I think Getronagan Armenian High School is an institution that every student in Armenia has heard about throughout their education, either in the scope of the Armenian literature curriculum in secondary school or later, at university.

The first associations that arose in my mind regarding Getronagan were of course connected with the greatest Western Armenian thinkers, scholars and writers like Arshag Chobanian, Hrachia Adjarian, Misak Metsarents, Vahan Tekeyan, Hakob Mndzuri and many others. Undoubtedly, the name of Gomidas Vartabed is also forever connected with the school. So, I knew that there is such a mysterious place in Istanbul, where at one time the most eminent Armenian intellectuals (M. Garagashian, Dzerents, H. Paronian, L. Shant, K. Zarian and others) were teaching and educating the future distinguished Armenian figures of the early 20th century.

Thus, our trip to Getronagan was one of the most exciting and long-awaited events for me, and I was utterly happy when the day of the visit came. I was very surprised to discover that the school is located in a neighbourhood I had passed by several times throughout the three months I had been in Istanbul. I've been thinking that the place of the school must be as mysterious and legendary, as I imagined the school itself. 

Fellows' visit to Getronagan High School

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So we reached the school quite quickly, it appeared to have been carefully hidden in an old neighborhood of the city and there was only a small sign on the building indicating the existence of the school, which was not easy to notice, if you’d not know about it beforehand.  But the most interesting thing was behind the door. The school director Mrs. Silva Kouyoumjian welcomed us with a warm smile and willingly guided us through the building. Our thrilled group looked into almost all the classrooms. We started with the dining-hall though, where we were served a tight school lunch around a big table. It was very interesting to be introduced to the activities of this legendary school with such a deep history, especially taking into account that we all had said goodbye to our school life pretty long time ago. So we were walking around the school with mixed feelings, like some kind of nostalgia and excitement. There were a lot of clubs and study groups for the students of Getronagan and we stopped by almost all of them, singing songs with the school children, getting into philosophical discussions with the philosophy club. We fortunately did not dance at the dance group; it would look quite funny, as the children were mastering very beautiful  Armenian national dances, which are better to watch if you don't know how to dance them. We also did not intervene in the practical part of the chemistry and technology groups' work processes.  There was also a theater group, and of course the school library, where the senior pupils were working on the wikipedia, translating Eastern Armenian pages into Western Armenian language, some others were working on their homeworks, and this small comfortable room was one of the most amazing things at school.

In conclusion, I must say that, although the school was smaller than I always imagined, its atmosphere was as I thought it should be. I would be glad if more children were studying there of course, it would be even more exciting if not only Armenian children were educated in this school and I hope that this will happen with time. In the meantime, I was very glad to visit the legendary school, which was able to transform and keep up to date.