A recent story entitled “Isolated Armenia Leans on Iran” by BBC journalist Robin Forestier includes several passages on Iranian students in Armenia.One of these students named Omid Mojahed “is a 28 year old student and an entrepreneur at heart. He spends most of his time away from his books, working on his businesses, which include a travel agency working exclusively in the Iranian market. "In summer I think that 90% of tourists are Iranian. Armenia is so close by and has attractive things … ".
Omid has also just opened a Persian restaurant, catering for locals as well as Iranian expats”. He “has no plans to leave while the going is good. "Everything will be okay for me here, that's why I prefer to stay," he says. "I like Armenian people, and it's difficult for me to want to leave my friends. When you come to Yerevan for a month, you will stay in Yerevan forever!"
The second case relates to a female student. The reporter writes; “Gathered at the bar around a smoking pipe, a group of Iranian students are relaxing after their exams. Twenty-year-old Mehdez explains that Armenia is popular with thousands of young people who cannot get a place in Iran's over-subscribed higher education system. "I chose to study in Yerevan because it's an easier situation. Here we have more freedom," she says. "But of course anything that we do here, we can do in Iran - just not in public.”
A Fake Friendship?
One who doesn’t know the reality of Iranian students in Armenia would normally be positively surprised and impressed by the situation described in the BBC article. According to Robin Forestier, these students are content and satisfied, and they don’t even want to leave!
In reality, however, most Iranian students in Armenia feel miserable and frustrated. Although they typically hold Armenia and Armenians in high esteem before arriving here (and in many cases even afterwards), they become eventually disappointed and disillusioned due to the harsh administrative culture, the unfriendly staff, and non-adapted programs at our universities.
I wonder why Robin Forestier has portrayed the Iranian students in such an inexact way. This will certainly trill the staff at the Armenian Embassy in Iran, their recruiting agents, and the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education back home. But has pleasing these people been the journalist’s objective?
No. It doesn’t seem to me that she has tried to please anyone; at least no Armenian or Iranian. In fact, she has not described a positive situation at all. Though certain Armenians may get such an impression as, according to the article, some odars (foreigners) love Armenians and their country.
In fact, the BBC reporter has portrayed the Armenian-Iranian relations as ties between two “isolated” neighbors that have turned into friendship out of necessity and desperation. A little landlocked country has become dependent on Iran which was considered for years one of the prominent members of the “Axes of Evil”. This is not the same phenomenon but is similar to the friendship between a prisoner and the prison guard; the so-called Stockholm syndrome. It is called friendship but it is a fake one after all.
Calling these countries “isolated” and explaining their ties solely based on some pragmatic calculations is highly debatable but I won’t discuss it here as the topic is far from this blog’s focus. However, what I cannot avoid discussing is the confusion that reporter makes between people and their experiences with their governments and government interests.
Armenian and Iranian governments may be isolated and they may need each other for trade or investment but the feeling of sympathy and friendship between Armenians and Iranians, or certain categories of population such as tourists or traders, does not drive from these rather recent geopolitical and economic considerations. And the reverse also holds.
So in case one realizes and admits that Iranian students are unhappy in Armenia this does not imply that Iranians dislike Armenians or that their government is unhappy with the Armenian government. These are different things!
Robin Forestier however hasn’t been able to distinguish these different levels. She has followed a different logic that has led her to ignore and even distort certain facts. For instance, she hasn’t tried to verify if 90% of tourists in Armenia come from Iran. Because her reader should think that Armenians are dependent on Iranians (Iranian gas, tourists, students, etc.), in the same way that Iranians need this country “on the edge of Europe” (in the BBC article, this refers to Armenia and not to England).
Interestingly, to make her story look credible, she has turned a blind eye on a country that is usually considered as the dominant power in Armenia; Russia. So Russia and its gas, capital, products, cultural influence, … have been totally ignored.
In the same manner, the journalist has ignored the majority of Iranian students in Armenia and has relied on a minority viewpoint; the views of those who relate to their life and educational experiences in a rather positive way. (Logic: Happy Iranian students in Armenia proves that the Iranian government is happy with the Armenian government)
Stay in Yerevan Forever?
The first student Mr. Omid Mojahed who “spends most of his time away from his books” to manage his several businesses, is absolutely an exceptional case. I would confidently say that he is one of maximum 3 foreign students in Armenia who have started a business during their studies (I am excluding diaspora students). Moreover, it seems he is doing extraordinarily well which is good for him but makes him even more exceptional! One can fully understand why he is so happy with his life in Armenia but cannot consider him a typical Iranian student.
Moreover, it is very unusual for foreign students to stay in Armenia after they graduate. This is due to many reasons that I don’t want to discuss here but it is a fact. So Robin Forestier who has cited Omid saying “When you come to Yerevan for a month, you will stay in Yerevan forever” without adding an appropriate comment, has practically confirmed this misleading and false assertion.
The second student Mehdez (?) has claimed “thousands” come to Armenia to study because they “have more freedom” (again the reporter hasn’t bothered to check the figures). Mehdez has obviously meant basic cultural freedoms; freedom to listen to the music, going to disco, wearing whatever one likes, etc. This kind of freedom is not an Armenian peculiarity. In fact, due to the repressive and theocratic nature of the Iranian regime, young Iranians can feel free in almost any country on the planet except maybe in places such as Saudi Arabia that happens to be a “non-isolated” country (= a good U.K. ally?).
So cultural freedom cannot explain why so many Iranian students have come to Armenia instead of going, for instance, to Azerbaijan (another “non-isolated” country).
It is certainly not thanks to the Iranian government. In fact, the Iranian government does not recognize many Armenian institutions and degrees, and thus disfavors Armenia as an educational destination.
Can the BBC journalist explain these? Of course, not. They don’t fit her scenario.
Robin Forestier has grossly misrepresented the experiences and attitudes of Iranian students in Armenia to save her assumptions that drive from a fundamental confusion between people’s experiences and government interests, and are narrowly based on current U.K. (and U.S.) foreign policy perspectives.
Can the BBC journalist explain these? Of course, not. They don’t fit her scenario.
Robin Forestier has grossly misrepresented the experiences and attitudes of Iranian students in Armenia to save her assumptions that drive from a fundamental confusion between people’s experiences and government interests, and are narrowly based on current U.K. (and U.S.) foreign policy perspectives.
To read the BBC article, please click here.
