By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
I could never have imagined the things, that happened in 2015 in Budapest, Hungary. When you grow up in an environment, where you are told about the limited opportunities of your country, being surrounded by enemies, you are constantly thinking about traveling and seeing, getting to know more and exploring people. Turkey has been the enemy of Armenia for centuries, from the genocide of 1915 to the present days. I have been told, I have heard, read in books. The people living there are evils, savage, cruel and insidious within the borders of my country. In 2015, as a member of an Erasmus + project, I spent 14 days sleeping and waking up with two girls from Turkey in the same room, made friends, and found many similarities in our thinking. Throughout the program, we used to sit down at the same table together for lunch, share interesting topics, go for walks, read books, dance, have fun. I was stunned to see people, about whom I had only heard bad and derogatory words. People who were made of flesh and blood like me. People who dance, sing, love the same food, share the same vision of the future. The Turkish girl told me one day, that she had joined such a project to break the stereotype that Armenians and Turks cannot make friends. She was sure that one day everything will be fine and we will meet again in Armenia or in Turkey. Days later, when each member country had organized its own national traditional wedding in this project, we Armenians decided that all the roles of the Armenian wedding would be performed by the people closest to our mentality, the Turks. This was just a stunning thing. The Russians, Ukrainians and other nations looked at us in a strange way. As they also have been told something else through television and the press. The program was nearing its end. I would not have imagined that one day, when I would get on the bus from Budapest to the airport, I would be crying and wondering if I would ever see this Turkish girl again. It was this journey that taught me to look at life with other approaches. We are now in contact with Gamze, often calling each other and promising to meet again. There are trips, that are living in your memory with bright and interesting emotions.