The Armenian Weekly On-Line
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown MA 02472 USA
(617) 926-3974
[email protected]
menianweekly.com
The Armenian Weekly; Volume 73, No. 46; Nov. 17, 2007
Arts and Literature:
The Education of Ashot
By Knarik O. Meneshian
"Yes, he was here, Raffi was here in Shvanidzor in 1881," said Ashot as we
climbed up the foothill, up the steep, narrow, winding path leading to a row
of crumbled and crumbling stone houses turning to piles of stone. "And when
he came," continued Ashot, "Raffi said, ‘You must build a school in this
village!’ and the villagers did."
"This is where I was born, and this is where I received my elementary
education!" announced Ashot proudly, his green eyes sparkling as he raised
his arms to the sky. "And it was in these mountains, during Lenin’s time,
while walking one day with my father, who was a religious man, where I
learned from him what to say, what not to say. and warning me not to go to
church because I was a Gomsomol, a young Communist. I was just nine years
old.
"Ashot, what does Shvanidzor mean?" I asked the tall, gentle-voiced man of
the mountains.
"The word, according to the locals," he explained, "actually has two
meanings. The first is ‘weeping valley’ because of all the blood that was
shed protecting our land from both Turkish and Persian invaders. The second
is ‘sweet valley’ because the sun is so intense here in the southern part of
Armenia that it makes our fruits extra sweet."
As I listened to Ashot speak with such fervor in his voice, such passion in
his eyes about this rugged, jagged land of his ancestors-Weeping Valley,
Sweet Valley-I looked long and hard at the terrain before me, so
mountainous, rocky and dry, yet lush in the distance where the river Arax
flowed. So, this was Davit Beg Country! This was Zangezur! This was Siunyats
Ashkhar! This was where for centuries heroes lived, fought and died
defending home and hearth and land; where today heroes still live, but the
treacherous invaders now are joblessness and poverty.
We finally reached the rocky slope, the place where crumbled and crumbling
stone houses were once home to many. Ashot’s home, abandoned years ago for a
better life in Yerevan, still stood but was on the verge of collapsing,
while all that remained of the house next to his was the toneer (a
bell-shaped clay oven placed in the ground) and a partial wall. That house
had been his relative Suren Hagobjani Hovhannesian’s (my father) childhood
home. I touched the wall, walked over to where the toneer room had been, and
thought, My father was born here, seven children and their mother and father
had lived here-here, where once a one-room house with a hearth, a toneer
room, and a balcony overlooking the dirt road below had stood. This was
where he was orphaned at nine, finished the village school, a
grades-one-to-four elementary school, and left in 1917 to live with his
uncle in Yerevan where, yet a child, he worked in a shop and continued his
education, eventually earning his teaching degree in 1930 from the
Mangavarzhagan Tekhneegoom by attending its evening classes.
In those days, children began first grade at age seven, sometimes eight, and
while some villages had schools up to grade four, others had schools up to
grade seven. First graders learned the alphabet, the numbers, adding,
subtracting and multiplication. By the second half of the school year they
began reading lessons. Today, villages such as Shvanidzor offer a higher
level of education; its teachers have university degrees; and a number of
the students go on to study at universities and institutes.
Traveling by foot from one’s village to a nearby one or moving to a town or
city in pursuit of a better or higher education was not uncommon as far back
as the 1840s, when the revival of Armenian learning and literature had
already begun. In the case of a student who wished to continue his or her
education and the family was able to arrange such a move, the student would
either be placed with relatives or friends while he or she attended school
or enrolled in a boarding school. Such arrangements were also the practice
in Armenian regions in Turkey.
"Ashot," I asked, "are there any churches in this village?" I had not seen
any domes.
"Look over there, on that hill beyond the trees," he replied as he pointed
to one of Shvanidzor’s three churches nestled in between a cluster of
houses.
The small 17th-century church with a slanted roof had no dome. It was the
style in this village of 112 households (as of 2004). Not far from the
village, there was yet another style church. Built in the 10th century of
small stones and mud, the square-shaped church, with two small slits for
windows, was built partially underground and had a flat roof. This place of
worship was not easily noticeable in the rocky terrain where lizards and
scorpions scurried about, where Turkish villages had been built (prior to
and during Soviet times) between the existing Armenian ones. As I thought
about the various churches and ancient monasteries I had seen throughout
Armenia, I began thinking about the important roles they, as well as the
pagan temples during the pre-Christian era, played in the history of the
people, one of them being early education. During medieval times, 10th to
14th centuries, courses such as medicine, the natural sciences and
philosophy were taught at such monasteries as Datev (in the Zangezur
region), Gladzor, Haghbat and Sanahin; at Akhtamar, Ani, Sis, and Yerznga,
where the education at the time was dominated by Christian influence. Many
who attended these learning centers were secular people.
