At the dawn of the new millennium, remembering its humble beginnings, the Armenian community of Argentina has every reason to pat itself on the back and say: "Bravo for a job well done."
They arrived as refugees and soon became citizens with full rights and obligations.
In Argentina, the early immigrants found everything they had lost in the towns and villages which they left behind. They integrated, maybe even faster than similar Armenian refugee communities around the world.
One reason for this was the makeup of the Argentinean society: the fact that the nation itself was composed of many diverse ethnic groups from Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Latin and South America.
Regardless of their language, religion or culture, the Armenians, like all others, were on common ground. There was no bias against foreigners, except maybe for the early years when they were seen as Turks simply because of where they came from—the Armenian regions of Ottoman Turkey.
They were in a new and already hyphenated society where almost everyone traced his or her roots to someplace else.
The first 100 years of the Armenian presence in Argentina has seen the community change from penniless refugees of the early 1900's to one of the better established ethnic groups, complete with an infrastructure which has helped maintain its identity while integrating into the Argentinean society.
Today, in a country of almost 37 million, there is no shortage of prominent Armenians who have made their mark outside the boundaries of their ethnic community.
Armenian lawyers, bankers, industrialists, diplomats, politicians, doctors, scientists, journalists, artists and athletes are among the best in the country. What makes them unique is that all are second generation Argentinean-Armenians, born to refugee parents who worked hard and gave their children the education and skills to make the transition.
"My father came from Aintab in 1917 and became a tailor," said LEON CARLOS ARSLAN IAN, who is not only one of Argentina's leading lawyers, but also a former Minister of Justice, the only Armenian who has filled a Cabinet post.
"For his generation, Argentina was probably one of the most ideal places to settle down. They were poor, and had no education, but were willing to work hard. This is a very open society, and there is no discrimination. After all, most of the population have come from someplace else. Argentina has always been a melting pot," Arslanian said.
His father married an Argentinean woman, and therefore integration started at home.
Arslanian received his education in Argentinean schools, but as a teenager frequented Armenian youth clubs and mixed with Armenian children in his age group.
"All immigrants eventually lose their original identity. There are no minorities in Argentina like say in the Middle East. This is a cosmopolitan society where no one is treated differently because of his ethnic origin. There are no minority ghettos. There is no such thing as a Jewish neighborhood, an Italian neighborhood or an Armenian neighborhood. There are no problems with religion or ethnicity," he said.
"I grew up in a very tolerant society which respected everyone for what they were as people, as individuals," he said.
Arslanian went to law school and got involved in Argentinean politics, joining the Peronist party as a young adult. He moved up the ranks and held a number of key posts, including that of prosecutor in a federal court which tried top military officers on charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
Arslanian, who is 58 years old and heads a top law firm, does not hold a government position now, but is still active in local politics, especially in the rebuilding of the old Peronist Party base in the Buenos Aires electoral districts.
"My generation has not entered politics, but I hope this will change. As a community, we have integrated but we need to be more involved. Political life is very challenging," he said.
AMBASSADOR 0RASI0 TCHALIAN, the son of a shoemaker, has been in the diplomatic corps since 1965 and has served in a number of key posts at the Argentinean Foreign Ministry and the Embassies in Bolivia and Chile, before being posted to Uruguay and later Salvador and currently Hungary as Ambassador.
Born in 1942 to immigrant parents, (his father came to Argentina from Marash in 1922), Ambassador Tchalian is the only Armenian in his generation who chose a diplomatic career after graduating from the Catholic University of Buenos Aires with a degree in international law and political science.
"The thing to do then was to go into the private sector, become a doctor or an engineer. There was no interest in public service, and in some ways the same is true today with the younger generation of Armenians," he said in an interview.
"Maybe money is a factor for not going into public service, but this is wrong. You will never be rich as a diplomat, but there is nothing as challenging as a diplomatic career," he said.
Tchalian grew up in a home where the emphasis on community was strong. His parents opened their home to new Armenian immigrant families for Sunday prayers at a time when there were no Armenian Protestant houses of worship.
While still a college student, Tchalian volunteered his time to teach in local primary schools and worked with prison inmates as a social worker.
"Community service has always been high on my agenda, and maybe that paved the way for my career in the public sector," he said.
"In Argentina everyone is given an equal opportunity regardless of his or her ethnic origin. Look at former President Carlos Menem. He is the son of Syrian immigrants. Leon Arslanian is the son of Armenian immigrants," he said.
