История застрявшего в "Звартноц" армянина

[groul]

Взято отсюда:

http://azad-hye.blogspot.com/2006/06/using...ry-special.html

Friday, June 16, 2006

Using an Armenian passport (sorry a Special Residence Status document)

A Passport... or a Way to Heaven

By Carlos Jose Bourdjian

Dear all,

This is the story of my latest trip to Yerevan and the adventures it

includes, and because many of you have heard a lot of incorrect details from

here and there, I decided to write the whole correct version of the story.

A year ago, I received my "Armenian passport" for which I was very happy,

and decided to use it for the first time. This trip was postponed a few

times the year before, and after many delays, I made my decision for the

16th of October 2005 for my one week to Yerevan.

I used my new passport for issuing the ticket, and gave it to Armavia

Airlines person in charge in Aleppo (second largest city in Syria) airport

after delivering the luggage and handbag.

I wanted to be sure if I had to pay for the airport taxes directly or -

being a Syrian - I needed to buy the 1700 SP permit (which includes the

airport tax). He advised me to take the 2nd option and so did the person in

charge of the customs, and I did as I have been told.

I got the OUT stamp in my Armenian passport and flew to Yerevan. Without

mentioning how small the plane was and the difficulties I had inside (since

I know such things happen in these flights), I was happy in spite of all

these as I was going to have a week full of adventures, full of concerts and

the things I enjoy, without knowing that the first adventure was so close .

The plane arrived after one hour and 20 minutes and I was the first who

rushed to the airport to clear my stuff quickly because my friend, Ani

Toranian, arranged a driver, to pick me up. I arrived to passport control

section, the guy asked for my ticket and passport, I gave them both, he

asked again "Passport sir", I told him I already gave him my passport, he

said no, this is the visa I need the passport, I said Noooo and showed him

where the word PASSPORT was mentioned on the cover, then he showed me the

1st page where it was mentioned that this passport has a 10 year visa

validity, and he needs to see my Syrian passport, my answer was why would I

carry 2 passports with me? If I'll show you the Syrian one then I need to

apply for a visa, he said Noo baby, you show your Syrian passport and use

the other one in place of visa. He seemed astonished to hear that I had left

the Syrian airport with the Armenian so called passport-visa and did not

comprehend how the Syrian authorities had stamped OUT in it. I simply said

this is my story and I don't have the Syrian passport with me. He asked me

to wait aside till the big boss comes.

Minutes later an officer came and took me through the transit area to the

front part of the airport where the passengers check in. On the way he asked

if I can get my passport on the next flight, and since there is no next

flight till next Sunday - the date of my return - I proposed to bring the

other passport via the Syrian Airlines flight, which was on Friday,

meanwhile they gave me a permission to go out of the airport, of course

leaving my Armenian Passport with them, and whenever the other one arrives I

would produce it to get the entry stamp and everything would go on smoothly

if I do that arrangement. The guy said "I'm not the one who will approve

this after all. The big chief will see if he can do it".

At that moment I saw Varouj Mahserejian and his wife who came to pick up

their relatives from the airport, and because I had an Armenian cellphone

SIM card (Viva Cell) with me - Thanks to my friend Noubar for buying it for

me - I called Varouj and explained my problem, he was surprised but I

assured him that I'll be out of the airport within 30 minutes till the

bigger boss comes and clears this out.

The officer asked me to wait for the bigger boss in the transit area, where

there was the Duty Free and "The Armenian Surj" Café, I waited for an hour

till 6:30 a.m. then called Ani, who was shocked to hear this, she called the

driver to wait an hour more.

It was 9:30 a.m, the chief was not there yet, Ani called me several times

and all we could do was wait for the chief. I called Shushan Petrossian

[known Armenian singer - Azad-Hye], my dear friend (she was not feeling well

because of a backache), maybe she knew somebody in the airport who could

help. She began calling friends here and there, but the problem was that she

needed to know the name of this chief, which I didn't and nobody knew

because the security people were Russians and the Armenians, who were

inside, didn't know anything about the outside people.

