“Youth & Peace”
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“Shadow Colors”
The yard was always in shadow. The sun seemed to have forgotten about our houses. The days were white and black and even now I don't seem to remember any other colors.
…Mush and me are in the yard, no one else. There is nothing but shadow and sparkle, the sparkle of Mush's eyes, which are as black as stars. The shine never fades away, even when my brother starts to cry. Sounds-there are none, silence- there is one.
A funeral procession passes by the empty street… without any music, without loud cries… One can only hear the monotonous thumping of people's shoes over the wet ground. They bring the coffin then. It's a soldier. He is young.
“Poor child…”
“He didn't even taste the life…”
The procession disappears.
“God have mercy on him…poor mother…'-moaned my mommy.
I am in my father's arms. Shadows start to retreat. Something seems to have changed. A tram stands out in the distance. It's red, bright red. The tram rolls nearer, it is beside us, and it pulls up. The tram is so large and red. It's the brightest color that comes to my mind. I cry out something but there is only father's smile in response. Other people keep silence. Their faces remain gray. Even the red of the tram doesn't pass to them. I am happy, unutterably happy in spite of all this.
The red is reflected in my eyes. The tram ring goes on echoing in my ears…
The tram is half-empty. I am on father's lap, I look out…
The streets are also half-empty and gray. Things are different in the tram: everything and everybody are gayer. This doesn't matter though: father smiles and this means everything is all right. The tram rolls on to the last stop, we are in…
…The tapping of the typewriter ousts out the ding-dong of the tram.
It's dark. It's time for me to go to bed. The oil lamp crackles. Then, there is tapping again. I can hear none of it after a while, it's a long time I haven't heard it, and I have got used to it. Here is mother bent over the typewriter, there- father working with some documents. Some unutterable warmth laps me for a moment because they all are so near. Then everything freezes and starts to float. I fall asleep. In the absence of any noise from the street, it is the tapping of the typewriter, which reminds me the world is alive…
…Hovnan was born. I am seven. We are below the window of the hospital. Mother shows us the newborn baby. He is wrapped in a red blanket. It's hard to see his face but not mother's eyes shining with joy. They shine just as Mush's eyes do. Who knows, maybe, Hovnan will have the same sparkle in his eyes in some years? I felt father smiling. My new brother's blanket is red, bright-bright, red as the tram was. And I am happy too. The days have started to be filled with tints and hues and there is only a scarcely discernible trace of cold left…
Hovnan is at home. Mush and me examine him attentively. My brother is in a bed, which is too large for him. It's hard to imagine there is a new member in our family. We love him. I understood this when I felt my parents` joy, the warmth of Mush's eyes and how goody one our younger brother was.
There are now more noise and colors. As for shadows- I hardly ever see them. Hovnan's birth changed everything, though it's only now that I realize this…
… The war was over that year.
Gor Baghdasaryan
15 years old
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“The cost of victory”
He ran to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, then the oven, he bent over, opened the cupboard, then ran out in despair. The baby went to the bathroom, looked in the sink, didn't find anything and went to the bedroom.
“I missed him. I haven't eaten ice cream for many days, haven't made a palace from sand, haven't cooked a cake from mud, haven't played with my train; meanwhile the passengers are waiting. Where is he? Find him, bring him back, please.”
The baby cried and thumped his feet on the ground. Suddenly his mom entered the room.
“Take your teddy bear, it is under the sofa.”
Look, you're smiling. Isn't it nice? And now imagine a woman, her son's picture and tears, many tears. She can't search and find her son like the boy did with his bear. She can't find her son, who is in the front with the gun in his hand, waiting for the enemy to attack. Maybe it is his last battle. What for? Because some president wants oil or fertile soil. Maybe her son is already dead, lying with his eyes at the sky.
Dear God, you see, I died for a drop of oil, while my mother pays with millions of drops of bitter tears. During a war, everything has a blood cost.
Did you get excited? I knew that.
Anoush Mouradyan
14 years old
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“Important lessons”
I like military activities as all the boys do. I have been attending a young soldiers club since I the age of nine. I like everything there: we have a real strict commander, we wear military uniform, and everything is neat and clean. In a word, things look like in a real army there. The training process is also a difficult one: we run, take apart and put together guns. I get tired easily, but always find strength to go ahead. In my opinion, a real man should be ready to everything, should never complain. I remember, once we had competitions. Many of the boys were tired; they stopped every now and then. This was not about me. I wanted to win. I was sweating, my hands were hard with training, but I went on struggling. I won. They gave me an award. It is really priceless for me, as I have won it myself by having a victory over myself. Now I look at my medal and think of all the war activities in the world to be this way, just like when a boy becomes older. Let the loser just get up, and shake the dust out of his clothes.
