“I remember when I was little, my mother taught me. We used to pray in Cairo. God, take us to Armenia soon.” 

This is from the memoirs of Anna Semirjyan now on display at the “Armenia: Open Door” exhibition that opened today at the History Museum of Armenia in Yerevan dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Repatriation. 

 The family’s prayers were answered in 1946. Between 1946 and 1949, some 90,000 Armenians immigrated to Soviet Armenia from eleven countries in what is called the Great Repatriation. The enormous wave of enthusiasm soon collided with the rocks of reality.

The interwoven sections in the exhibition hall take the visitor through a chain of historical events: “Hope and Waiting,” “Towards the Homeland,” “Life in Armenia,” “Repression and Exile.”

For the first time, the private archives of families who repatriated in 1946-1949 are presented, with a combination of unique items selected from the archives of the History Museum of Armenia.

The exhibition is organized by the Factum documentary center; researchers Tigran Paskevichyan, Satenik Faramazyan. It is curated by Ara Haytayan, and artistic design by Sargis Hovhannisyan. 

Alongside the exhibition opening, a three-day international conference titled “Layers of Repatriation” will bring together researchers from Armenia and abroad for presentations.

“It was 2011, we were filming in America for a repatriation project, and they recommended that we talk to Harut Parsanian. I called that man, said, ‘I’m such and such a person, I want to do such and such a thing’. There was a long silence on the phone, and a hoarse voice said, ‘Where are you? I’ve waited for you for fifty years.’ The stories of repatriation are as if kept in a storage room in our common history. Today, those stories are now exhibited at the History Museum of Armenia,” said Tigran Paskevichyan at the opening of the exhibition.

 The “Armenia: Open Door” exhibition runs until September 2.