For many years, I have been contemplating writing my
memoirs. I have had diverse life experiences with some unusual, even bizarre,
twists for an ordinary man of my generation and background. It’s been said
that the character of any society depends on what its people honor most.
I have lived in three societies with strikingly different social orders
and value systems. Personal and professional lives in various countries
with distinctly different political, social and cultural identities have
been the multi-color space for the unconventional sets of adversities,
challenges and successes I have experienced. Optimism, self-reliance and
faith have been the guiding forces throughout, which eventually brought
my feverish life to peaceful and gratifying shores.
My Armenian ancestry has certainly been the common denominator of my turbulent life. Survivors of the Armenian Genocide, my parents were deported to Aleppo, Syria, from their native town of Arapgir, Turkey, in the early 1920s. Our family of seven – grandmother, father, mother, two older brothers and a younger sister, moved to Beirut, Lebanon in early 1938. Although I suffered a few “mysterious” ailments during my childhood, our family life in Syria and Lebanon was traditional and happy. Because of my father’s successful business, we enjoyed above-average quality of life and community visibility in those hospitable Middle Eastern countries.
Our immigration – “repatriation” to Soviet Armenia in 1946 brought the
most dramatic turn of events to our family and my personal life. Our once
happy and prosperous family suddenly found itself in an uneven battle for
survival under the oppressive Soviet regime, confronting unconventional
challenges and lifethreatening calamities. In the ensuing twenty years,
we experienced the full gamut of “the good, the bad and the ugly” that
the Soviet regime had to offer to its citizens. Our emigration to the U.S.A.
in 1966 opened a new chapter in my life. Justice finally prevailed; my
dreams came true.
Many suggested documenting and sharing these real-life experiences with wider audiences, citing their informative and even historical value. However, unlike writing articles and book chapters on engineering topics, writing a memoir has been a totally new experience and a true challenge for me. The major unknown is the anticipated reader audience. I am grateful to several friends, Armenians and non- Armenians, who, after lengthy discussions and reading the initial drafts, assured me that my memoirs would be of interest to much broader audiences than I initially envisioned. I am grateful for their encouragement and certainly hope they are right.