User:Gabriel20007

Parev!

My name is Gabriel. I am 15 years old and live in Sevan, Armenia right next to Sevan Lake. My mother’s name is Anna, my father’s is Abraham, my brother’s is Christapor, and always silly Diknis, is our dog. My country is located in Europe just northwest of Turkey.

Anyway, you probably don’t know too much about Armenia, maybe you’ve never even heard of it! Well, I’m going to tell you all about Armenia (as much as I can anyway!).

First of all, I just came back from a delicious dinner of sarma, pilaf, and milk. We only eat animals that chew their cud which is why we don't eat pork, but lamb, beef, and chicken. We also eat lake or river fish. My favorite foods are (they are really sweet) grapes dipped in honey. We also eat a thin bread called lavash. Sarma is grape leaves filled with rice and meat.

Next, I’m going to tell you about schools. My school’s name is H. Hayrapetian, but we call it N 78. Right now we are learning poetry. We have new computers. Some after school activities are journalism, art studio, signing, dancing, and team sports such as soccer. I am in the journalism class. At my school, we begin to learn French, English, and Persian in third grade. It is not uncommon to know 4 languages when you get out of school. Of course one of those languages is Armenian. Armenian is unlike any other language and has its own alphabet. There are 3 grades in our school. I usually wear any color jeans and a t-shirt to school.

Armenia has long hot summers (which I love) and strong cold winters (which I also love!). I love making snow children and sand castles.

Armenia’s population is over 3 million. To Americans, Armenia would be the size of the state of Maryland.

Some popular sports are soccer and Taekwondo. A couple of fun activities are rock climbing, ice climbing, and skiing.

The history of Armenia goes back to practically the Ice Age! Okay, well, it only goes back to the 6th Century B.C., but you know what I mean. Armenians have rarely ruled their own country. I mean, first it was divided between two Empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire. (Maybe that’s why we learn Persian in school!) Then Armenia was ruled by three empires, the Ottoman, the Persian and the Russian Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, only the Ottoman Empire (also called Turkey) controlled Armenia. During World War I, a genocide happened. A genocide is when one group of people try to completely kill another group of people. It’s pretty awful. During the war the Ottoman rulers tried to kill all the Armenians. They say over one and a half million Armenians were killed. Many people fled when the genocide struck. This is why you will find Armenians scattered all over the world today.

After World War I, all that was left of Armenia was the Eastern part and that was ruled by the Soviet Union for seventy years. Then in the early 1990s, Armenia claimed its independence. Now we choose our own government and our own leaders.

Well, Good Bye,

Manak Parov!

Note, the post has orginally being taken from NAREKMAGAZINE, a site about Armenia, and posting this article on any site doesn't violate any Copyright act.