The phone calls were still going between the three of us. Me, Ani and

Shushan. Eventually, the clock indicated 10:30 a.m. The big chief came, a

Russian, he told me that there was no way I could go out of the airport

without the passport. I suggested my solution, but he wasn't convinced, I

proposed to bring the passport with a courier service, but got the same

negative reply again.

Shushan told me to declare that I was her guest in Yerevan, and she couldn't

come because of her health problems. And as I was telling these details she

called again, I handled the phone to the chief to speak with her in Russian.

I saw he was smiling while talking and I said to myself "everything is over

and I'm out", but later Shushan told me that he was expressing how much he

admires her voice and a few compliments, but the rule was a rule, No

passport, No going out ...

I asked to know about the options I have, he said "we can send you to your

country via Tehran (Iran)", "You are not allowing me to go one step from

here without my passport, so how will the Iranians allow me?" was my

reaction.

He stopped for a while then said with his weak English "you are right, so

you have to take the other choice, which is to wait here till your passport

arrives". I began to laugh, he did too, and told him this "Look, do you see

the squares in the ceiling? I was here for 4 hours and I know that there are

21 squares in the little part and 24 squares in the big one, and if I stay

longer I'll begin to count the floor squares, do you find this reasonable?",

He smiled and said "The Rule is a Rule".

I asked as a last solution - if the Syrian Embassy could be responsible

for my sojourn and bring me out with their guarantee until my passport

arrives?

"This should be in written form" was his reply.

I began my phone calls to Ani, who contacted the Syrian Embassy, they

responded quickly, agreed with this solution and promised to issue a letter.

Shushan also knew someone there, who tried to be of a help. Ani needed copy

of my passport so she contacted my mom in Aleppo, who went to our office to

fax it. She sent me an SMS, then called me, you know how emotional mothers

are in general and how they think in such cases. Everybody was working

outside... but me? ...what was I doing inside?

I had my 1st cup of coffee with a delicious cake in the "Armenian Surj"

café. There were 3 girls working in the Duty Free who noticed that something

was wrong with me, they approached, introduced themselves at lunch time and

invited me to share their sandwiches.

In the meantime my sister Sylvia called from the USA; she called the house I

was going to stay, and got my number through Ani. She was worried a lot, but

I told her I'll be out in a few hours.

1 hour later Ani called and informed me that it took them so long to finish

the process of issuing the requested letter but still needed to be legalized

and because the working hours were over I had to spend the night over there

in the airport. No way, I thought.

Sylvia called several times and got more worried. Everybody calling me was

asking where am I going to sleep? How is the situation inside? What are you

consuming for food?

The food was good; the toilets were very clean, of course there were no

showers and I managed to clean my teeth with chewing gums, besides, I was

clean and in a good condition, my hair was gelled and perfect.

There were foreign people in the transit area, people talking in Spanish. I

asked the duty free girls, they said they were from Argentina and

supervising the duty free staff training and development. The free shop was

not that big, alcohol drinks and Armenian cogniac were cheaper than

perfumes, the latters were very expensive. I told the girls and Guillermo

(one of the Argentineans) about this, especially when I showed them couple

of perfumes I bought from the Aleppo free shop; they were astonished with

the cheap prices I paid.

Arman, the bartender in the "Armenian Surj", told me to get some sleep, but

I couldn't find a place to rest, he said that the handles of the chairs at

the waiting room could be moved leaving enough space to sleep. I tried that

but I had back pains after 2 hours of sleeping. So I didn't sleep at all.

In the evening there was another trio of girls replacing the ones who were

there in daytime, so we introduced ourselves to each other, of course they

heard my story and were laughing and feeling shame at the same time.

