On an early May morning, when it seems that only Yerevan’s sparrows are awake, I am getting ready for a meeting with a repatriate that is quite unusual for me. What is unusual is not only the time of the meeting, but also the place — this time I decided not to limit myself to the hero’s story in the Repat Armenia office, but to travel with him along his daily route from Yerevan toward Etchmiadzin — to wheat fields and pistachio orchards, to a greenhouse of evergreen avocado trees…
 

After a long, several-day-long saga of searching for the phone number of Ara Dakessian, a repatriate from Lebanon, we drive with him along the M-5 highway toward a plot of land surrounded by the snow-white Ararat and Aragats. Behind the gates await the hero’s stories about his decision to return to the homeland and grow tree species on its soil that are not widespread in Armenia.
 

The curious child living inside me rejoices — for the first time in my life, I saw huge avocado trees, their very small fruits, and picked the one single large avocado that remained on a hundred trees.
 

“Wrap it in a dark bag together with an apple, and in 5 days you will taste a very delicious avocado. The avocados sold in stores are brought to us from far away and are transported completely unripe, which is why their taste is very different from the ones we harvest here, in our own greenhouse,” says Ara Dakessian.
 

From Lebanese Nor Hachn to Armenia
 

Ara is a jeweler. He was born in Beirut, in the Armenian neighborhood of Nor Hachn. Ara’s ancestors moved to Beirut from Hachn (a city in historical mountainous Cilicia), founded the Nor Hachn district together with other people from Hachn, and later, with the first major wave of repatriation to Soviet Armenia, founded Nor Hachn in the Kotayk region. The hero’s uncle was the first in the family to “take the path” of returning to the homeland. Together with other like-minded people, he organized a fundraising effort for the construction of the Memorial Museum of the Victims of the Struggle for Hachn, designed by Rafael Israelyan.
 

Seven decades later, another member of the Dakessian family decided to take the path of repatriation: in 2020, Ara and his wife were already in Armenia.
 

This was not his first visit to the homeland — as a 12-year-old teenager living in the Armenian neighborhood of Beirut, he came to Etchmiadzin and studied for 4 years at the Gevorgian Theological Seminary. At that time, the decision to become a priest was driven by a desire to help the Armenian community of Nor Hachn preserve Armenian values and Armenian identity. After 4 years, having changed his mind about following that path, Ara returned to Beirut and started working in a jewelry workshop. Starting with the simplest work, after many years of painstaking labor, the hero and his brother founded their own jewelry brand, ArmanorJewelry. The brand achieved success internationally and participated in many international exhibitions, but it felt more comfortable in the Arab environment, because that is where it was born. After working in the jewelry field for 40 years, Ara left everything behind and moved to Armenia, where he had wanted to return since the 2010s.
 

“After 1979, when I left my studies at the Seminary, my wife, daughter and I came in 1994–95. Armenia was very sad, and we returned to Beirut feeling the same way. The next trip took place 14 years later, inspired by Ralph Yirikian (currently the General Director of Ucom): he came to Lebanon and said that it was possible to return to Armenia. We flew in for a week, rented a car, went to Artsakh, and even canceled our next trip to Cyprus in order to spend more time here. But in the end, we returned to Beirut and, as always happens, went back to our everyday affairs,” Ara recalls.
 

And among those everyday affairs were not only efforts to develop the jewelry brand, but also investments in restoring the Armenian neighborhood in Beirut. In order to take part in this work, Ara’s two daughters became engineers, but times changed, the political and economic situations changed — the daughters went abroad to continue their education, and Ara and his wife moved to Armenia.
 

A Jeweler Who Plants Trees
 

“We knew the purpose of our arrival — to plant orchards. Initially, we were thinking about almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, but in the end we settled on pistachios. We purchased a land plot in the village of Ferik — 200 hectares of completely uncultivated land — and began clearing it of stones. In the process, we encountered a problem: although I had a certificate of ownership for the plot, I could not use it because the villagers claimed that the land was for public use. So I was forced to stop: it took 2 years to resolve these issues and defend my rights. And in order not to sit idle, I bought another 5-hectare plot in Etchmiadzin and planted an orchard of 5,000 pistachio trees,” the hero continues.
 

The land plot in Ferik is now fully in use by its owner: 60 hectares have already been cleared of stones and are ready for planting — fodder has already been sown on 20 hectares, and wheat on 6 hectares. These help generate some income in contrast to the enormous investments made in these plots.
 

Ara admits that throughout his entire agricultural activity, he has received significant support from the state, for example, when purchasing machinery with state subsidies. He has already bought several pieces of agricultural equipment, managed to pay off debts, and is planning to acquire new machinery. But the hero considers it important to note that, for some reason, such state support reaches only the middle and wealthy classes; the state does not help small agricultural businesses, although they need support more. He believes the reason for this is that the programs and roadmaps are not sufficiently developed, and in his opinion, the state still has work to do here.
 

The Expatriation of Pistachio, Cedar, and Avocado Trees to Armenia
 

“Over these several years, so many expenses have gone into the orchards, and this year we have our first chance of a harvest. Pistachio trees bear first fruit in 5–7 years, and here you need a great deal of patience.
 

I did not stop there. I built an experimental avocado greenhouse, and we have already been harvesting for 2 years. The trees were brought by plane from Lebanon. I was also interested in the possibility of harvesting pine nuts here. In all these years of searching, I have not seen a single tree that bears fruit. In Lebanon, I was taught that trees that bear fruit are female, which means that in Armenia they are all male. I brought a tree from Lebanon and planted it in the village of Aytagh. And because it is doing well, although it loves humidity, I was happy and brought 10 kg of seeds from Lebanon — that is 10,000 seeds — planted them, and I am growing them. I really want to spread this tree here. I have already grown 3,000–4,000 trees, I sell them, and I try to sell them in areas no higher than 1,000 meters above sea level. People often ask me, ‘Will you live to see the fruit?’ (the tree bears fruit only after 15 years). And I hope to integrate it into the Armenian climate,” says Ara.


 

He does not stop at what he already has: his life in Armenia is a series of experiments, and he does them well — the wheat grows, and the apricot vodka turns out delicious…
 

“My path is a long one! A pistachio orchard bears first fruit in 5- 7 years; in Armenia, making an investment for 7 years is the same as signing your own death sentence. This year, I hope we will harvest. If I see a good result, then I will start persuading my friends to come here.
 

I am sure that all Armenians living in the diaspora have a desire to return to the homeland. And I am sure that everything is self-deception if you only talk. If you truly love, you need to prove it through action — live by the laws, make investments, plant trees. We planted trees; I am not going to take them with me, after all. Everything will remain here…”.
 

Interview conducted by Nare Bejanyan

Translation via AI based on the original article in Russian:  Сажать сад – верить в завтрашний день!