While fully integrated into the Argentinean society, Tchalian has not lost his roots. His two children, who are teenagers, are "proud of their Armenian heritage."
"What makes Argentina unique is its diversity, its blend of dozens of ethnic backgrounds. They have all come together and created this diverse and special society," he said.
In his years in the diplomatic corps, Tchalian has never faced discrimination and, given the opportunity, has stayed close to his heritage.
"Everywhere I go, I keep an eye open to see if there are Armenians there. As Ambassador to Hungary, I invited members of the Armenian community in Budapest to join in celebrations marking Argentina's Independence Day. There is this common bond which brings us together," he said.
SONIA ABRAZIAN CAVALLO's initiation into the world of Argentinean politics came through college boyfriend and now husband Domingo Cavallo, one of the country's leading financial experts, presidential candidate and former Minister of Economy.
"I grew up in a very traditional Armenian family and until the age of eighteen I lived in what you could describe as an Armenian world," she said in an interview at the Cavallo home in Buenos Aires.
Mrs. Cavallo's father was an 18 year-old orphan from Hadjin when he and his sister came to Argentina in 1928 after spending several years in an orphanage in what was then Palestine following the 1915 Genocide.
"He had learned English at the orphanage and that helped him get a job with an oil company here in Argentina. He became very active in the Armenian community and therefore he raised us as Armenians. Our house was a meeting place for Armenians.
"It was not until 1 went to the university that I realized I was an Argentinean as well," she said.
There she met her future husband, a student activist who was involved in campus politics, and her life changed almost overnight.
She graduated with a degree in accounting and he in economics and together they moved to the United States in 1974 where her husband went to Harvard and received his Ph.D. in economics in 1976.
"We could have stayed in the United States, but he wanted to get back to Argentina. He was already involved in politics and wanted to do something for his country," she said.
Over the years, Domingo Cavallo, who is credited for ending the inflationary spiral in Argentina, has made a name for himself in Argentinean politics and economy and his wife Sonia, the daughter of an Armenian refugee, has not been far behind.
"We grew up together. My husband came into our Armenian family when he was 18 and he feels so close to all Armenians. In fact, he has done a lot of work in helping Armenia. He was very instrumental in arranging a financial aid package from Argentina to Armenia," she said.
Mrs. Cavallo has not run for public office herself, but is very active in her husband's career, organizing his electoral campaigns, giving speeches to women's groups, rallying support among his grassroot followers and building up his image.
"I love politics and who knows, maybe one day I will also run for public office. At the moment my efforts are all directed toward helping my husband," she said.
But life in the fast lane of Argentinean politics has not severed Sonia Abrazian Cavallo's ties with her Armenian roots.
"My father, who is 90 years old now, has always wanted to visit Armenia and in 1994 I had the opportunity to accompany him on his first ever trip there. It was such an emotional experience for both of us," she said.
"He wanted to go to Lake Sevan, to Etchmiadzin and a small town called New Hadjin which is named after my father's hometown. He broke up in tears when someone gave him a small jar of soil from Hadjin. I will never forget that trip and maybe one day I will go back with my own children," she said.
Like Mrs. Abrazian Cavallo's father, J. RAFAEL SERAGOPIAN’s father Hagop also came to Argentina in 1924 as a young boy of 14 to start a new life, after being deported to Greece from his home in Antalya along Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast.
Hagop Seragopian became a tailor and built a successful wholesale clothing business, but his son Rafael, a prominent investment banker, had greater ambitions.
"I worked for my father and did all the accounting while still going to school. But I also wanted a university education and my father encouraged me to do that," he said in an interview at his plush waterfront office in Buenos Aires.
As a young boy, Seragopian went to an Armenian school in the mornings and an Argentinean school in the afternoons. "I can't think of anyone else who went to two schools at the same time," he said.
One reason for this, he explained, was his determination to get the best of the two educational worlds.
After high school, he continued his education and obtained a university degree in business administration and an another degree from Italy.
"I lived in a tightknit Armenian family and all through my teenage years was very much involved in Armenian youth activities. Over the weekends, my friends were 90 percent Armenian, and during the week I mixed with my Argentinean friends. This was the best way to fully integrate," he explained.
Now 59 years old, Seragopian is an advocate of improving the educational standards of Argentina's Armenian schools and has offered to provide the financial assistance needed to improve the curricula.
