and neighboring Turkey, 25 kilometers
to the west, as "an animal waiting for its prey to weaken."

His bitterness was too much for Ludvig Harutiunian, the student council
president. "We young people should leave this hostility behind,"
he protested. "I'd like Armenia to be known for good things, not
genocide and wars and victims and mourning." Harutiunian had evaluated
his prospects. His father was working in Russia, his brother was
working in Spain and he was resigned to finding a chance for artistic
expression elsewhere.

"Armenian culture is not developing and you have to go out," he said.

Simonian interrupted, chiding, "It's wrong to leave the country." The
other students fell silent.

The insular views of many of these young people dismay older Armenians
who have a sharp sense of how their own horizons have shrunk.

"For 70 years we lived in a different country, where we were open to
Russian culture and history," said Svetlana Muradian, a Gyumri mother
of six. "Kids now see nothing beyond Armenia. My only hope is that
my three sons will grow up and leave."

The students in the Red Bull bar in Yerevan were struggling with a
different facet of the same dilemma. Fluent in English and Russian as
well as their native Armenian, they were impatient with the growing
pains of a post-Soviet state and deeply cynical about politics.

To Gevorg Karapetian, a doctoral student in computer engineering,
the ideal leader would be a businessman, "someone educated and clever
enough to make relationships with the neighboring countries." The
present crowd of politicians did not measure up. "Our president and all
the presidents before him just want to be president," said Karapetian.

Unlike the less privileged students in Gyumri, he and his friends
in the capital have reached out to the world beyond Armenia's
borders. They get their news from the Internet and use it to chat with
English speakers from around the world. They regularly meet Armenians
from the United States and Russia who visit the homeland. But their
relative sophistication also makes them keenly aware of the contrast
between their aspirations and their country's opportunities, souring
even their successes.

Victor Agababov, 22, earns the princely sum of $650 a month working
as a computer programmer in Yerevan, making him the best paid member
of his university class. Yet he tends to mock his own achievement
because his job involves doing outsourced work transferred from the
United States and Japan.

"We are a cheap work force," he said.

[dianjan]

What can I say, it's sad. Unfortunately, it's something their reality, and for all of us this was a reality. That's why people leave. I read that the lowest number of Armenians actually resides in Armenia. Sad, but true.

[Armen]

I read that the lowest number of Armenians actually resides in Armenia. Sad, but true.

What do you mean Dianjan?

[Anoushik]

But don't we also hear that people are moving back to Armenia? Or are these just rumors?

I know of two families that bought a house in Yerevan and moved. Are these just isolated cases? If so, why do we often see advertisements of homes in Armenia on the Armenian television?

Edit: I should say the Armenian television of the United States.

Edited by anoushik, 10 December 2004 - 06:04 PM.

[Harut]

Unlike the less privileged students in Gyumri, he and his friends
in the capital have reached out to the world beyond Armenia's
borders. They get their news from the Internet and use it to chat with
English speakers from around the world. They regularly meet Armenians
from the United States and Russia who visit the homeland. But their
relative sophistication also makes them keenly aware of the contrast
between their aspirations and their country's opportunities, souring
even their successes.

what kind of a twisted paragraph is this? Gyumretsis don't have internet access? relative sophistication? what's that supposed to mean?

[Armen]

http://www.nytimes.c...html?oref=login

[dianjan]

What do you mean Dianjan?

There are less Armenians living in Armenia, then in the rest of the world.

[Anileve]

Some breaking news...
===========================

This is a letter sent to NY Times by a guy who knows those interviewed
>personally.

========================================================================
Your December 9 article on Armenia ("Young Armenians, Promised Land
without Promise") misinterprets the real situation and creates a false image
of Armenia. While it is true that emigration has indeed been a problem in
Armenia, as it is in all regional countries, the economy is getting
better every year and significantly fewer people are leaving than before.

What struck me the most is how you chauvinistically group young
Armenians into "relatively sophisticated" (i.e. English Internet chat room-using would-be emigrants) and backward nationalists who are too stuck up to emigrate. The reality is not that black and white. I went to school with some of the young people you interviewed. While they like to complain,
they also have opportunities to leave, but do not for reasons fully known
only to them. Part of the reason must be that Armenia has become quite
livable in recent years. The mentioned $650 a month salary in Armenia is
equivalent to over $40,000 in the United States. Young Armenians could not dream
of such salaries just a few years ago. Personally, I have moved to Boston
MA from Yerevan only 3 years ago, in order to gain American experience
and I am planning to move back to Armenia within the next two years to start
my own IT business.

