After twenty years of living in the U.S., Varuzhan Mouradian has returned to Armenia for good.

A Yerevan native who races his roots to Van, Varuzhan has brought his wife and four children with him. He says it would be a mistake to remain in the States even though that country has given him much.

“Slowly, I have to put down roots here for good. After all, a person can only feel happier on his own soil. I constantly surprised by people who are amazed that I have returned. Hopefully, what I have done will be regarded as natural and will be duplicated on a massive scale,” says Varuzhan, who was a CPA back in Glendale.

He opened his own company and has left it in the hands of his partner.

Varuzhan started making plans to return ten years ago. In his recent years, the family would spend their summer vacations in Armenia so that the children could see Armenia for themselves and integrate into the local lifestyle.

Back in the States, Varuzhan immersed himself in viticulture. He travelled to the wine centers of the U.S., France and Italy and took courses in wine making at U.C. Davis. Varuzhan was thinking of buying land in Santa Barbara but changed his mind and decided to invest his money in Armenia. He’s purchased land in the Sasounik village in Aragatzotn Marz.

“My aim is to change my profession and to start growing grapes. Many can’t understand how I could leave my warm and secure office in America, come here, and get involved in work that is quite demanding and labor intensive. My friends who knew about the project really pitied me when they saw the poor state of the land on which I would have to make my dream come true. However surprising it may sound, their troubled faces strengthened my backbone to confidently persevere,” Varuzhan recounts.

This is the land on which Varuzhan Mouradian will build his dream wine taverna/factory

6.5 hectares of the sixty hectares he purchased has been planted with wine grape varieties. His ultimate vision is to build a small wine wine taverna/ production plant. The preliminary work is near completion. It will be a multi-functional site with a wine tasting hall, a wine cellar, so that   visitors can see how the entire process from grape to wine unfolds. There’ll be a parking lot, fountains and even horses. It will also serve as a club where jazz concerts and harvest festivals will be organized.

“It’s not just a business but a way of life. At first, I approached it as a hobby but later I was confident enough to invest a good deal of love and work into it, knowing that in the end it would be successful. It’s become the most important project in my life, something that my children can carry on.”

When I ask Varuzhan if he’s taken into account the risks of starting a business in Armenia, the vintner says there’s risks in any new business and you can’t foresee them all.

“The first question they ask me in the diaspora is ‘won’t they create trouble for you in Armenia?’ I tell them so far I’ve only been helped, not hindered. So what if one day I meet up with a trouble-maker? Should I get disillusioned and leave Armenia? Of course not. Each country has its own particular business climate. Just take the government bureaucracy in France for example. Should that make someone starting a business in France to declare that the country isn’t a good business location?”

Varuzhan says that wines produced in Armenia are looked down upon in Los Angeles. Most of the wine exported from Armenia is purchased by the Armenian market there. It’s really not up to American standards. Armenia, he says, isn’t even marked on the maps showing international wine making nations.

He says that things are slowly changing for the better in terms of crafting quality Armenian wines.

Tracing his family tree back to Van, Varuzhan wants to study the grape varieties and wine making techniques the Vasbourakan region was once famous for under the Armenian rulers of the day.

Four years ago, when Varuzhan served as president of the Vasbourakan Compatriotic Union in Los Angeles, he and several members travelled to Western Armenia, including Van. Next year, he wants to visit the villages of Van to see if any old grape varieties are still grown.

The vineyards in Sasounik

“Sadly, there isn’t much available literature about wine making in Van, but being a grandson of Van I have set out to do more research. Let’s see what happens,” Varuzhan says.

Varuzhan says that there are many positive aspects of American life he’d like to see here in Armenia. He mentions the comfortable roads first of all. He’d also like to see more smiles on the faces of people in Armenia rather than scowls, and for people to be a bit more tolerant and good-natured towards others.

“I’m not a newcomer and am fully aware of everything here. If need be, I could count off more complaints and negative things than the complainers I met. Can you name a country where corruption and monopolies don’t exist? They will not disappear on their own. We have to work together to remove them,” Varuzhan says.

While he accepts the important role the Armenian Apostolic Church plays in the diaspora, at the same time he can’t understand why millions of dollars are being spent to build churches in foreign lands. Varuzhan believes that the spiritual needs of diaspora Armenians could be satisfied with more modest means and the vast savings directed towards Armenia. A million dollars each could be thus invested in border villages to build or renovate a school or small factory.

“The fact remains that in 3-4 generations Armenians in the diaspora will cease being Armenian. They’re only kidding themselves when they talk about preserving Armenian identify in the diaspora. Tragically, the diaspora is already on the road of extinction,” Varuzhan says, noting the diaspora communities that already have assimilated.

When I commented that Armenians from the diaspora don’t come to Armenia due to a lack of jobs, while at the same time local Armenians are leaving, Varuzhan said those moving to the States won’t find many offering them jobs right off the bat in these troubled economic times.

Ending on a positive note, Varuzhan believes there are many in Los Angeles who want to relocate to Armenia. What’s preventing them from making the move is the lack of social justice in Armenia and their own tight financial resources.