The educational institutions associated with the monasteries of Datev,
Gladzor and Sanahin (all three in Eastern Armenia) were considered
universities, while the monasteries of Haghbat (in Eastern Armenia),
Naregavank and Varagavank (both in the Van Province) were considered
schools. These monastic centers of learning played a major role in preparing
teachers. In addition to the courses mentioned, students also studied
architecture, astronomy, geometry, handwriting, history, music, mathematics,
painting and other sciences. Some of the teachers that taught at these
centers were Anania Shiragatsi and Grikor Datevatsie.
As Ashot and I began making our way down the slope, I asked, "How did the
women and children carry water from the nearby chaheriz (centuries-old,
man-made underground canal which provides potable water) all the way up
here, every day, all year long?"
"Stone steps used to line this path," Ashot explained, "making the climb up
and down much easier. But time and the elements have crumbled and swept away
the steps just like the houses. You see, because arable land is scarce in
this area, we have always had to build our homes up high in the hills in
order to cultivate the land below for food, for our livelihood. In addition,
the vantage point and the secret passages between the houses served us well
during times of danger."
As I looked up at the rocky slope one last time, I thought, Besides the
teachers in the pagan temples, the monasteries and the schools, by far the
most demanding and exacting of teachers were the rugged terrain, turbulent
history and harsh life of the Armenian people.
Walking again on flat land free from rolling pebbles and stones and thorny
weeds, we were greeted on the side of the road by a sleepy cow, lazily
waving her tail in the air, and chickens clucking and pecking in the dirt.
"Barev dzez," (Hello to you) we said to a group of old and young men sitting
in the shade smoking and talking, and to some old women sitting on a log,
staring into the dusty distance. Somberly, they greeted us too, and we
continued on our way. Nearby, a young girl about ten or twelve years old sat
on a tree stump reading a book. She reminded me of another girl, who was
about her age in 1991, studying in her frigid kitchen in Yerevan during
Armenia’s bleak days when the country was still traumatized by the physical
and emotional damages caused by the 1988 earthquake, and the political and
economic upheaval and uncertainty that prevailed. I remembered 1991 and my
students in the little blue school house in Jrashen, a village next to
Spitak, and how eager they were to learn despite the lack of food, water,
heat and electricity. Our English classes would often times be held in a
large closet where a broken sink, a broom and a mop were kept. For the
entire class period, the lesson would be conducted standing shoulder to
shoulder with coats on. The students, both the younger ones and the older
ones, were eager and enthusiastic to learn. In the mud, in the snow, in
shabby clothes and shoes, with worn-down pencils and flimsy notebooks, and
some in poor health, they came every day to learn English, even on holidays.
Whether in the villages, towns, cities or the capital Yerevan, schools were
open and education continued despite all adversity.
"See that girl reading over there," said Ashot pointing to the girl sitting
on the tree stump, "she reminds me of a scene from one of Raffi’s (Hakop
Melik-Hakopian, 1835-1888, born in Persia) writings. He had just returned
home with great excitement and enthusiasm to Payajuk, a village in the
Salmast region of Persia, in 1856 after receiving his education in Tiflis,
Georgia, first at the Garabed Belakhian School (established in 1846), a
private Armenian prep-school, and then at the Russian Gymnasium. (The
prep-school offered boarding, specialized in Armenian studies and prepared
students for the gymnasium (high school.) Learning much and exposed to new
ideas, curricula and methods of teaching other than the harsh, overly
pedantic and unproductive Der Totik Dbrots (village schools run by priests)
style of teaching, he was filled with a passionate desire to educate and
enlighten his fellow Armenians. One day, as he was walking around his
village, he came across a young teenage girl sitting near a spring. Raffi
asked her, ‘Do you know how to read?’
"The girl responded, ‘I am not a deeratsoo (one studying for the priesthood)
or a priest that I need to learn or know how to read.’"