Ashot Ghoukasyan
13 years old
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“Abandoned House”
It was night, it was dark, only the branch shadows reflected on the ceiling. It was raining. The tapping of the rain made all the sounds but granny's sighing fade away. It was midnight , but I couldn't sleep because it was neither my room, nor my bed I was in. I was at granny's, where everything was unknown and mystical for me. I was thinking about grandpa who was a war participant, had many medals but a proper house was not what he managed to have. War had made him incapable of doing any physical work.
I went out in the morning. It was foggy outside, but granny was there, in the garden, busy doing things. I approached her and said:
“Go to rest, Granny. Father will buy all the necessary products from the market after all.”
“No, my dear. We have built this house together with your grandpa. Grandpa is not by my side any more. Then, how can I leave all this and come to Yerevan ? Grandpa couldn't bend, nor do any job after he was back from the war. I used to say: “That's all right, Stephan, things may be this way too.” I remember your father as a small boy and me mending the roof with some cloth. We did this to keep your grandpa from bothering. He used to say he was of no help to anybody, in such cases. We needed him even if he was this way. Now, how can I leave all this? How can I let people call our house an abandoned one?”
Granny wiped away the tears.
I approached her, took the spade away from her and started digging.
“Go home, granny. I'll do everything”.
It was foggy outside, the raindrops like granny's tears fell over my hands from the leafless old trees.
David Babayan
14 years old
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“Now and here”
The sky is blue and clear today. Everything is as usual. I think that now, just now we live at peace. People are going up and down the street, some are in a hurry for work, some are walking and me, I am looking at the cloudless sky and thinking to myself: “How peaceful all the things are!”
I realize things are not that peaceful, when for a moment I think about the world, about its present and past. Many people are dying just now; many of them are looking at the blue sky for the last time. The world has never been at peace, just since the creation of human. The reason for this is that everyone, every country thinks about himself or itself, about his or its interests. None of them ever confesses this is true though.
“For the motherland” this is the slogan which “veils” all the wars and evil doings. Selfishness is stronger than the notion of motherland. For instance, Alexander Macedonian who during his invasion was driven by personal interests only did not think of his native motherland. He didn't think about the revenge, which would follow his death.
Maybe me too, maybe I also think about myself when I look at the sky and think of peace.
Nothing is actually peaceful. I'll just stand at the window today and say:” It's nice it is peaceful at least here and now, it's nice the sky is peaceful”.
Elen Gyoulnazaryan
13 years old
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“Not Uttered Sad Words”
I was four years old, when we moved to another house. Our new house was near a military division.
I liked it very much; it was very nice there. There were many trees and a little garden where I used to play.
Only cries and funeral music disturbed the noon stillness.
Mother was coming out, to see what had happened: it was the funeral of a soldier.
Once at night I woke up because of noise. They said a soldier had run away to home. I was little and couldn't understand why they were so angry, when a soldier came back to his home. I didn't understand the difference of running away and leaving.
Once my mother and I were going to the shop and saw, how they were taking soldiers to war. The young men even didn't manage to say goodbye to their parents.
The car drove away as fast as the wind and the parents couldn't reach it. The mothers were still crying and weeping for their sons.
I raised my head in fear. My mother was crying too.
“Mom, what's wrong?”
“Nothing”.
“Then why is that woman crying?”
“Because they took her son.”
“Where to?”
“To the war.”
“Is it a bad place?”
“Yes.”
“Will they take me too?”
“No. They only take boys”, my mother said and took me in her arms.
Mother bought me a candy at the shop and I forgot what I had seen a few minutes before. When I became a bit older I began to understand where they were taking the soldiers, and why their mothers were crying. I can't believe that I've seen all that…
The military division is still there, and mothers see off their boys, often with drums and zurna, because the war is over.
…It's good, that I was small then, and don't remember many things.
Eleonora Harutyunyan
14 years old
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“Watch your step”
War is a very bad thing. People die even if the war was over long before. This happens because of mines. Fighting sides put land mines everywhere. Our relative's grandson was seventeen; he lived in Kapan, in frontier-bound territories. He had entered an institute that year. He was very happy to go to Yerevan. The bus drove over a mine and exploded. The boy died. He was neither a soldier nor was there a war. I know that thousands of children die because of post-war land mines every year.
Do we really need this kind of victory?