We spent the whole night talking about things that had happened in the

airport before. I heard horrible stories like how people came and stayed in

the transit area for a week or two because of visa problems, and how the

girls encouraged them to hold on and face the terrible days. Then they began

to talk about their private lives, how they were studying in universities,

then financial problems made them look for work besides studying to earn

more money to help their families on one hand and finish their education on

the other hand. They told me about the robberies that happened in the duty

free especially at the perfume section and how innocent people were fired

because of this. I was feeling bad after hearing their stories, and

comparing to what I heard my case became very easy and simple to solve.

Noushig Mikayelian, Ani's daughter, called me. I didn't inform her that I

was coming to Yerevan and wanted to surprise her. She said: "who is

surprising who?" And I was laughing anxiously. She wanted to help and

offered to come and bring food, but it was impossible for her to enter that

area, besides, I had excellent food inside.

Avig, i.e. Avedis Berberian, a friend of mine, also called and felt ashamed

because he thought it was awful to keep an Armenian trapped in the airport

for a silly reason, so he, as an Armenian, felt horrible for me, but he

could do nothing so we laughed and made jokes to alleviate the situation.

There was a flight to Paris in the early morning, so instead of sitting and

doing nothing I helped the girls in the Duty free. I was watching the

customers especially in the perfume section, because it was very easy to

take a small bottle and pocket it, especially that they didn't have an alarm

system. Then I helped people to buy Armenian cognac (of course after

listening what the girls were saying, plus the explanations were giving

before), and little by little I began working there as an employee.

I felt tired in the early morning. I took a nap sitting on one of the

restaurant's tables. When I woke up there was a new set of girls. Nune and

Hasmig from last night were gone and left me a souvenir while I was

sleeping, it was a pack of half kg Armenian coffee, which I'm drinking now

while writing this story to you.

The new trio was Lilia, Sirush and Liana. Liana was the head of the duty

free and responsible for all the girls. She works hard. The bartender and

his assistant were replaced too. So I had to tell my story again and again.

Shushan called again feeling very sorry for what had happened and was very

upset since I couldn't sleep, I told her that's ok, within hours we'll go

and have lunch somewhere.

Ani called again asking for my Syrian ID card, which fortunately was with

me. The Embassy wanted a proof that I was Syrian, and thank God I had it, so

she came to take the ID, she couldn't enter in, I tried to send it with one

of the girls outside but it was difficult to do this, so she asked the help

of one of the security guys, and it took two hours for this mission

impossible to be accomplished, getting the ID 30 meters away. You can

imagine how time was flying. After getting the ID and printing the much

awaited letter, which will enable me to get out of my prison, Ani called

again saying no good news. The letter was refused to be legalized because

after contacting the airport, the Russians refused to take this action, and

I have to stay at the airport till Friday, the arrival of the next Syrian

Airlines flight.

I felt like a big basket of shit was emptied on me, pissed off and very mad.

Ani called again and informed that Vrej, my uncle, back in Aleppo, was

trying with the help of father Antranig Ayvazian, who had too many contacts,

to do something. On the other hand Noushig called another friend, a wife of

a big politician. She promised to talk with her husband, because he was out

of the country, and she did indeed. They all tried to help but when it came

to the last step for the Russians to let me out, they always refused and

asked only for the PASSPORT.

I noticed that my cell phone units were about to end, so I asked one of the

girls to buy me some units, but then there was another problem, the phone's

battery was almost empty and nobody had Sony-Erricson mobile. Everybody had

Nokia, only one girl had a Sony-Erricson, but why to bring the "Zariedka"

(the charger in Russian) with her? She charges her phone at home and uses it

here... Good point.

Ani called again saying that one of the Armavia Airlines employees is coming

to Yerevan via Beirut flight, late Wednesday early Thursday, and he will

bring the passport with him, this is the quickest solution because the

courier services like DHL and FedEx are using the same flights and no way to

get it earlier. So Beirut flight was the only early choice for me and as a

result, I had to stay till Thursday morning.

