A question that I asked to myself while visiting a new country. Are there any Armenians in this country? Where can I meet the Armenian community? Are there any events happening in this city organized by the Armenians?
A true challenging question, that unfortunately remained unanswered during most of my visits and business trips. A typical duration of a business trip varied between few hours and few days. This fact has made more challenging the task which mainly consisted in hanging out and finding out the community.
I started to visit the various Armenian websites, Facebook groups to find out the right addresses and dates. Which helped a little bit to find out the past events, but difficult to find out the current ones. The easiest way was to visit an Armenian Church on Sunday. A right plan that can help you to feel the Armenian presence in a city. However, this plan can work only if you are in the city on Sunday, which was rarely my case.
For some countries, I was able to find a web site that lists the Armenian events, a kind of Armenian calendar, that lists the events happening in that city. However, this was available only for France and United States of America.
I found recently a new website called Armenopole. It seems to be a recent one, however, it is very promising. Armenopole lists all the events happening in the world. Events organized by the Armenian community: Armenian Cultural Associations, Armenian Churches, Armenian Political Parties and Armenian Embassies. The site lists all types of events such as Armenian diners, conferences, concerts, festivals, shows, theaters, and sometimes even radio shows and crowd funding initiatives!
It seems that the site offers also a possibility to subscribe to its newsletter. A personalized Armenian newsletter classified by country. The newsletter is sent on a weekly basis and lists the events happening in a country for the upcoming ten days. I have already subscribed for few countries, such as United States, France and Lebanon. Obviously, the countries that I visit the most. I’m also planning to visit Switzerland, and hence, I feel the need to register to the newsletter corresponding to this country!
Armenopole is modern, built using modern web technologies. Fully responsive, it can be browsed using mobile, tablets and computers. And the most interesting thing, is that the site is not polluted with useless advertisements!
Are you feeling alone in your city and you need to meet some Armenians? It all starts by opening your smart device and visit www.armenopole.com website.