Hovnan Baghdasaryan
8 years old
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“War philosophy”
Why do people kill mice? This is because mice would never heed people's demand to stop making holes on the floor, or take away grains, they are neither going to understand us, nor to die of hunger. So people have no other choice but killing these animals. Who knows, maybe, it might have been possible to use them somehow and pay them back in form of grains? We may just suppose the mice themselves did not prefer this way of life.
People kill elephants, foxes, cows, birds (and many other animals) merely because they get some profit from them.
They get ivory from elephants (you know that it is very expensive), fur from foxes, meat from cows, feather from birds. Having profit is a kind of justification for people.
What a pity people kill each other, people become extinct. Can't they negotiate and come to consent?
They actually negotiate but consent is never reached.
So, this is the way the most evil thing in the world, war starts. Justifications exist even here. Some want oil, others free access to the sea, some say they are to attack not be attacked by others. All have justifications, an aim to reach to without any regard to the means applied.
Now, I am thinking over those reasons and fail to understand where it is safe. States are large and small, powerful and not, rich and poor. Powerful countries swallow less developed ones, the latter attack the former out of fear. Any state having riches inside is destined to try the power of other's fist. Good geographical position predestines the bad situation of a country. So, we can find no place to live safely in. Maybe people should sit down to think over this and stop making wars.
Maneh Tonoyan
14 years old
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“Portraying a Happy Man”
Peace meant different things to me at different ages. The mother's milk is perhaps peace for a newborn baby. He or she lies in mother's warm embrace and sucks in milk drops with a happy face. Mothers are the peace for babies; mothers are who they pass all their days with.
The babies grow up and change their notion of peace.
When I was four or five, I likened peace with a huge sack overfilled with toys.
When I went to school at the age of seven, peace meant for me easily solved math problems for which I got excellent marks.
In the seventh grade I had several books I could read and never get tired or bored of. This was peace for me then.
Talking to my girlfriend would probably be associated with peace for me in the 9 th form.
As a grown-up, married man and father, I would feel peaceful having my wife by my side, a paper in my hands and my children playing in front of us.
For me as a grandpa peace would probably mean a pipe, an armchair, and my wife again by my side and my sons with their families sitting round the table.
When there will be no place for me to grow up and I'll be a very-very old man with all my wishes having come true, I'll thank God and breathe my last breathe with a smile on my face.
Moushegh Baghdasaryan
13 years old
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“Knitted talk”
“Oh, Granny, how nice you've knitted!”
I have always admired her work.
“I was very small, when I began to knit,” my granny used to say. “My mother was knitting socks for the front. I was watching her and learning.”
“Granny, you were going to school, weren't you? What were you doing during the holidays?”
“When I was a student my father and brother were soldiers.”
“What were people doing during war?” I went on asking like an idiot, to which granny gave a confused smile.
Then I forgot about war and asked other questions.
“How many schools were there in your village? How many students were there in each class? Look, we are 40 in our class and ours is not the only one.”
“There was an eight-year school in our village which didn't quite look like that of yours. There were only 5-10 students in our class. Few had the opportunity to go to school. Everyone worked to help his or her family. Some never attended school; they very soon became grown-up men.”
“Where did you usually rest during the holidays?”, another stupid question of mine. I didn't then perceive what granny had meant.
“Rest? Don't talk nonsense. I either stayed at home or was in the mountains with my granny, where mother sent me.”
“Oh, granny. You have even been in the mountain… I imagine you there, putting up a tent and having fun with your friends.”
“No, I went there to my granny. Granny used to take our cattle there. And she was a generous one; she never went to the mountains alone. Granny took the village orphans with her, gave them milk and cheese. There was no place in those days, 5-6 persons used to sleep on an ottoman.”
Granny put the knitting - needles aside, heaved a sigh. It seemed her thought floated somewhere else.
“Why did you get sad, granny?” I asked in surprise. “You talk about your childhood. Why then do you get sad? Well, I need to go. We are going to the puppet show with our classmates today.”
“Go, my dear, go”, granny recollected her wits and gave a joyful smile. “Go dear, you will have some nice stories to tell to your grandchildren then. Yes, you should go.”
Granny has died long ago, and it's only now that I understand many of the things she said.