I asked for my luggage, at least my handbag, and was promised to have it,

but nothing arrived. Thank God again for the clean toilets.

My uncle's attempts reached to higher levels through another politician, who

was a friend of Father Antranig. So I was waiting for a sergeant in the

military, to come and pick me up, but this one also failed with the

Russians.

Another day passed and there was nothing to do, I tried to find a book to

read, but all I found was one in Russian, nothing in Armenian in this area.

On Wednesday I had this call from Ani with a surprise for me. My mom

herself, decided to bring the passport by taking the Beirut flight, so she

had to go earlier from Aleppo to Beirut by bus, take a taxi to the airport

and straight to Yerevan. I was glad to hear this, because I knew how tired

my mom was lately due to her work and how much she needed a relaxing trip,

eventually this solution was great for both of us.

I was very tired. What I wanted most was a good sleep. Meanwhile I was

afraid to take a nap, because the last time I woke up I was freezing a hell

with pains in my back.

The girl at the bar came and asked if I like plav with soung (rice with

mushroom sauce) I could join them for lunch. I tried to refuse the offer

because they had only a small amount for themselves, but she insisted a lot,

and I shared the delicious meal.

At night, we had a couple of flights to Beirut and Moscow, we sold a lot of

Armenian cogniac because it was cheaper than the ordinary shops in downtown

Yerevan, so I bought a few bottles too, had a permission to keep them there

and take them with me on my way back home.

It was Thursday 1:00 past midnight, the Beirut flight was supposed to arrive

at 3:00 a.m and I had a few hours left. I watched the movie "Madagascar"

dubbed in Russian, of course not understanding a single word, but the girls

helped in translation. Then I had my last cup of tea and a soufflé cake with

Lilia, a very nice girl with a degree in Chemistry, but now working in the

Duty Free till she finds another job. She told me also that she has a Muslim

friend from Aleppo, who also studied in Yerevan, she liked him, but not to

marriage level. He asked her to come to Aleppo, find a job there, but there

was the language problem, and she was confused, and I was listening to her

in the middle of my troubles, but I was happy because only a few hours were

left to leave this nice, cozy and friendly prison.

It was 4:00 a.m and I was waiting for somebody to come and pick me up, but

no one. The flight arrived on time at 3:30, I was invited to my last cup of

coffee and enjoyed it. Both Duty Free and Armenian Surj employees were

worried for what will happen this time, will I be able to go out or no? If

yes, then where is my mom? I began to doubt that maybe she missed the plane

or something happened on the Syrian - Lebanese border.

It was 5:30 when finally an officer came with my passport in his hands. He

recognized me and asked to walk along with him back to the arrival

check-point on the other side of the airport. I said goodbye to everyone and

promised to bring them some pakhlava sweets on my way back. On our way to

the transit area, the officer took the IN stamp out of his pocket and sealed

on my passport with that day's date, which was 20 October 2005, then he

asked me to find my bags from gortsradz ireri graseniag, which is "Lost and

Found" section, and for the first time I saw my name written in Russian when

I signed the papers at the L&F office.

When I went out, Haygo, the same driver, was there waiting for me, he came

and hugged me, I didn't know him before, but that was a big Welcome for me.

I asked if he saw my mom, but he didn't notice anyone, I don't know what

made me take my cell phone and call her, although I knew that her phone does

not have an international roaming, but suddenly a Miracle....it was ringing

and I heard my mom's voice, and that was the only time that her phone rang,

cause during our trip it was not working properly.

My mom was waiting for me in the Departure section at the other side, so we

found each other, hugged and kissed for a bit long. Hayko took the bags to

the car and I began telling lots of stories on the way back.