"Raffi felt strongly that women needed to be educated for the enlightenment
of the nation, and as he pondered the young girl’s response, he thought to
himself, Poor girl, I will remove the confusion from your innocent mind.
Reading is more important for you than for the deeratsoo and the priest. You
must educate the new generation, and you must smooth the path for our bright
future! Yes, you must learn to read! It will be then that you will no longer
be a poor and pitiable creature, and your children will live good and happy
lives."
Soon after Raffi’s return home to Payajuk, he and a friend opened a school
to provide the children of the village with a modern education.
Unfortunately, due to fierce opposition from the clergy and the Prelate, the
school was shut down, and his dream of opening a girls’ school never
materialized.
In 1810, the Armenian community in Astrakhan, Russia, opened its first
school, the Aghababian School. Earlier, in 1780, the Armenian community in
Calcutta, India, had opened a school, and in 1821 they opened the Armenian
college, Mardasiragan Jemaran (depending on the curriculum, the jemaran is a
high school or a junior college), which trained numerous teachers and men of
letters for forty years. In the early 1800s, the Murad-Rafaelian School was
opened in Venice by the Mkhitarists. In Moscow, the Lazarian College was
established in 1815. Initially, an elementary school for poor children, in
1820 it became a gymnasium, where along with basic subjects, Arabic,
Armenian, French, German, Latin, Persian, Russian and Turkish were also
taught. It was renamed the Lazarian Institute for Oriental Languages in
1827, and in the 1830s received the title of Second-Level Educational
Institution. Later, the school was known as the Moscow Institute for Eastern
Studies, and during the Soviet era it was known as the Institute for the
History of Asian Peoples. Mikael Nalbandian, who graduated from the
University of St. Petersburg, earning the title of professor, was one of the
teachers that taught at Lazarian College. Some of the school’s well-known
graduates were Rafael Patkanian (Kamar Katiba), Vahan Terian, Leo Tolstoy
and Ivan Turgenev.
In the Russian Empire, freedom was given in 1836 to its ethnic communities
to open their own schools. Etchmiadzin was given permission to open one
school associated with each active church, and one school for each of the
six regions subject to Etchmiadzin. Prior to 1836, though, Armenian schools
had opened in Astrakhan, Nor Nakhichevan (near Rostov-On-Don), and in
Kizliar and Mozdok in southern Russia north of the Caucausus Mountains.
This crucial period in the history of the Armenians-the 1800s-marked the
revival of education and the establishment of schools and learning centers
for all the people, not just the select few. This period of enlightenment
was met with zeal, idealism and a sense of renewal.
Before 1800, nearly all education for the Armenians was controlled by the
church in order to train clerics and to preserve the literature of Classical
Armenian. Armenians in the Caucasus had very few if any schools before the
Russian annexations. With the existence of the Aghababian, Gogoian and
Lazarian schools in Astrakhan, Nor Nakhichevan and Moscow, respectively, the
Zharangavorats Seminary in Etchmiadzin (opened 1813), and the Nersisian
Jemaran in Tiflis, Armenian learning in the Caucasus or Eastern Armenia
began to take shape and branch out to the churches and homes where usually
one devoted teacher would teach. By the end of 1836, there were twenty-one
Armenian church schools.
In Tiflis, the Nersisian Jemaran was established in 1824, and had three
grades with 80 students the first year. By the 1885-86 school-year it had
seven grades with 487 students, and by the end of the 1800s it had 712
students. The school graduated its last 25 students in 1924. The following
year it was converted to a trade school. Some well-known Nersisian School
graduates were Khachatur Abovian, who later taught in Tiflis (from 1837 to
1843), Derenik Demirjian, Anastas Mikoyan and Hovhannes Toumanian. Besides
the Garabed Belakhian School, the Gayanian and Hovnanian Girls’ Schools in
Tiflis were also opened in the 1800s, as were the Yegheesabetian Girls’
School in Akhltskha, Georgia, and the Mariam-Ghoogasian School in Shushi,
Karabakh.
