“I think the House of Armenian Students in the Cité U, as students call it, is one of the places that the Armenian community has the most reason to be proud of. I didn’t live there, but I went to some of the Armenian events they organised and would go to visit friends who lived there. It was always welcoming and especially nice when the weather was fine. We would cook in the communal kitchen and eat outside, listening to music in the quiet park or watching people play football. It was everything you could want out of an international student atmosphere, and perfect for opening the minds of international students.”
Jilda, student, July 2007.
“One evening in November 1993, eighty students seeking to define their Armenian identity and other experienced association workers held an informal discussion at the House of Armenian Students. From this discussion the COPEA, or The Armenian Student Centre for Orientation (Centre d’Orientation Pour les Étudiants Arméniens), was born. In the beginning the association targeted the Armenian Association community almost from a marketing perspective. We saw that there was a gaping hole, and lots of young people were just drifting off. At the time, there was a great need, and nothing whatsoever in place to fulfil that need.
A lot of young people couldn’t find associations that suited them. Coming together and helping one another were the two ideals that everybody could agree on as the basis for a constructive project, no matter where they came from or what their political opinions were, and this grew at a time when there was really a need for it.”
Vasken Khatchadourian, founder of COPEA