A final note. After we arrived home and talked to my sister and the other

friends who were waiting for my arrival, we had a small breakfast, then at

7:30 a.m. I slept and didn't wake up till 4:30 p.m. when I heard somebody

singing some opera notes, I thought maybe I was dreaming, but then it turned

out Ani with her mother Dr. Armine Toranian were waiting in the living room,

she came in and with her vocalize etudes woke me up and said: "Yalla ge pave

bargik, yelek tambalner, surje badrasd e" (Come on, enough sleeping, get up,

coffee is ready) and she was laughing at me cause it was the first time for

her to see me with long beard.

I hope you enjoyed reading this story. I'll try to write you later the 2nd

part of it, which will include my adventures in Yerevan.

And a last note: Always carry your main Passport with you whatever other

passports you have ....

Carlos Jose Bourdjian

30 May 2006

http://lovetolivefor.eponym.com/blog

Note from Azad-Hye:

Carlos Jose Bourdjian lives in Aleppo. He is a Syrian Armenian who thought

that he could travel to Armenia using only his Armenian so-called passport

(which is in fact dubbed as Special Residence Status). He did not know that

this document is a sort of residence visa, which is given for 10 years to

people of Armenian (and non-Armenian) descent living abroad for US$ 300 +

US$ 50 processing fees.

As a residence visa (or permit) this document allows the holder to stay

and work in Armenia and buy some properties, but it is never valid to cross

international borders.

If you are a frequent traveler to Armenia you can save visa expenses by

using this document. By using this document you can also avoid time

restrictions compared to a normal visa, which has a limited duration.

http://www.azad-hye.net/article/article_view.asp?re=621kd41

[Гость Funky]

блин. ну взял бы с собой паспорт, не тяжесть ведь. С другой стороны посольство в Сирии не объяснило в чем дело.

[groul]

В принципе, человек не жалуется особо и не канючит

[Artsakh]

Звартноц - реальный ад.

[Helen]

Думаю что он не виноват. При выдаче вида на жительство офицер об`язан об`яснит или дать инструкции какие права и об`язанности получатель получает с данным документом. Однако я сомневаюсь что некоторые служители ОВИРА сами знают об етом...

человек прошел через все круги ада вызванные наплевательским отношением армянскиx гос. служащиx и русским бюрократизмом и равнодушием.

С русскими пограничниками разговор вообще особый. Ему xоть повезло что он не оказался в шереметьево-2. каждый раз перелетаю и чувствую отвращение к етим пограничникам, потому как мой армянский паспорт проверяют 2-3 раза, забирают неизвестные лица, шушукаются, исчезают , появляются...

для кого весь етот спектакль- непонятно....

[Лoсь_Просто_Лoсь]

нам, лосям, для миграции никакие документы не нужны. Плевали мы на айропортовых бурократов. Кстати здравстуй, Хелен. Какая ты симпатишная на аватарке, если ты не против, я буду твоим грегори пеком.

[Helen]

нам, лосям, для миграции никакие документы не нужны. Плевали мы на айропортовых бурократов. Кстати здравстуй, Хелен. Какая ты симпатишная на аватарке, если ты не против, я буду твоим грегори пеком.

[Лoсь_Просто_Лoсь]

Нам, лосям редко приходится такое слышать. Обескуражен откровенностью. Не знаю, что ответить.

[Helen]

просто будь моим грегори пеком....я принимаю предложение.... :sharik:

[Ундина]

вряд ли у Грегори Пека были рога.

[Helen]

Ундина- ето мой Грегори Пек , не приставай пожалуйста. я его люблю и с рогами и без. захочу надену на него рога, захочу сниму....

[Ундина]

с каких пор Лось стал твоим?

[Helen]

Лось не мой а вот Грегори Пек прикидывающийся лосем -мой.

а насчет "с какиx пор" - думаю что начная с "римскиx каникул"...

[Ундина]

очень жаль, что таких сейчас нет

Пек мой кумир тоже

а Лосю до него далеко, даже если отпилит рога.

[Helen]

знаешь я еще подумаю- снять с него рога или нет... все в рукаx женскиx...