Naneh Sahakyan
14 years old
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“Light breath”
Everybody in the world wants to live in peace but few people understand that peace depends on them. For example, people do evil things to one another instead of doing good things. Countries do the same; they only think about themselves and attack each other for their own welfare. Peace comes from little things: from the joyful laughs of children, from the fragrance of blossoming flowers, from people's warm smiles. I often think about what peace is for me, but different things come to my mind. Sometimes peace is when I've finished my lessons, at other times it's when I'm home with my mom and my sisters. Generally I don't even think about peace but then sometimes, you know, it's for the best to think about it because you never think about things you have. When you breathe freely you don't think about sinking. I want everybody to live this way.
Mariam Manoukyan
11 years old
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“Praise to Peace”
It was the blue cloudless sky, which came first, then the burning sun and stone, much stone. Then nature gave birth to mountains covered with snow, mountains, high and lofty. People born to toil and create have then occupied this land. Those were born and passed into eternity, so we have and will be. I think peace has been the greatest desire of our people. This is what they need to live and create. When I look at our temples and manuscripts, I think of all that could have been created by the Armenian people in the absence of all the wars.
Let peace float all over the world and pigeons fly up in the blue sky. Let the sun shine over the heads of all the kids and hold them in its warm embrace.
Rima Tofanyan
13 years old
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“Isn’t it love that…”
It was a warm autumn evening. The sunrays were filling my room through the open window, were playing with my hair, and were trying to seize the pen away from my hands. Go away you mischievous rays! I'm busy! I can't play with you today. I think, I must write about war. Well, you persuaded me. I will stand by the window for a while, will look at the white top of Massis, and will admire the autumn red and yellow of Hrazdan Gorge.
That's enough, I am going to write.
I cannot explain why I always think of “war” as the only antonym to the word “peace.” War and peace. People have fought for centuries, killed each other, destroyed developed cities, and brought to the ground all the miraculous buildings which were created once by people like them. Then they sign peace treaties and become joyous, after having made all around them suffer. Reconstruction has followed total destruction. People can rebuild houses but can they ever bring back to life their parents, sisters and brothers killed in wars?
“Nar, Nar. Please help me…”
It's Romanik, my younger brother. Here he is in front of me with his English book under his arms; with a pen, as always, in his mouth; with his round eyes looking at me.
“Come, let's see what we can do. Hurry, or else I will forget all I want to write about.”
See? I lost my train of thought. What was I writing about? Oh, yes it was peace…
One can, perhaps, restore and rebuild everything, but never human relations and lives. Where there are innocent victims there is always a bloody revenge. So, any kind of war should be put to an end if we want to see people around us.
“Nar, Nar, come. Be quick, there is a wedding over here. Look, there is no room for cars again. Look at how beautiful the bride is. Come, see the balloons. They are already high up in the sky.”
It is Rom again. He has climbed up the windowsill and is having fun.
“Rom, don't disturb me”.
I can hear a mix of melodies from outside; it's flooding my room. The music won't stop 'til the morning; the sounds of the people having a party won't let us sleep. What should we do? It's a holiday for them today. I close the window and try to concentrate. How can I convince people to stop fighting? How can I convince terrorists not to burst planes and take over theaters? What's to be done? Isn't it nice when the bright rays of the sun light up the blue sky? When the children make noise playing in the yard? When one can see colorful butterflies on flowers? I so like the noisy wedding party that is disturbing me. Maybe all the people should love each other. Their love should be so great that it doesn't leave any room for offense… Is it that hard to love people?
Narineh Daneghyan
12 years old
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“Love each other”
I have thought much of war and peace and have failed to understand the causes of wars. They seem to be so easy and solvable. The adults really tend to make things complicated. I am sure children would be able to solve all the problems on any battlefield if the adults cared to turn to them. It's easy to say war is a great vice or that peace should be established all over the world. One should just be a bit kind to put an end to wars.
People are very pessimistic nowadays. Everybody thinks wars will never end that our planet is going to be ruined. That's why we have never thought of how to establish peace. We should come to the notion the earth is very small and its inhabitants are and should be like one family. We should realize every destroyed house is ours, every killed person is our relative.
No one is better than others are and no one has the right to deprive people of their lives.
Peace cannot be reached if we only wish of it. We should always keep to the Bible saying, “Love each other”.
Lusine Hakobyan
13 years old
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“Fairy-tales and Reality”
I love fairy tales very much. When I was small I used to fall asleep sleep to heroes defeating evil forces in the fairy tales my mother told me.
Then I grew up and started reading by myself. I was happy when kind kings were the winners. They shed blood in all the corners of our small planet everyday.
Countries make war, children lose their parents, mothers never see their children again, buildings and schools are destroyed…
The fairy tales are ruined every time I hear of a destroyed school…
Let leaders of different countries fight with one another if they want to fight so badly. Let them plunge people into war.
