“A couple of weeks ago I traveled again to my beloved Armenia with my son. We familiarized ourselves with the school in Dilijan, founded by Vardanyan, because it is the place where Misha would like to study (though it would not hurt to enroll there first). And there, in that school in Dilijan, I thought how cool it is when a person is far-sighted enough to create an international school on the territory of poor, half-destroyed Armenia. Students from all over the world come to this international school to get to know and love Armenia and Armenians, to soak in this culture, warmth and hospitality, and then return back to Uruguay, Brazil, Australia, Denmark, Russia, Ukraine, Portugal, Egypt, Zimbabwe. Yes, believe it or not, there are students from all these countries studying in Dilijan and telling people about small, wonderful, sunny Armenia. This is how Ruben decided to popularize his country.

I also learned that in recent months he has found money to pay tuition in Dilijan for a dozen refugee children from Nagorno-Karabakh. Probably, if I had a seven-flowered flower today, I would spend one petal on returning freedom to Ruben Vardanyan”.