Realizing the Dream: THEN AND NOW

Middle-Eastern Armenians brought influences of the Arab world and even elements of Arab cuisine that had become part of their lives. For example, basturma (raw beef wrapped in chaman - a certain type of spice) is now widely known as "Armenian basturma," though its origin is Arabic. Repatriates from France brought a special vocabulary: "Merci" became a common substitute for the more elaborate Armenian "shnorhagalutyun." From Armenians who had lived or spent time in Europe or the United States, jazz was introduced to Armenia, made popular by the jazz orchestra of trumpeter Tsolak Vartazarian; later an Armenian State Jazz Orchestra was assembled under the direction of composer and cellist Artemi Ayvazian. On September 13, [Josef Stalin] told his government that the ship disaster was the work of American spies among the Armenian repatriates. The next day, a regulation was issued by the Soviet Ministers of the USSR "completely and immediately revoking the repatriation of Armenians from abroad to the USSR and forbidding the entrance of Armenian migrants to Armenia, no matter where the migrants were coming from." Later, however, independent Armenia's first president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, stated that "national ideology is a false category" and that "Armenia's development is the Armenian Republic's citizens' business."