If they are that powerful, let them win like the fairy tale kings, or let them lose like Msra Melik in our epic. Don't you know kings fight against each other, without any army?
No one would call for war then, because he himself will have to fight.
Aram Abrahamyan
12 years old
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“No War Tomorrow (A real fantastic story)”
The shrilling ring of the bell disturbed the silence. The break began. Senior students grouped in their favorite place. Everything can be seen from there, but no one disturbs you.
“I'm tired of classes”, Edgar said.
“Especially this Chemistry” Aram agreed.
They didn't feel like talking.
“Where's that Karen?” As if it was Karen's fault.
“He's in love”, explained Michael.
“With whom?”
“With a girl from another 10 th grade. Her name is Ann”
“Yes, I know her. Here he comes. Perhaps he couldn't a love confession again” Edgar mumbled, then asked Karen.
“Is that true?”
“What?”
“You’re in love?”
“A-a-a-h! I don't know. Don't tell anybody yet. Why are you hanging around here, let's get out of the school.”
Edgar took out a cigarette.
“Did you watch the match yesterday?”
“No, we didn't have electricity. The electric power station was destroyed yesterday.
No one answered. Karen's brother appeared god-knows where from and threw a glance full of trouble to brother's cigarette.
Suddenly they looked at each other.
“Don't tell mom.”
Armen didn't answer.
“I don't want to go back to school, I want to go home” Edgar broke the silence.
“There mustn't have been any classes today; they don't want to let the people out. They don't want panic, that's why they do this” Karen said.
“Does it matter, at home or at school?”
“School is the future of every country. Live target…”
“Even the most savage enemy has a heart, calm down.”
“I've heard that some closed shops had been robbed in North Avenue .” Michael said, as he was talking to himself.
“There's nearly no one in the street.”
“Mom didn't want to let Armen go to school…” Karen said.
“Is there any letter from your father?” Edgar asked troubled.
“No.”
“Is he in the army, too?” asked a boy from other grade.
Armen hid his head behind the tall boys.
“I don't know, I hope he'll be back, Kar”, he tried to console Karen, although they had been beating each other in the same place the day before.
“Why are you standing with adults?” Karen shouted not to show his excitement. “Go to the classroom”.
“It's better to go home.” Edgar complained, “They will make us wear gas masks, then will teach us how to hide during bombing. What is to happen will come this may or other? I don't want to live with fear”.
Near the exit the boys parted, Edgar went alone.
“Bye”, he said: “I hope we'll meet tomorrow.”
“Yeah”, Karen said and didn't believe his words.
“Karen”, Edgar called.
“What?”
“Tell Ann, that you love her, tell her. Maybe tomorrow…”
Edgar didn't finish. Karen was looking after him. He was alone in the street that was still smoking after the night bombing.
Arsen Babajanyan
17 years old
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“This Fragile World”
Once I woke up in high spirits and went to school. I didn't notice how quickly time passed. We then went to the cinema after classes. The film was amazing. My next point of destination was the swimming pool. The water was warm and pleasing. After a while there was no trace of fatigue left. I was returning home in good humor. I was burning with desire to tell my mom everything.
I entered the flat. There was mother listening to the evening news. I cannot say which country they were talking about, but there was news of many children having died as a result of a terroristic act. I could hear the loud cries of those children's mothers. Mother was crying too. I took my seat and uttered but silent words. Children like me are dying there, overseas, while me - I am having fun all day long.
Arthur Baghdasaryan
13 years old
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“Peace on the earth and in the sky”
“Mom, where is father?”
“He has a flight today”.
Perhaps, you got my father is pilot. He takes people from one country or city to another. The profession of a civic pilot was once considered to be one of the most peaceful ones. Can you imagine all the important meetings and joyful travels without pilots? They seem to be able to reduce time and space.
Things are different nowadays. I always think of all the territories father is to pass, where war is. Pilots are the first to feel there is war, even if it is not in your country. In war they don't care for peaceful population, for those who travel from one place to another. Many people say the New York Twin tower blast changed the world. This change is also personal for me, as my father is a pilot, one of the most dangerous professions of all.
I look at the sky every day and pray for God to establish peace everywhere.
Elen Babayan
14 years old
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“Look inside”
Peace for me means feeling secure wherever I am. It is not obligatory that war should be. I lose my peace any time I feel myself helpless and unprotected: when I cross the street and there is no assuredness of not being run over by a car driving at a high speed; when I take a taxi and its technical state does not leave place to feel safe against accidents.
