Little Armenias: It’s a Small World After All

What has happened since to the country makes him “very, very sad.”

“We are losing one of the greatest diasporas,” he said, referring to Syria, but also adding Lebanon. “Syria and Lebanon were the hearts of the diaspora.”

He added that Syria was “the coolest place,” where he found efficient classes and structure.

“You still had some freedom, more than in other Middle Eastern countries,” he added.

Syria is near and dear to him for another reason; his paternal grandparents moved to France from Aleppo.

He next lived in Russia for two years, working in Moscow.

“It was very different,” he said.

“I was surprised that in every single city in Russia, you have an Armenian population,” he said.

Koulaksezian started to think about creating an online tool for travelers, something which to his mind, was akin to the popular Lonely Planet series, which are packed with details, distances and activities.

He received an AGBU Noubar Nazarian YP Innovators Fund to start the diasporan project online. The idea, he explained, is to create tours and maps, offering “structures to make places you can visit.”

He is working on the maps, tours and excursions on the website.

He has loved many of the cities he has visited. When asked about Iran, he said, “I am very interested in Iran. I like its history,” he said. He had visited there by taking a bus from Yerevan, which took 26 hours.

When he visited Tehran, he still did not speak Armenian well. “My English was OK,” he said, and that is how he got by.

“The people were helping me a lot,” he said.

He also added that he was surprised by the sizes of the Armenian populations in Ukraine and Brazil.

The latter, especially, was a revelation for him. “It was very interesting. Much better than I expected.”

Another city that offered a large and semi-hidden diaspora was Mexico City, he said. “There are generations that came after the Genocide. There were many boats that came from Veracruz.”

In fact, he explained, the community there is so well established that one part of the city, La Merced, housed all the cobblers, who were all Armenians. “All the Mexican elite used to go to the Armenian shops and get shoes,” he added.

He is only one person, therefore he cannot be everywhere. That is why he has a network of local Armenians contacts for updates and further details.

Many Armenians don’t know about the treasures in other diasporas.

For example, he noted that in Lviv, Ukraine, the Armenian Cathedral of Lviv, is part of the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The French edition of Little Armenias was published in 2018. After a meeting with the author in Lisbon in 2019, Dr. Razmik Panossian, director of the Armenian Communities Department at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, suggested to have the book available in English too. The English version was published in February this year. Of course, all the materials were reconfirmed to make it up to date.

In fact, he said, he plans to update the information in the book every two years.

Little Armenias is available on Amazon.