[The next part didn't go into the final version]
I know Victor Aghababov and Gevorg Karapetyan mentioned in the article
very well. In fact, all three of us were from the same class in State Engineering Universityn of Armenia. They were one of many smart students in the Computer Science department and they currently both have decent
jobs, despite of them complaining about it.

Your article mentions that Victor is so frustrated with being a cheap
work force and having a salary of $650 per month that he wants to move to Moscow. Well, the funny thing is, that being a citizen of Russia and having close relatives in Moscow as well as being half-Jewish, he could have moved to either Moscow or Israel years ago. But for some reason he preferred to stay in Armenia. Every time he starts complaining to, I remind him, that having Russian citizenship, a place to stay in Moscow, open offers in Russian IT companies, certificates and PhD in computer science , he can move to Russia whenever he wants. His reply is always the same- “I don’t need that, I can live here too”. And yet, next time talking to me, he
still starts with complaining.

By the way, the last time I talked with Victor Aghababov 3 days ago,
he said he is changing his job, since he has a higher-paying job offer
from another local company. In fact, he has changes his job several times
in the last 3 years due to getting better offers from other local IT
companies. So much for limited opportunities.

The article also mentions that his salary is $650 per month.
[/End of the part that didn't go into the final version]

Sincerely,

>Nerses Zurabyan
>Currently in Boston, MA

P.S. This is beside the point, but I would like to note, that you have
>mistakenly placed the mentioned above article in the Asia Pacific
section. Geographically Armenia is situated in the Near East. By recent
political developments it is considered South-Eastern Europe.

>P.P.S. [from groul] I know this Victor guy. He is well known as a very
>consistent armenophobe on some Armenian internet forums. I wonder why
that reporter preferred to meet him but not [ ] bunch of others who
recently moved back from the US to Armenia.

Edited by Anileve, 11 December 2004 - 08:13 PM.

[Armen]

Thanks for posting that response Eve jan.

I think the article says a truth that we Armenians don't say to each other. If more Armenians choose to go back because of such articles I will be grateful to New York time and publications from the similar league.

Edited by Armen, 13 December 2004 - 01:08 AM.

[Armen]

relative sophistication? what's that supposed to mean?

I think they mean that he know what an Internet cafe is.

[Armen]

PanArmenian News
Dec 13 2004

ARMENIAN STUDENTS, WHO GAVE INTERVIEW TO NEW YORK TIMES, SAY THEIR
WORDS WERE DISTORTED


13.12.2004 18:18

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The most interesting thing is that the topics we
have focused our discussions at were not covered in the article at
all", student Zara Amatuni, who is mentioned in reporter Susan
Sachs's article called "For Young Armenians, Promised Land without
Promise" and published in New York Times on December 9, says. The
reporter "has omitted all the good that was said and left only what
was interesting to her. I said, I will do my best to stay here
because it is my country however hard it would be to live in it;
moreover a lot of improvements had already taken place. But she did
not publish it stressing the words that were said incidentally. At
that she agreed with me on everything, what, I think, is the worst of
all", Zara Amatuni continues debating on the article on www.armcb.com
forum. "Mister Aghababov is mentioned in the article as a 21-year-old
programmer, who earns all in all $650 (in the US he would receive
several times more), who has Russian citizenship, relatives with
private flat in Moscow, Sisko certificates and some offers to work in
a Moscow IT company, decided to live in Armenia", says another
participant of the debate. "It is a provocation", says Aghababov,
"Why did not she write that we all think that Armenia is
developing?". By the way, we did not hold discussions in English
chats, we just participated in forum, which was in the Russian
language", he continues. The interviewees also state that they did
not know that their photos and names would be published. They
consider that their rights were violated and are going to address a
letter to New York Times editorial office.

[groul]

dianjan,

Unfortunately, it's something their reality

Who are "they"? I lots of people whose reality is quite different. Actually it is reality that NYT wants to see here in Armenia, nothing more.

anoushik,

But don't we also hear that people are moving back to Armenia? Or are these just rumors?

Nope, not rumors. I moved back to Armenia after staying in NYC for 4 years, and having a good job there.
Just in the period of one year 6 people whom I know personally moved back to Armenia from the U.S. I am not talking about American-Armenians, I am talking about hayastancis.
And yes, there are also Armenians from Diaspora coming to settle in Armenia.

[groul]

The following is a reply written by me to Sach's article. Feel free to distribute.

IN SEARCH OF THE “ARMENIAN REVOLUTION”

Being unable to find any traces of revolutionary moods in Armenia, an American reporter came to a conclusion that there is no future in Armenia.

