“He kept insisting to apply for the vacancy, and for some reason, working in the United States didn’t appeal to me; it was too far away. He said if I didn’t want to move there, I can simply apply for the job in Ireland. And so I did. I was already married then, and my first daughter was born. After long months of interviews, I got the job and we moved to Ireland as a family in 2008.”

“Armenia saw the Genocide, Ireland had the Great Famine, and both have large diasporas. Ireland welcomed us with open arms. Not once did we feel alienated there.”

“In no time, an Armenian school was established in Dublin. The teachers worked there on a voluntary basis. Our children attended once a week to study the Armenian alphabet, literature, reading, and writing; essentially maintaining their identities in a foreign land. Some of the families were from Syria and Iraq, but they all learned Eastern Armenian.”
 

“The Armenian Sunday school was only a few hours long. So, whenever we dropped off our kids there, we gathered to play a traditional game of Armenian belote and have fun. We’d all get together and enjoy each others’ company. Although I’m back now, I still keep in touch with them, and they even have established a chess school now, where people of all ages and ethnicities are welcome.”

“We never cut off our ties with Armenia. We’d visit once or twice every year. We missed our friends and families. And since our parents live in Armenia we realized that at some point we would need to return to look after them. As our children got older, we decided that it would be best if they grew up in their homeland. After all, we have our own values, mentality, culture, and history, and we wanted them to be in the heart of all that. We thought it would be harder if we moved back when they were teenagers, and so, the time had come.”

“Since we’d always visit Armenia, we didn’t notice an abrupt change in the country. Nonetheless, the country went through a great transformation during those years. Wine bars became popular, people had more opportunities, and the youth were more vocal in expressing their political opinions. We didn’t face difficulties while moving, because we were familiar with the environment. An issue I personally faced was finding a job. Most of the time, I’d apply, they’d schedule an interview, they’d ask me why I want to leave Ireland and come back, and that was the end of it. I’m not sure whether curiosity drove them to have an interview, but things wouldn’t get past that stage.”

“My dad has been a software engineer since the Soviet era. I was involved in this field starting ninth grade and I’ve been passionate about it since then. I had a Finnish coworker who once said: “I love software engineering so much that I would do it for free. Luckily, I am also getting paid for it.”

“The best time to move to Armenia is when you are truly convinced you want to live here. It would be ideal if people came here because they want to and not because they feel obliged. As for software engineers, not only will you be working in a rewarding field, but you’ll also be living in your homeland surrounded by your friends and family. What more could anyone ask!”