American born "extreme" Armenian who returned to Armenia
When I landed, I had no family members who lived in Armenia, no house, no connections and no close friends whom I grew up with. I would also like to add, that I did not get a job offer from Armenia or any help from any of the Armenian organizations. During this year, I was able to buy a house and remodel it, buy furniture, become a citizen, get my army booklet, open a bank account, make connections and continue my online business. In other words, I can say that I was able to fully integrate into the society here in this short amount of time. Of course, I am not writing this to brag about myself, I am merely stating that if someone like me who wasn’t rich at all, had absolutely NOTHING in Armenia, and who was merely teaching physics at a college in California, could move to Armenia using only his willpower, then anyone can do it, if they REALLY WANT it. I have said it before and I will say it again: moving to Armenia was the best decision of my life thus far, my only regret is that I did not make the move sooner. In any case, it is better late than never, everything has its time.”
This is the kind of post rarely seen on Facebook. The author is 28 year old Hayk Nazaryan: not the kind of Armenian one meets often, and during the interview it amazed me how someone who was born in the States, went to the American schools and university, and grew up in a multi-cultural environment have such a nationalist mindset. But as Hayk said himself: everything starts from ones genes and blood.
Speaking of genetics, in a few words let me mention a little about Hayk’s father Robert Nazaryan. He was one of the dissidents during the Soviet era, who spent 7 years in prison, and after being released in the 1980’s he left Soviet Armenia and went to the United States in 1988. In 2016, when Hayk decided to continue his life in Armenia, he moved back with him after being absent from the Fatherland for almost 30 years. Robert Nazaryan’s life story is an interesting one in itself, which we can come back to for a separate occasion. Now about why Hayk dropped out of high school in America, why he was not being able to integrate into society there, and how he came to the decision to move to Armenia.
Hayk was often rebellious in the American schools. He didn’t like the school system there. He said that people in Armenia have the wrong idea about American schools, and they try to imitate it as if it’s progressive. “There is a lot of manipulation and falsification that takes place, it is more about indoctrination than education”, said Hayk, and added, that during the years he attended school, he never once was given a book to read written by Shakespeare or Jack London, “instead stories about the Holocaust fraud and about how blacks were mistreated, in other words, it was all Jewish propaganda, which I was strongly against”.
The only subject, which he had no objection against and studied really well, was mathematics. “I studied it, because it was the only subject, which is not possible to falsify”, said Hayk.
When he was 16, they finally expelled Hayk from high school, because he wasn’t taking his classes seriously and not reading the books assigned to him. Instead, he read his own preferred books at home. After dropping out of school altogether, Hayk began working. After 3 years he went back to school by getting accepted to Glendale Community College to pursue a degree in physics. Then he transferred to the California State University Northridge physics department. After he received his Bachelor of Science degree, he decided to give himself a present by visiting Armenia for the very first time.
It was in 2013 and he visited for six weeks. Since he had no close family, he asked one of his friends in Armenia to rent him an apartment. “My friend found an apartment for me near Garegin Nzhdeh square, and I thought that it might be a nice place since it is named Garegin Nzhdeh. But it turned out to be something completely different”, as he laughingly remembered.
During the six weeks, Hayk was not only able to not only visit the Republic of Armenia, but also visit Artsakh. He returned to USA more motivated and determined to move to Armenia.
In 2015, he received his Master of Science degree, and then began working at Glendale Community College as a physics lab instructor. He began to think about moving to Armenia much more seriously, because he didn’t feel any fulfillment from the life he lived there, which is why the decision to move to Armenia became firm in his mind. In 2016, during the events of the April War, he wanted to go to Armenia right away, and he finally did in November of the same year.
Since the first day he came, his goal has been to enlist in the Armenian Armed Forces as a contract soldier. “Since I live in Armenia, I must serve. When people ask me, “have you served”, I want my answer to be, “yes”. Everyone must serve, including our rulers, because a ruler must also be a leader, and serve as an example to others. I want to do my part and set an example to all the Armenians patriots in the diaspora, and inspire them. I am not sure how many people from the diaspora came to Armenia to volunteer in the army, in any case, someone must take the first step, so why not me?”.
Hayk wishes to serve near the border: because he believes, that if he is enlisting as a volunteer, then he must go to the difficult places.
Patriotic ideas for the 28 year old young man are solid as a rock, just as his favorite subject mathematics, which requires logical proofs.
“For me someone is Armenian who lives in Armenia and speaks Armenian. I had two choices: either stay in America and assimilate by becoming an American, which is a normal phenomenon, or move to Armenia and remain Armenian. I chose the latter option”.
Hayk doesn’t accept the criticisms from the Armenians outside of Armenia: “the flag waving fake patriots in the diaspora need to shut their big mouths when it comes to Armenia’s internal political affairs, especially when they have no goal to return for permanent residence. I am positive, that even if today’s government was to go away as many of the diaspora wish, and the best government was to replace it with Jesus Christ as president, even then the majority wouldn’t move to Armenia”.
Being born and raised in the United States, Hayk came to the conclusion, that there is corruption everywhere, and the most corrupt government is the one found in Washington D.C. In general, Hayk’s views on America are different from the accepted standards. For example, he believes that America preaches freedom, but in reality it is the greatest enemy of freedom.
Hayk has adoration for the Armenian language. When he was 17, he decided to improve his Armenian all by himself, which in the US it is only at a basic non-professional level. Now as he lives in Armenia, he wishes to perfect it. He says that he must speak and write it excellently, in spite of the fact, that Hayk is able to speak Armenian better than many Armenians who were born and raised in Armenia.
On his Facebook page, Hayk often posts about the Armenian language, for example he quoted Khazaros Aghayan: “it is not enough to love your nation and your country; you must also love your language”.
Hayk believes that the language is the cornerstone of our culture, which must be kept free from foreign words, in the same way that our blood must be kept free from foreign genes and our land from foreign enemies. “You can say that I am a different kind of an extremist, if I am Armenian, then I can’t be a half-ass Armenian, I must be full on Armenian”.
Ani Gasparyan