I am a student and I know beforehand that the cold of the reading room would only allow me to read the half of the planned.
My friends start to misunderstand me and I come to believe I am losing them. I fail to understand my friends and I begin to hesitate whether I am friendly at all. Somebody fills me with despair and a period of doubt falls over me.
People don't believe me I lose any desire to believe myself. And again insecurity, fear, panic, inexplicable anxiety, things that give birth to doubtfulness, alarms for the future, fading desire to progress, hardly felt hope to reach something valuable. Yes, hardly felt hope instead of assuredness, unstable ideas instead of clearly cut out objectives. Yes, ideas and plans, which gradually dissolve in the absence of a firm ground.
It is difficult to feel peaceful even in a country where there is no war. You feel insecure just trying to earn your living. You see gloomy faces around you, and it is not the idea of peace that wanders in your mind, but one concerning your coexistence with those people.
Again enforced masks, senseless conflicts, tenseness, hidden aggression or just cruel indifference… Doesn't it look like a real war inside oneself, the absence of which would only mean peace for me?
Ester Babajanyan
20 years old
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“For him”
When you love somebody you want that somebody be safe. I have “someone”… someone whom I love greatly. He doesn't even know about that, but now that is not important. The fact he is joining the army is what matters. Do you understand me? It is only now that I realize how much I want peace to float all over the world. I want this to come true more than ever in my life. I want there to be no wars and violence. I want the realm of justice, peace and love to come. Well, at least during this two years.
Then, when I think of all the possible events, I come to understand a two-year peace is short enough. He will leave for Russia in two years. What if he then decides to travel? I now need peace in some other countries. I forgot to say I also want peace for His mother, brother, future children and grandchildren.
It seems to me I just can't do without peace…
Lilit Hovhannisyan
14 years old
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“Dancing is nice”
Mother tells me they didn’t even have weddings some years ago, during the war. The bridegroom just came and took the bride without any music or dancing. Can you imagine people singing when in every home there are either soldiers out fighting on the front or mothers who have lost their sons? This is perhaps the reason my parents took my brother and me to dancing classes. Sometimes dance tires us but the stories our mother tells us stop us from complaining. There is music, people dance…this is already good, and this means peace has come.
Maneh Tsatouryan
11 years old
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“Question-Answer”
I would reconcile all the nations and countries with one another, if I were given the planet guard. Not only people, but also plants and animals suffer as a result of wars. Many of them never come to the places where war has once been.
People burn miles of forest, make vast territories look like deserts. Who is responsible for the nature? Aren't we? After all, why should women, children and the old spend their lives hiding in basements, forests? They don't participate in wars but why should they die being unable to resist all the deprivations. Why should children lose their fathers and cry all through the night burning with desire to see them? Why should there be war and not peace? Questions are easy to understand, but will there come a day when answers would also be simple and acceptable?
Sargis Bagratunyan
14 years old
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“To live without fear”
When I was small, mother told me about her grandfather and his family. She said they had left their home during the genocide, all of them, the young and the old. Many of them died of the severity of the road. I listened and thought of those poor people. People used to live in their villages, cultivate soil, get married, have joyful and sad days, but war erased everything with its rubber.
When I try to imagine all this, I fail to: thousands of destroyed villages and extinct people. It is the peaceful population, including the old and the young, that suffers first during all the wars. Can't there be peace, can't people live in love and without wars. It is amazing we all want people to love us but wars break again. Sometimes I hear them say a war was over very fast, or few people were killed. I think the loss of even one person is a great trouble for the world. Even if people do not die, even if they just rumor of war, it is again a very bad thing. It is difficult to live with fear of a war breaking every minute.
Tsovinar Talyan
12 years old
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“How to Solve Difficult Problems”
People are amazing. Now they fight, now they reconcile with one another. Why can't they always live in peace? People have always made wars. Why is it so? There would be no wars if people could learn to forgive the little things.
Take my friend and me, we fight often. When we were enemies and not friends yet, my mind was always occupied on the way to school with the various ways I could beat him. The same was true for him. Once we became tired of everyday fights, we made up our minds to find out the cause of our fights. Our long discussion didn't help us figure out the cause. Now we are good friends. Can't the adults do the same? Can't they sit down and figure out the offense and just reconcile?
Besides, I don't like the adults saying we, the children, are their future and the planet is going to be ours. They say this but do the opposite by destroying everything around us. We won't have a place to live, if they don't stop doing this.
Vardan Arshakouni
10 years old
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