On November 4, 2004, an announcement appeared in one of the Armenian internet-forums, stating: “A journalist from New York Times has arrived to Armenia and wants to talk to Armenian youth. The meeting spot is the Red Bull Bar, the time of meeting is tomorrow, Friday, at 8 p.m. Welcome.”

One of the forum members, asked about what the American needed. “She simply wants to talk, and find out how Armenian youth lives”—was the answer. According to the person in charge for organizing the meeting, “she just wishes to communicate in a natural environment”.

Lets put aside the logical question of how correct it is to state that bars are the ‘natural environment’ of young Armenians. Lets move on to the second, rather unpleasant part of this story.

The meeting took place on the next day, as planned. The participants met with the journalist, talked about different issues and forgot about her rather soon. The peace was broken on 9th of December, when the Thursday issue of New York Times came out with the article by Susan Sachs, under, softly speaking, rather a depressing title, For Young Armenians, A Promised Land Without Promise. The article has also been reprinted in the International Herald Tribune under a title Young Armenians puzzled over their homeland.

The first impression one gets after reading is that the article has been written by an amateurish intern, however the second impression is that the article is a strong anti-Armenian PR. Otherwise it is hard to imagine that a professional journalist could have published such a biased and inaccurate article.

A small biographic research excludes the version of un-professionalism: Susan Sachs is the chief of the New York Times Istanbul Bureau. Before that she used to work in Moscow, and earlier, after the coalition forces entered Iraq, she led the NY Times office in Baghdad. She is one of the authors of the World Security Network foundation – the organization, which declared goal is to ‘attract attention towards the potential conflicts in the world’. Despite a quite formulation, it is possible to draw conclusions about the activities of the foundation judging by the names of the people involved into its work: high-rank diplomats, political scientists, as well as such people as the former president of Poland Lech Valensa, James Thompson, the chairman of RAND Corporation, and Chechen “human rights advocate” Akhmed Zakaev. To cut it short, Susan Sachs can be suspected in anything but the lack of experience.

Generously spreading dark colors, Sachs draws a picture of totally desperate Armenian youth ready to seek its future anywhere but in Armenia. “We are cheap labor force”, - says Viktor Aghababov, 22-year-old programmer, one of the participants of the meeting in Red Bull bar. The journalist adds that Viktor is going to leave for Moscow in search of better luck. After which, as a confirmation of her words, she reveals the amount of Viktor's monthly salary — $650.

To an average American who has no idea about the cost of life in Armenia, such a figure can really seem depressing. But alas! Since when $650 has become a scanty salary in Armenia? Six hundred fifty bucks per month are more than enough to maintain relatively high standards of life especially for a twenty-two years old (given that he does not hang out in casinos and fancy restaurants all the time). Furthermore Miss Sachs would be rather surprised to learn, that the “unsatisfied” with his Armenian perspectives Mr. Aghababov is actually a Russian citizen and can leave for “affluent” Russia whenever he wishes. However, he prefers to stay in Armenia, and several days before the publication of the notorious article he had been hired by another company for even a higher salary. No future for youth in Armenia, huh?

The article by Ms. Sachs can give an impression that Armenia is totally ruined, that the students from Yerevan are “relatively more sophisticated” than those from Gyumri and that’s only because they have more chances to communicate with English-speaking people via internet chat-rooms and forums or read news from the internet. Since when the involvement in internet chit-chatting has become a criteria for measuring person’s sophistication? The mood of the Times’ article is that the Armenians are ready to leave for abroad with the nearest possible chance. And this is being written now, when for the first time after we gained independence there is a clearly visible tendency towards the repatriation among those Armenians who have left their country in search of warmth and food during the worst years of 1991–1994.

The participants of the meeting have reacted to the article in different ways. One of them, for example, states that the words of other interviewees have been ascribed to another person quoted in the article, Zara Amatuni. Some phrases has been taken out of the context and presented in different coloring. To check this particular claim appeared to be impossible: after I told Ms. Amatuni I was preparing material about the Sachs’ article, she sharply refused to meet with me. A suggestion to write a letter to New York Times has also been left without support.

Nevertheless, both Zara and other ‘heroes’ of the publication shared some details of their conversation with the American journalist at the very forum, where the initial announcement about the meeting had been published. For instance, here is a very characteristic episode: “The most interesting thing is that the topics that we discussed in more detail than the others, have not been mentioned in the article at all. For example, when she asked what we thought about the situation in Georgia and whether it was time to organize the same in Armenia, we answered that we did not like what happened in Georgia and had no wish to repeat the same, as it would not solve our problems. I also remember Sachs said, that it was such an exciting example, when the people fought for their rights and achieved it, moreover – so elegantly, with a rose. I answered, that it only looked beautiful, and she probably did not like it, otherwise she would mention it somehow ... She has not misinterpreted our words but took them out of the context. Left out all the positive things [about Armenia] that had been said and left only what she was interested in. For example she has not published my answer to her questions, whether I would stay in Armenia, to which I replied that I would do my best to stay and live here, because despite all the difficulties, it is my country, where there have already been many changes for the better... but she took less important things which we said and focused on them”.

