From a Housewife to a Position in the Embassy: The Story of an Immigrant

Now an accountant in the Embassy of Armenia to Bulgaria, she has come a long way since leaving her hometown, the capital of Armenia, Yerevan at the age of 25 with nothing. Despite the obstacles of being a single mother, she managed to keep her head high and create a global professional network.

Her Story

Mrs. Voskanyan's family did not have a plan, nor did they know the language when they arrived in Sliven Province in southeastern Bulgaria. After 13 years her worries about how this change would affect her children were replaced by a tough divorce, which led her to the capital city of Bulgaria, Sofia. “I wanted to run away from him. I decided to leave and start working from scratch,” she remembers.

Until that moment, her life was very conservative. “He did not let me work. For this reason, when I came to Sofia, I did not know what I could do, whether I could,” she remembers. However, with a higher mathematics education and luck, she quickly became self-reliant and independent. At the age of 38, she got her first job, as a cashier. Several months later, she met Mrs. Sonia Avakian-Bedrosyan, Armenian General Benevolent Union’s president, and accepted an offer to work with her husband. “He had a business; importing alcohol from Canada and America. I had a separate office and my work mainly consisted of writing invoices and commodity,” she says.

As time passed, she fell in love with the country. “I knew I had to stay in Bulgaria. I did not want to live elsewhere,” she confesses.

Mrs. Voskanyan leans into me numerous times to emphasise how proud she is for taking the responsibility into her own hands: “I legalised everything, started studying. I took a Master's degree in banking and worked during that time. I also prepared documents, in order to receive a Bulgarian citizenship.”

The last stop so far in Mrs. Voskanyan's professional life

Unfortunately, in order to succeed in her task, she had to give up her Armenian citizenship. This led her to the Embassy of Armenia. “As I spoke to the Consul when I filed the documents for refusal of Armenian citizenship, I asked him if I could work for them,” she says proving once again her resourcefulness. To her surprise, it turned out that they were, at the time, looking for someone with her qualifications. The Ambassador, Sergey Manassarian, who is currently the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Thailand, with residence in Beijing, interviewed her and only a month later she started working with them.

A piece of advice and insights into Mrs. Voskanyan personal life

Now, while respecting cultural traditions, having dual citizenship and feeling Bulgaria to be her “second home country”, she is certain of being “a real Armenian”. She admits being an immigrant was hard in the first few years, but will still advise people in a similar situation: “always, regardless of age, one should not stop being in pursuit of something good. One has to travel a lot and always look for a better life”.

Asked what she considers to be her biggest success and failure, she says, with a soft smile: “My biggest success are my children and that I quickly recovered after the divorce with my husband, and I took control over my documents and my new life. I have no failure - all that has not happened as I planned is a lesson. Everything that is not good in life makes you stronger.” However, she admits: “Though no matter how strong you think you are, you sometimes fall .. everyone is weak! I look strong, but at times I feel very weak.” Her unbeatable smile is not so wide now.

Then I was once again struck by her positivity. She explains what helps her at such times: “I listen to music, dance alone. Positive thinking has always helped me. One needs to enjoy every little thing in this life. This life is so short ... we have to find happiness in everything. I also isolate myself from people I do not like and feel suppressed by. I only communicate with those who are close to my heart and make me happy.”