After leaving Tiflis, Khachatur Abovian, (1809-1848-born in Kanaker on the
outskirts of Yerevan) a progressive thinker, who had studied in Dorpat,
Germany (now Tartu, Estonia), and read works by Kant, Rousseau, Goethe and
Schiller, believed that students should be treated kindly, with respect and
in a pleasant teaching environment. He also believed strongly in education
for girls. (Mkrtich Khrimian Hairig and Raffi had similar beliefs and
implemented such teaching approaches as well.) Abovian was both a teacher
and principal at the Yerevan Regional School from 1843 to 1848. The school
was established in 1832 with three grades. Later, pre-gymnasium and
gymnasium level grades were added. Because of Abovian’s progressive,
nurturing and encouraging approach to education, during his second year as
principal at the school the number of students increased from 90 to 190. The
majority of students were Armenian, while the remainder was a mixture of
other ethnic students, including Russians and Adrbajanies. Classes were
conducted in Russian, and the major subjects taught were mathematics,
religion and Russian. In addition to their regular subjects, the Armenian
students also studied Armenian, and the Adrbajanie students studied Turkish.
In the school’s pre-gymnasium level-grade four-French, geography, history
and Latin were taught. At the gymnasium level-grades five through
eight-Greek and physics were taught. In 1881, the school became a gymnasium
with eight grades and two pre-college grades. The gymnasium offered boarding
and had a library and workshop. In 1925, the school was renamed Abovian
School.
The Gevorgian Jemaran, founded at Echmiadzin in 1874, was dedicated to the
training of priests and teachers. Gradually, it became a college with a
strong emphasis on Armenian scholarship, and its religious character grew
less. Later in the century, the jemaran became a hotbed for political
activity. Both the Gayanian School in Yerevan and the Arghootian School in
Alexandropol (later known as Leninakan, and now Gyumri) were opened in the
1800s. Emphasis on education for the Armenians in Persia came later in the
1800s, whereas it came earlier for the Armenians in Eastern Armenia-Yerevan,
Nakhichevan, Zangezur and Karabakh-within the Russian Empire, especially in
Tiflis, and the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
In the mid 1800s, American and French missionaries had established schools
in the Urmia region in predominately Assyrian areas. A number of Armenian
students attended these schools where they studied English and French. In
Tavriz, Persia, the Aramian School was opened in the mid 1850s, and schools
in New Julfa (Isfahan), where many illuminated manuscripts were produced,
also opened. Raffi taught history and Armenian at the Aramian School from
1875 to 1877. During this period, he modernized the curriculum, introduced
new teaching methods, and was instrumental in secularizing the school,
"which earlier was run by ignorant deeratsoos." In 1877, he was invited to
teach at a boys’ school and a girls’ school in the town of Verin Agulis in
the Nakhichevan Province in Eastern Armenia. (During the 1600s, eight
thousand Armenian families lived in Agulis. They had schools and a library.)
In the Ottoman Empire, even though minorities were finally given the right
to open their own schools in 1789, it was by the second half of the 1800s
that Armenian schools and other schools that Armenians attended began
opening in large numbers. In Constantinople and Smyrna, however, a number of
boys’ and girls’ schools already existed in the 1840s, one of them being the
Mesrobian College, which had opened in 1825 in Smyrna. In both cities there
had been schools for the training of trade apprentices, and small church
schools where priests taught religion, reading and writing to neighborhood
children. In Constantinople, the Nersesian Varzharan and the Skudar College
were well known. By the end of the 1800s, nearly every Armenian village had
at least one school. In areas with large Protestant and Catholic
communities, those denominations also opened schools. Later, with the
re-establishment of the Ottoman Constitution in 1908, reading rooms and
lecture halls were also established in Armenian villages and towns.
In Kharpert, schools were opened by French, German, Italian and Spanish
missionaries, as well as by the Armenian Evangelical Union and the Armenian
(Catholic) Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in the 1800s. At the
missionary schools, boys and girls attended separate classes at the high
school and college levels. In the lower grades, co-education was practiced.
A theological seminary was founded by American Missionaries in 1859-named
Armenia College in 1876, and renamed Euphrates College in 1888. The Kharpert
Central School was founded in 1887. The writers Hamasdegh and Totovents were
students at the school.
In the city of Erzerum, a center for manuscript production, there were ten
community schools, with one established in 1811. There was one Catholic
school for boys, established in 1867, run by the Mkhitarist Order of Venice;
one Catholic school for girls, run by the Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception; and two schools, one for boys and one for girls, maintained by
the Protestant community. The Hripsimian Girls’ School, one of the community
schools, was established in 1875. The Sanasarian Varzharan was founded in
1881 and served as a teacher-training center. Although the school was closed
in 1912, it opened later in Sebastia in the same year. The Kavafian School,
a co-educational elementary school, was established in 1905. Karmir Vank, a
monastery near the village of Hintsk, in the province of Erzerum, was a
center of education, which included an orphanage, hospital and leprosarium.
