The Financial Times has run an article in its Expat Lives page, and about leading Armenian astrophysicist Garik Israelian.

Dr Israelian was born in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, he graduated from Yerevan State University (YSU), and he now lives and works in the Canary Islands, Spain.

In the article, he spoke about his childhood spent in the years of the ex-USSR, and the difficulties of moving to another country.

“I don’t know why people have this idea that we were oppressed under the Soviet Union,” says Garik Israelian. “It was different under Stalin, of course, but things changed with Khrushchev. Armenia was an exception in the Soviet Union — our language, culture and church were preserved and respected.”

“I was a disaster at school,” he recalls. “I never studied — I just liked music.” He left school at 16, went to work in a theatre, and indulged his passion for rock guitar.

“But then I saw [the film] Solaris and it changed me 180 degrees. I was so inspired. I started reading science fiction and decided to go to university,” recalled the astrophysicist.

Studying astrophysics at the YSU, his supervisor was the world-renowned astrophysicist Viktor Ambartsumian.

In 1992, Israelian approached Ambartsumian for a letter of recommendation, to work abroad.

“1988 [the year of the earthquake] to 1996 was the worst time in Armenia,” he says. “It was very clear that if I stayed in Armenia, I would have to abandon science.”

Israelian left Armenia in 1993 with his wife and baby son to take up postdoctoral fellowships, first in Utrecht then Brussels.

“It was awful,” he says of those three years. “The climate was depressing, the people were depressing — a different mentality. All relationships were converted into business relationships. We’re not used to that.”

His next fellowship, in Sydney, Australia, proved happier, and in 1997, the family moved to Tenerife.

Garik Israelian also feels an affinity with the southern temperament. Although the Israelians keep the language and culture of Armenia alive at home, and return to visit family every summer, they feel part of the community.