A good explanation to this unpleasant situation was given by the person who organized the trip from the Armenian-side (she asked not to reveal her name). She said that could never imagine what a seemingly innocent talk could turn into: “you cannot find explicit faults but you understand that the person has just turned everything [said] into her own course… she came, knowing beforehand what she was going to write, and in Armenia she was just collecting opinions to support her position”.

The article could be summed up with the moralizing lecture as to why one should always weigh his or her own words, especially while talking to journalists, in order not to complain later on that he or she has been used in an unethical manner. I could also bring dozens of opinions by young men and women, who are confident in their future under the Armenian sky. But I wish to call the readers’ attention to another more important aspect of the whole story.

This is not the only article of such kind about Armenia published recently. There is an indication that New York Times and some other Western newspapers are actively digging for dramatic plots, trying to show the world that Armenia has no future. It was just on November 13th when in Times (of London) an article by Jeremy Page was published titled “Abandoned Armenia faces extinction”, and earlier on, in July, the Washington Post delivered an article: “Exodus Is New Chapter of Loss in Armenia’s Sad Story”.

Who’s behind this campaign? Who is disturbed by the fact that Armenians finally started to return and settle down in their homeland? Who is desperate in his expectations to witness Armenia in the chaos of orange and rose riots.

Karen Vrtanesyan
Armenian electronic library
www.armenianhouse.org
Yerevan, Armenia

Emil Sanamyan, Research & Information Associate, Washington DC contributed to this article.

[dianjan]

dianjan,
Who are "they"? I lots of people whose reality is quite different. Actually it is reality that NYT wants to see here in Armenia, nothing more.

anoushik,

Nope, not rumors. I moved back to Armenia after staying in NYC for 4 years, and having a good job there.
Just in the period of one year 6 people whom I know personally moved back to Armenia from the U.S. I am not talking about American-Armenians, I am talking about hayastancis.
And yes, there are also Armenians from Diaspora coming to settle in Armenia.

By "they", I mean anyone who decided to leave Armenia (or any other Armenian who left any country from the former USSR). Also, I think that's great news that people are moving back. I only know of 1 family that moved back to Yerevan, but I hope that the numbers will increase.

[mx5]

last week I had to fly to Austria with a local friend who has insisted that on our way we stay in Istanbul for couple of days so that he can finish a business there,despite my wife's complain I agreed reluctantly,this was my first visit to anywhere in Turkey.it was one of the most chaotic countries i have ever visited.I dont believe this people have anything in common with Europe,however the point of my post is that,I had to encounter turks who after discovering that I was Armenian,one of them said they hear that out of 5 million there are now only one million Armenians left in armenia(Ermenistan),the other said the same only the number of armenians remaining was reduced to one thousand!!but realizing his "mistake"increased the number into one million!!,this was said to me at least 4 times with a bit different numbers given,looks this is a sort of Turkish state propaganda(may be not far from NYT aim).

The goal of this propaganda looks very clear to me:

1-Why Armenians claim land from us(the Turks)while they already abandoning the one they have.
2-We,the Turks didnt sack them away and done no atrocities,they just left the claimed lands by there own will as are doing now the same with their indipendent country..!!(this was litteraly said to me by one turk who discovered I was armenian.

I think we The Armenians should think seriously to go back where we belong,at least Im doing just that...

Edited by mx5, 15 December 2004 - 12:59 PM.

[groul]

I had to encounter turks who after discovering that I was Armenian,one of them said they hear that out of 5 million there are now only one million Armenians left in armenia(Ermenistan),the other said the same only the number of armenians remaining was reduced to one thousand!!but realizing his "mistake"increased the number into one million!!,this was said to me at least 4 times with a bid different numbers given,looks this is a sort of Turkish state propaganda(may be not far from NYT aim).

The goal of this propaganda looks very clear to me:

1-Why Armenians claim land from us(the Turks)while they already abandoning the one they have.
2-We,the Turks didnt sack them away and done no atrocities,they just left the claimed lands by there own will as are doing now the same with their indipendent country..!!(this was litteraly said to me by one turk who discovered I was armenian.

mx5, I guess you are 100% right.
Hayk Demoyan, an Armenian specialist in Turkish studies in his reply to Sachs' article found other parallels with Turkish propaganda:

The darker side of Susan Sachs’ “wanted ‘revolution of rose”

Hayk Demoyan, Ph.D.