Some of Erzerum’s teachers received their education at the Tiflis and
Echmiadzin schools, where they had been trained as specialists in the fields
of Armenian history, language and literature.
In the 1800s, American missionaries associated with the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions arrived in the province of Sebastia and
established a number of educational institutions including an elementary and
a high school for boys and similar schools for girls. In 1886, they
established Anatolia College in Marsovan, where the students and teachers
were largely Armenian, a kindergarten, and a school for the deaf. In the
same city, the American Boarding School for Girls was renamed Anatolia Girls’
School in 1886. Among the large number of schools in the city of Sebastia
that existed in the 1880s, there were the Aramian and Seraydarian Boys’
Schools and the Hrispimian Girls’ School. The Sivas Normal School for Boys,
a secondary level school, was established in 1880 and became Sivas Teacher’s
College in 1912. Armenian Catholics and Protestants also established schools
in Sebastia. Among the schools in Adana were the American School for Girls,
a Jesuit school for girls, a French college and the Mouseghian School.
In Van, Mkrtich Khrimian, reverently known as Khrimian Hairig (1820-1907,
born in Van), established a seminary at Varak Monastery in the 1850s. It was
the first school in the area that provided modern teaching methods,
including the absence of corporal punishment. He trained and encouraged
teachers to create a positive and pleasant learning atmosphere as well as to
treat students compassionately, and instill in them patriotism and love for
the homeland. He believed in the education of girls, and was against the
"Oriental idea that husbands have a right to rule over their wives by
force." Earlier in the 1840s, a number of boys’ and girls’ schools had been
established in the region where a number of scriptoria existed in monastic
centers of learning. The Yeramian School had been opened in Van in the
1800s. Schools established by Mekertitch Portugalian (1848-1921, born in
Constantinople), a prominent and inspiring educator, were the Varzhabetanots
(Normal School), and Gedronagan Varzharan (Central Gymnasium).
Unfortunately, both schools were short-lived.
Our visit to Shvanidzor had come to an end, but before it was time for Ashot
and I to get on the bus back to Yerevan, I asked him if we could stop at the
village cemetery. "So, you want to visit the geereezmodee dooz," he said in
his melodic Shvanidzor dialect. I nodded, wondering, What kinds of stories
will the headstones tell? Most certainly, history lessons for another day,
but for now a quick look would have to do.
The bus back to Yerevan was full. Among the passengers were two families
>From Agarak, a neighboring town. They had locked the doors of their homes
permanently in pursuit of a better life, one in Yerevan, and the other in
Russia.
The following day, Ashot and I continued our discussion on education as we
strolled up and down the bustling streets of Yerevan. Much had changed in
the capital and throughout the country since I first saw it in 1975, and
then several more times beginning in 1990. But, the enthusiasm for learning
among most of the students I had seen had not changed and remained equally
strong whether in the Yerevan schools, such as the Aghbalian and Pushkin
schools I visited in 1990, or schools in the regions such as the ones where
I had taught in a remote village school and a city public school. As in the
past, the rote method of teaching is still prevalent. Teachers generally sit
behind their desks as they teach, and students rise when the teacher enters
the classroom.
During the 1800s, a number of schools were opened in Yerevan: the Yerevan
Regional School, 1832; the Armenian Religious School, 1837; the Yerevan Boy’s
School, 1850; the Nork Community School, 1860; the Gayanyan Girls’ School,
1866; and the Teacher’s Seminary (the seminary was a three-story, black
stone, Russian era building located on Abovian Street), 1881. Also opened
were the Library in 1865 and the Printing House in 1874. Some of the
periodicals on education during this period were: Dasdeearak, (Educator),
published 1873-74, Crimea; Dbrots (School), published 1874-76, Vagharshabat;
Mangavarzhagan Tert (Pedigogic Newspaper), 1882-84, Tiflis; Aghbuir
(Source), 1883-1918, Tiflis. Of significant importance was the first
Armenian Teachers’ Conference that took place in Tiflis in 1882.
"Had your father been alive and walking with us right now," said Ashot with
excitement in his voice, "he would have been amazed at the progress that has
been made in this city where he witnessed the birth of Armenia’s First
Republic, in this country where later, during Stalin’s reign, he was
arrested and tortured for his anti-government beliefs and writings, thus
becoming a political prisoner in Siberian prisons."