"We need to modernize our schools and make them more competitive. We are seeing too many families who are sending their children to non-Armenian schools and 1 think we can change that by improving our own standards.
"For this new generation, education is very important because of the way the economy is going. In the old days, we had an option to go into the family business, but given the economic problems of Argentina, that is becoming less and less of an option," he said.
"Our schools are the heart of our community and we have to keep them alive and well. We need to keep our youth motivated and be a good example for them. There is no place in our community for internal squabbles because they turn our youth away from us. We have to look ahead," he said.
AD0LPH0 KOUTOUJIAN's father, who spent his early years as a new immigrant writing the Spanish subtitles for French-language movies in the early 1930's before opening his first shoe store, wanted him to join the family business, but he opted for a higher education which has served him well.
"As a teenager I remember my father reading to us every night. I had a tutor to teach me Armenian at home, but what has left a greater impact on me is my father's constant reminders of who we are as Armenians," he said.
After finishing his military service, part of which was spent in the Antarctic, Koutoujian completed his university education and graduated with a master's degree in economic geography and international relations with an emphasis on Latin and South America.
From 1981 to 1987, Koutoujian served as Principal of the Spanish section of the AGBU Manoogian School, while continuing his research and teaching part time at Buenos Aires University.
An avid environmentalist, Koutoujian now pursues a dual career - teaching a course on strategic intelligence studies at the Naval and Military Academies, and as planning manager at CEAMSE, the state-owned enterprise which coordinates the ecological administration of greater Buenos Aires which has a population of more than 14 million people.
He has published many articles on regional issues, and is the author of a book on the geopolitics of Armenia tracing the historical and economic roots of the conflicts facing the region.
"As a second generation Armenian, I have been influenced by our immediate historical past, especially by the experiences of my parents. I have tried to pass these on to our new generation through my writings," he said
Like Koutoujian, many other Armenians have found their own ways of serving.
DR. ANDRANIK EURNEKIAN, DR. DANIEL STAMB0ULIAN and DR. JUAN MARG0SSIAN are leading experts in their respective fields of surgery, infectious diseases and oncology.
But there is a lot more in common between the three men than medicine. All three are the sons of immigrant parents who came to Argentina in the 1920's with little more than their determination to start a new life and make sure that their children did not forget what they had gone through as Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
DR. ANDRANIK EURNEKIAN, who is 72 years "young", received his early medical training in Argentina and did his residency in New York, his fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, and research in England and Sweden, is the medical director and head of the department of neurosurgery of the 465-bed Santojanni Hospital in Buenos Aires which has a medical staff of more than 800 doctors and nurses.
"My father was the biggest influence in my life," he said.
"He came to this country with just his determination to make something out of his life. He taught me what work ethics is. He was more than an inspiration. He worked hard all his life, and not a day passed without him stressing the importance of education.
"He raised us as Armenians with a sense of responsibility toward our heritage and our adopted country, Argentina," he said.
His father's influence has paid off.
Dr. Eurnekian was one of the first Armenian doctors to fly to Armenia in early 1989—just months after a devastating earthquake.
"That was my first trip, and it was in response to an appeal from the Armenian health authorities and the AGBU in Argentina. What I saw there has changed my life," he said.
Dr. Eurnekian has been back to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh at least eight times since then, taking medical supplies, X-Ray and sterilization equipment and even three well-equipped ambulances.
On one of his trips to Stepanakert he was caught in an artillery barrage during a battle between the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces near the Lachin Corridor.
"I asked myself what am I doing here," he said.
The answer came the following day at the military hospital in Stepanakert.
"The hospital came under intense artillery fire and an evacuation was ordered. The chief surgeon decided to send his family out to safety but decided to stay himself and help the wounded. It was at the moment that I thought, well, if he is ready to stay then why not me too," Dr. Eurnekian said. DR. DAN IEL STAM - BOUUAN, who is Argentina's leading expert on infectious diseases and heads a private foundation, feels he has also come under fire, but a different kind.
On one of his early visits to Armenia, he saw another danger—the poor state of child health care, and the dangers of disease due to the lack of the effective immunization of the population.
"Prevention is often as important, if sometimes not more important, than treatment," he said in an interview during a brief break from a busy schedule which includes the administration of several clinics, immunization centers, and research facilities.
Dr. Stamboulian, who is 62 years old, received his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires and did his post-doctoral training at the University of Southern California.
