by David Zenian
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — When Haigaz Tahmasian left his native Iran 25 years ago as a 17-year-old escaping the draft in Shah Reza Pahlavi’s army, his new home across the Persian Gulf was nothing but a vast desert.
The desert Sheiks have since come together to form the United Arab Emirates, the Shah has died in exile, his nation transformed into an Islamic Republic, and Haigaz Tahmasian has become one of the leading builders in his adopted country.
But Tahmasian, like 2 million other foreigners living and working in a country of 500,000 ethnic Emirates’ nationals, is still an Iranian citizen and cannot even hope for a UAE citizenship despite his long residence and vast business connections. “We can live, work and prosper, but cannot have any roots here. This is a typical Gypsy kind of society. There is movement all the time, but some of us stay longer than others. There were only a handful of Armenians in Dubai when I arrived by ferryboat from Bandar Abbas in 1968. I had no money and no real education, but I was willing to learn and work ... and work hard,” Tahmasian says in retrospect.
“I started off as a welder, doing odd jobs for oil companies in the hot desert ... not the kind of work for a teen-ager who had a good and protected life in Iran,” he says with a smile.
Tahmasian, now 44 and father of two children, has every reason to smile. A self-made man, his is one of the success stories of the small but cohesive Armenian community of the United Arab Emirates. His Yerevan Steel Corporation is one of the largest in the region.
“I had to give the company an Armenian name ... for good luck,” he says. Numbering not more 1,500 people scattered across the Emirates of Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, the Armenian community is composed mainly of upper and middle level managers in local and foreign enterprises, engineers, small industrialists, custom jewelers, traders and car mechanics. “The size of our community has fluctuated over the years depending on the prevailing political situation in the neighboring countries. Fewer people are coming now that there is more stability in the region - especially in Lebanon,” Tahmasian said.
Drawn from Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese Armenian backgrounds, the tight knit group has not only accumulated considerable financial assets for itself, but it has also spared no effort to build most of the traditional Diaspora infrastructure for the survival of an otherwise mobile community.
The Armenian school caters to the community’s youngsters who attend classes on Fridays — the last day of the Moslem weekend. At present, some 100 Armenian children are enrolled in the three-hour program, learning the Alphabet and a bit of history and culture.
But with no opportunity to continue their higher education in the United Arab Emirates, high school graduates either return to their native countries or travel to the United States and Canada to continue their studies. “The teen-agers don’t come back after getting a university or college education abroad, so this means that sometimes their parents also relocate to be closer to where their children are,” Tahmasian said, pointing to the dozens of Armenian teen-agers at a recent community picnic in the oasis town of Al Ain. “The adults are very Armenian, but among each other, most of the youngsters converse in the foreign language of the schools they attend,” he added.
The community also has a resident clergyman from the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, who conducts mass each Friday in one of Dubai’s few churches. The Catholicosate also appoints the members serving on the local Armenian Community Council.
While most community structures are in place, and local Armenians live comfortable lives, few call the United Arab Emirates “home.” The United Arab Emirates, like the other neighboring Gulf states, does not allow foreigners to own private property, and every resident alien should have a local “sponsor” or guarantor.
This explains why Tahmasian, who employs 60 people including engineers and draftsmen, cannot be the official proprietor of Yerevan Steel Corporation. “I have a local sponsor who, as the license holder, technically can pull the rug out from under this whole business in two minutes and force me to either find a new sponsor or leave the country. The sponsor holds the key to our operation. I pay him what amounts to a royalty or a license fee every month. It’s the sponsor who handles my residence permit without which I cannot work or live in the United Arab Emirates,” Tahmasian said. “There have been problems with capricious sponsors in the past, and while things are much better now, the sponsors can essentially ruin everything we have built in this country.”
These investments include expensive custom jewelry stores, wholesale and retail stationery and office equipment outlets and light industry. “We do not see any danger to our livelihood, but dependence on sponsors sometimes curtails our expansion plans,” Tahmasian said.
