The first time Harout Paloulyan, an economist from Syria, visited Armenia was in 2008 to watch the football match between Armenia and Turkey. The second time was to attend his brother’s wedding.

Harout returned again this July...this time for good.

Three days after arriving, Harout gave a press interview that quickly landed him a job with a firm called Armenian Software. The company develops and services banking and accounting systems.

Company President Ashot Khachatryan saw the interview and called Harout to come in for an interview. The economist was offered a job in the firm’s technical service division. In Syria, Harout worked as a chief accountant for a large company.

Mr. Paloulyan came to Armenia in July with his sister, mother and cousin. His brother has been living in Armenia for the past ten years.

His sister is also an economist and worked as the director of a state agency in Aleppo before the war. She would like to return, but the family says it’s too risky. She’s still looking for work in Armenia. Right now, she and several other Syrian-Armenians are attending classes at Armenian Software teaching the Armenian equivalents of accounting terms.

Harout says he plans to stay in Armenia even if the situation back home improves. Harout hasn’t yet applied for Armenian citizenship but his sister and mother have.

Harout says he’s in daily touch with relatives back in Aleppo. They say conditions are only getting worse by the day.

The economist says several of his friends have been killed in the war. “The first victim was my close friend Viken. He was in the army and died just one week before being discharged.”

Harout says the Armenian neighbourhood in which he lived in Aleppo remains calm. Still, leaving your house can get you killed. This is exactly what happened to Vartan Khachatryan, a neighbour of Harout, who was killed by an errant artillery shell.  “Yeah, he worked in a store close by. I used to see him on my way to work,” recounts Harout.

The Paloulyan family store in Aleppo hasn’t been damaged. Harout says they plan to sell the store and buy a place in Armenia. Right now, they rent an apartment in Yerevan. He says their landlord is a good man who hasn’t tried to take advantage of their situation. But he says he knows of many cases when local Armenians began to raise their rents rather than lower them when Armenians from Syria first started to arrive in Yerevan. He says those local Armenians seem to forget that Syrian-Armenians were “fleeing a war zone”.

“I would just like them to regard as Armenians and not diaspora or Syrian Armenians. Sadly, many here in Armenia see us merely as diaspora Armenians,” Harout says.

The young economist says that back in Aleppo the Armenian community opened their doors to anyone fleeing from other parts of the country.

“When fighting broke out in Homs, many Muslims escaped to Aleppo. While they didn’t come to the Christian quarters, our Muslim neighbours opened their doors and welcomed them in. Christians fleeing to Aleppo were welcomed into Christian homes. That’s the way we were raised. That’s probably why we felt hurt when some in Armenia took advantage of our predicament,” Harout says.

The economist says you can’t compare the wages in Syria to those of Armenia. “You can live for one month like a king on $250, but here in Armenia that’s nothing”

In the past 1.5 years, prices in Syria have risen to Armenian levels. Harout says that before the war, bread and clothing were much cheaper in Syria than Armenia.

Harout believes that the international community has turned against Syria and points to the fact that many countries will not allow Syrian citizens to enter their borders. He places great importance on the fact that the embassies of Armenia, Russia and China continue to operate in Syria despite the war and that they have declared a willingness to assist the Armenian community.

“Just the fact that Armenia grants us visas is a big thing. I would get rejected if I went to the American Embassy just because I’m Syrian,” says Harout.

He says most Armenian students in Aleppo attend Armenian schools. “I have learnt to speak a bit of eastern Armenian. If I spoke western Armenian I’d surely mix in a few Arabic words, he says.

He also knows English and a bit of Turkish that he picked up from his grandparents in the home. They were from western Armenia. Harout wants to improve his Turkish and learn Russian. He still doesn’t understand locals when they pepper their conversation with Russian words.

“In general, diaspora Armenians have a better grasp of the Armenian culture than Armenians in Armenia. It’s not the fault of local Armenians. They live in their culture. We lived like foreigners in foreign lands. That’s why we held on to the culture and the language. We were taught at an early age not to forget that we are Armenian. They forced us to learn the language and not to forget it. We know how people from Sassoun dress, how people from Marash think, etc. It’s been passed down to us,” Harout recounts.

“From an early age we always dreamt about coming to Armenia, about visiting this mountain or town. We have seen Yerevan, the Opera, Republic Square...it’s like a dream come true. You see it every day.”

Since moving to Armenia, Harout has travelled quite a bit – to Odzoun, Dsegh, Shushi, Stepanakert, Khor Virap and Zvartnots. He often goes camping with some of his Syrian-Armenian friends.

Some of them want to put down roots in Armenia. Others want to go to Europe. The rest plan to return to Syria after the war.