Just then, I remembered one of my students in Jrashen in 1991. He was a
quiet, studious boy, no more than ten years old, who one day during our
reading lesson suddenly blurted out, "Deegeen (Mrs.) Knarik, Lenin babeeguh
sadgets! (Grandpa Lenin croaked!)" Yes, much had changed in the country.
During the First Republic, the fledgling democratic nation, which existed
for almost two and a half years, was faced with a number of trials and
tribulations. Despite them, the government had vision and a goal to lift the
people from its centuries-old web of oppression and ignorance. Of utmost
concern was the welfare of the people; therefore, social programs were
begun, such as education and the establishment of schools and institutions
of higher learning, health and hygiene, and land distribution to farmers.
Public lecture series were begun in Yerevan and various places throughout
the country. The Minister of Education, Nikol Aghbalian, planned to have
1,500 elementary schools in operation by 1921, and to further develop
schools of higher learning (in 1908, Yerevan had 31 schools and 3,724
students, predominately Armenians). Funds were allocated for textbooks,
adult literacy classes, indigent students and children who lost family
members in defense of Armenia. Plans were made for a seven-year military
academy in Kars, a medical school in Yerevan, and technical schools in
Alexandropol and Yerevan. In 1919, Yerevan opened its first hospital, which
included an obstetrics and gynecology department.
Founded in 1919, the State University of Armenia (later renamed Yerevan
State University) was opened in 1920 in Alexandropol, with plans to expand
the university and transfer the campus to Yerevan in the fall, where it
would temporarily be housed in the building of the Teacher’s Seminary on
Abovian Street. Allocations were made for faculty housing and the purchase
of books from abroad. By September 1920, six hundred thirty two men and
women had registered for the fall term, and a number of internationally
renowned Armenian scholars returned to Armenia to teach at the university.
After the Red Forces entered Yerevan on April 2, 1921, life changed
drastically for the people in Armenia. The nation’s hard-fought albeit brief
independence would be squelched for decades until it came again on September
21, 1991.
During the Soviet period, education continued to excel and schooling was
free, including at the university level. In 1921, twenty-two new schools
were opened, eighteen primary and four secondary. During the same year, the
medical school reopened, and a music school was started. In 1922, the Fine
Arts School was opened, and in 1923 the Mangavarzhagan Tekhneekoom.
During the 1930-31 period, a literacy program was instituted (during the
First Republic such a program had already been initiated and existed in
1919), and night schools associated with factories were opened so that
workers could continue their education. In 1930, mandatory primary education
(4th grade) was initiated. In 1940, the mandatory grade level was seven, and
in 1969 it was eight.
It must be noted that after the 1915 genocide, Armenian communities in the
Middle East opened many Armenian schools, including secondary level, and in
some communities post-high school educational institutions.
In Armenia today, the education system is as follows: pre-school or
kindergarten; elementary school (grades 1-3); basic school (grades 4-8);
high school (grades 9-10); and higher education. Primary and secondary
education is free. Higher level education is free only for a limited number
of students who score high on entrance exams.
"Come," said Ashot in his impassioned and cheerful manner, "let us walk a
little more!" The statue of Vartan Mamigonian soon came into view. We
stopped to watch some children at play. Their happy sounds felt good, like
the warmth of the sun on a chilly day. Suddenly, Ashot grew quiet and
withdrawn, and the glimmer in his eyes was gone. I wondered what had
happened, but dared not ask. In an attempt to get his mind off of whatever
was distressing him, I said, "Ashot, I cannot believe we have walked so far!
Nearby is the kindergarten I visited in 1991. I remember it so well. It was
autumn, and the children were welcoming voske ashoon (golden autumn) and all
its bounty, with songs and dances and recitations."
Ashot sighed and slowly nodded his head as he continued watching the
children. Suddenly, more to himself then to me, he said, "Heema hasgatsa vor
sood er, amen eenchuh sood er! (I have now understood that it was a lie, it
was all a lie.) Look around you now. Look what has been accomplished so far
under our own flag! It can only get better for us, including my Weeping
Valley, Sweet Valley. Yes, voske ashoon will soon be here. Let its bounty be
reaped by all, and let it be used with wisdom, foresight and benevolence!"