If someone claims that media wars ended with the end of the Cold war, it will be easy to state the opposite. Mass media was, is and will be an effective tool for not only promoting the values of freedom and democracy, but also for manipulating the public opinion in the given country.

This statement can be proved while considering the activities of some Western journalists, especially American ones from the Turkey-based offices. Too often they play double-hand initiatives while visiting Armenia. An article authored by Susan Sachs published recently in New York Times is not an exception and continues this sad tradition. In early 90s the anti-Armenian activities of Thomas Goltz (representing various Western editions in Turkey) and his then wife of Turkish decent (who represented BBC) played a crucial role in forming a negative image of Armenia during the active phase of Artsax conflict. Perhaps this was done not without proscribed agenda recommended by the host country. The means are very simple: presenting Armenia and Armenians in the negative tones and prove this with the oversimplified visions about Russia’s “hidden hand” and Russian-Armenian partnership.

It is sad that such prominent Western periodicals, which in the time being were the main supporters of the Armenian people in their struggle for freedom and against the Soviet terror, now practice Soviet media-style propagandistic stance while reporting on the situation in Armenia.

There is no doubt that Ms. Susan Sachs visited Armenia with the earlier proscribed agenda (probably from her Turkish colleagues) what and how to present while covering Armenia. She made unfounded and oversimplified generalizations by selecting a group of teenager-interviewees (in fact, victims of her intentions) for a “friendly” discussion.

Among the interviewees is also a graduate student who, as it is written in the article, earns 650 US dollars per month and is not pleased with his country of residence. His opinion about Armenia is presented as of an Armenian young man yet he is actually a Russian citizen permanently living in Armenia.

After the article appeared on the Internet, participants of that infamous interview revealed that while speaking with her “victims” Susan Sachs actively promoted the idea of the “rose revolution” needed to be carried out in Armenia, periodically pointing to the Georgian experience of solving such question. Not only she completely failed to get a word in support of such a revolution in Armenia from the students she was talking to, but also she never mentioned that part in the final version of the article.

And the last but not least. Ms Sachs' references to Armenia-Diaspora relations repeat the well-known Turkish propagandistic rhetoric and some common clichés. Only a naive reader could miss that trick.

I regret very much that such an unprofessional piece could ever make its way into one of the top newspapers of the world.

Author of a forthcoming monograph “The Western media coverage of Artsax conflict in 1988-1990”, Yerevan, 2005, 160pp.

[Arpa]

You should consider yourself fortunate that those Turks don't remember Armenian history when the likes of Daniel Varuzhan and Siamanto abandonned their ancestral birthplaces such as Prknik and Akn in the provinces of Kharberd and Garin (Erzrum) and moved to Istanbul to be closer to their so-called ethnic and "spiritual borthers" in Paris and Geneva. And!... We know what happened to them when they were exterminated with one swoop of the scimitar in one night.

Had they stuck to their respective ineaccessible villages of the Highlands no force under the "Turkish Crescent" could have exterminated them in one single fatal night of "April 24" .
Is the trend over?
You tell us!!

[groul]

By "they", I mean anyone who decided to leave Armenia (or any other Armenian who left any country from the former USSR). Also, I think that's great news that people are moving back. I only know of 1 family that moved back to Yerevan, but I hope that the numbers will increase.

Got it. Actually Armenians love to complain. And yes there are people who want to leave. I guess it is possible to find this sort of people in the reachest countries.

This is a piece of anti-Armenian PR and even if there is some truth in it, it's there not to help us to figure out our problems or fight them (we don't need "intellectuals" from NYT to figure our problems out) but to set depressive moods.

[groul]

Is the trend over?

Considering the number of idiots from Armenia who go to Turkey for a vacation, the number of idiots who are pushing Turkish propaganda in Armenia, considering the number of businessmen who are trading with Turkey... I do not think the trend is over.

A friend of mine a few months ago said that looking at modern Armenians he now clearly understands how the genocide ever became possible. I think he is right.

[Anileve]

Nope, not rumors. I moved back to Armenia after staying in NYC for 4 years, and having a good job there.
Just in the period of one year 6 people whom I know personally moved back to Armenia from the U.S. I am not talking about American-Armenians, I am talking about hayastancis.
And yes, there are also Armenians from Diaspora coming to settle in Armenia.

Karen, I am so proud of you. You are not one of those people who only complain or talk about doing something, you actually did something about it. Now I even hear that you help Armenian interns from US with housing. Apres! But I do have to ask one thing, do you not miss anything about NYC?