Categories: People

Vaghinak Byurat – “Boy, We Will Be Sent to Siberia Because of You”

In September 1947, another caravan of repatriates left Beirut. Our family consisting of seven people was provided with one room in the quarter of Yerevan called the Third Area (Yerrord Mas).

I started attending school. On the occasion of the November holidays, the school organized a matinee. During the matinee, the school director suddenly turned to me and said: “Can you sing or recite anything?”

My consent and entry to the stage happened very quickly. It was Charents who inspired me with the breath and soul of the fatherland. And from my mouth sounded Charents. Soon, I noticed that people were leaving the hall. “Am I really bad at reciting?” I thought.

By the end of my performance, half the hall was empty. I did not have time to worship the applause and go backstage as the director and the head teacher caught me and started beating me.

Grabbing my hair, they hit my head against the wall and hit me in the stomach. Gasping, I fell to the floor. “Boy, we will be sent to Siberia because of you!”

Vaghinak Byurat: “From the memories of my life”

Arshaluis Zurabyan

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

Before the Sistrum: Tracing a Bronze Age Rattle from Anatolia to Ararat

How a humble noise-making instrument may connect Hattian metalworkers, Hurrian myth-singers, Egyptian priestesses of Isis,…

23 hours ago

The Turkish Pipeline: How Syrian Fighters Were Recruited, Moved and Deployed Against Armenian Forces in the 2020 Artsakh War

Image Source: 301.am For years, Ankara and Baku publicly denied that Syrian fighters had any…

4 days ago

Tork Angegh: Storm, Stone, and the Oldest Face of the Armenian Pantheon

Long before Armenia's kings raised churches over pagan sanctuaries, before Hellenism folded Vahagn into Herakles…

1 week ago

The Goat on the Armenian Highland: A Symbol Older Than Writing

Introduction Long before Urartian kings inscribed their names in cuneiform on the cliffs of Van,…

2 weeks ago

“Summon Against Her the Kingdoms of Ararat”: Urartu-Armenia in the Prophecy Against Babylon

A Coalition Beneath the Mountain Among the oracles of judgment collected in the Book of…

2 weeks ago

The Tower That Never Left Us: From the Susi Shrine of Ancient Van to the Obelisk Above the Yerevan Cascade

If you have ever climbed the Cascade in Yerevan and looked up at the tall,…

2 weeks ago