As a practicing physician, professor and researcher, Dr. Stamboulian has spearheaded mass immunization projects across Argentina and is actively involved in plans to take his expertise to Armenia.
His foundation has also published dozens of books, including children's cartoons on health issues. His publications are available to all public schools and rural health centers.
"We have vaccinated more than six million people here in Argentina against the flu and I hope to be able to do the same thing in Armenia one day. 1 want to open similar centers in Armenia. I have made a lot of progress in this, but need the support of fellow medical people from other Armenian communities around the world," he said.
Dr. Stamboulian's father came from Kharpert in the late 1920's, and like the hundreds and thousands of early immigrants began a humble life.
"My father was a mechanic, and we were never rich. But we had a strong family, and my father was a great influence on me.
"Helping Armenia is a challenge for me. It is something which my father would have liked me to do. I would like to see Armenia free of hepatitis, meningitis and other deadly diseases," he said.
Like Dr. Stamboulian, DR. JUAN MARGOSSIAN, 66, has also built a reputation, but as one of the leading breast cancer specialists in Argentina.
The son of immigrant parents who settled in Argentina in the early 1920's from Kilis, Dr. Margossian did not follow his father's footsteps in commerce and business, but rather "listened to my mother who wanted me to become a doctor."
He received his elementary education in an Armenian school. After graduating from medical school in 1960, he specialized in cancer research in France and later mammography. Today, he is the president of the Latin American Breast Disease Federation and until recently served as president of the Society of Breast Surgeons in Argentina.
"Both my parents had a great influence on me. They insisted 1 get an Armenian education at an early age, and the impact of those school years has been very strong," he said in an interview at the Buenos Aires teaching hospital where he heads the Breast Cancer Center which is involved not only in treatment but also cutting-edge research as well.
"As a community we have integrated very well, and if we have not assimilated 100 percent, it is due to the role played by the Armenian Church, schools, clubs, societies and organizations. They are vital for today's youth. It's all part of the challenge of surviving as a community," he said.
JORGEALBER TO GURLEK IAN is also facing a challenge.
Voice activated technology is not new for the computer industry, but one market which is still not tapped to the fullest is the vast Spanish speaking world, and that's what Gurlekian is working on.
An electrical engineer by training, Gurlekian has always been fascinated by how people communicate though speech, and more so how computers understand each other.
"When we listen to someone, our minds do not only analyze and understand each word, but also feel how that sentence was said. Intonation makes all the difference," he said in a recent interview at the Laboratorio de Investigations Sensoriales, where he has been the leading speech and hearing coordinator since 1981.
After graduating in 1974, Gurlekian spent one year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he specialized in speech communication at MIT's prestigious Research Laboratory of Electronics.
Over the years, Gurlekian has traveled extensively and lectured at no less than 22 academic and scientific institutions across South America, Japan, Europe and the United States.
His research has appeared in 32 local and international publications, along with his contribution to six books on a wide variety of subjects relating to his research.
Gurlekian today is one of Argentina's leading authorities on how computers deal with voice.
But he does not consider himself a technician or a computer specialist. The main thrust of his work is to study how voices interact through computers, just like how people communicate with each other.
"We as human beings understand emotions that we carry through our voices. The written word or words communicated though a computer do not do that as effectively, and that's what we are trying to do.
"In effect, we are trying to make computer voices react to each other and understand each other. Today's computers recognize voice commands, but we have a long way to go," he said.
"It's not enough for a computer to understand you when you say something like "press" or say "one" to activate this or that information. We need to get computers to be more human when they communicate," he said.
As an example, Gurlekian said what he wants to see is stroke victims who have lost their ability to speak be able to communicate with others through computers.
"The technology is there, but what I want to do is take an old actual voice sample from a stroke victim, analyze his voice, create a special program for him and develop that into a situation which will enable the person to use a keyboard, but give his words a voice format which will duplicate his pre-stroke effect. I want to make computers speak like human beings and not machines," he said.
"In simple language, what I am trying to do is to improve the artificial voice of computers and make them sound more human," he explained.
A lot of research is already in progress involving the English language, but Gurlekian is concentrating on Spanish, the language of communication to millions of people in Latin and South America and Spain.
"Computers don't understand Spanish as a spoken language, but this will change soon through the research we are doing," he said.
Gurlekian's work has already attracted the attention of several communication companies with vast business and commercial interests in the Spanish-speaking world.
