Host Kathryn Gretsinger: The shine of a diamond may bring a sparkle to the eye. But making that jewel sparkle is no small feat. Diamond polishing is a tough, dirty job, which apparently most people in the Northwest Territories don’t want to do. That’s why the diamond industry in the Northwest Territories went to Armenia to find help. Sarah, what was the original plan for these diamond polishing plants?

Sarah Efron: When the first diamond mines opened in the Northwest Territories around five years ago, there was a big push to create spin off industries to bring benefits to people in the north. The government offered subsidies to polishing companies to set up shop in Yellowknife and the mines agreed to give some of their rough diamonds to the plants. So soon, there was a handful of polishing plants near the Yellowknife airport, in an area which people now call ‘Diamond Row’.

Kathryn: Who was hired to work in these new plants?

Sarah: Well, Canada had no real diamond polishing industry and no skilled workers to draw on. So the idea was to get workers from overseas to train locals and native people to cut and polish diamonds.

One of the centers of diamond production is Armenia. Armenia is a land locked country in central Asia, east of Turkey.

Kathryn: And are there a lot of diamond mines in Armenia?

Sarah: Actually, there aren’t any diamond mines there. But when Armenia was a part of the USSR, the Soviets decided to establish a diamond polishing center there. It’s in a small town called Nor Hajn near the Armenian capital of Yerevan. Nor Hajn is about the same size as Yellowknife.

One of the plants in Nor Hajn is run by the Arslanian family. The Arslanians are of Armenian descent and they’re big players in the diamond cutting and polishing industry. So it was a big deal when they opened up a plant in Yellowknife in 2001. And naturally, they decided to staff the Yellowknife plant with workers from its factory in Armenia. At the time, Armenia was still hadn’t recovered from economic problems after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it was a good opportunity for workers to make some extra money to send home to their families.

Right now, there are around 30 Armenians working at Arslanian’s Yellowknife plant, which is about half their workforce. There are also Armenians at the other cutting plants, and some brought their wives and families to Northwest Territories. So the Armenian community in Yellowknife has around 100 people.

I went down to Arslanian Cutting Works. I met an Armenian woman named Manushak Adibekyan. She’s the assistant foreman at the plant. She says she knows many of her coworkers from back in Armenia.

Manushak: Yes! A lot of guys, we attend the same school, the same class room. Most of them, their families here, kids, wives, I know most of them. Like old friends, it’s nice to be far away from your country and have friends.

Sarah: Is the Armenian community close?

Manushak: Yes, very close. Everything is happened, good or bad, they keep connection. They help each other, we love each other, like relatives all together.

Kathryn: Do the Armenians all live in one part of Yellowknife?

Sarah: When they first moved there, Arslanian rented apartments for them in one building, just outside the downtown area. Most of them still live in the building or in one of the buildings in the same complex.

Kathryn: So the Armenians pretty much stick to themselves?

Sarah: Well, at the beginning they had a lot of trouble communicating because their English wasn’t very good. But now, they’re becoming more and more a part of the Yellowknife community.

I went for dinner at one couple’s house. The husband is Edgar Kharatyan. He’s a 25-year-old Armenian diamond polisher. He’s now married to Gayla DeBastien, who is a 24-year old-Yellowknifer. Her father is white and mother is from the Gwitchin First Nation. Gayla has learned to prepare Armenian food, and she served us stuffed grape leaves and bean salad as well as lots of vodka. This is Gayla and Edgar.

Gayla: We met when I was working in Wal-Mart at the shoe department. He came and asked for shoes and I assisted him and then I asked what he was doing that night and we’ve been together ever since.

Edgar: When I meet her, I can’t understand her. My English not good, but now I think it’s better.

Gayla: He asked me to married him and I said yes. We got married June two years ago, we’ve been married ever since.

Edgar: I never think about that, come here and get married. Never thought about that.

Gayla: We did two weddings, one in Yellowknife and one in Armenia where I met his family. They were so loving and so caring from the beginning. And they do a lot of dancing, a lot of cheers to the bride and groom. For me it was really interesting and their country was really hot!

Kathryn: Wow, a hot cold love story. Have there been other connections between these two cultures?

Sarah: Yes, there has been a lot of sharing of culture between the Yellowknifers and the Armenians. One woman even gives a cooking class to locals who want to learn to make Armenian food. Another area where they’re connecting is through the church. I met a man named John Dalton. He’s a member of St. Patrick’s, a Catholic church in Yellowknife.

John: A number of years ago the Armenian community approached St Patrick’s church and asked if they could become a part of our community. The people were looking for a church where they could have celebrations and special services, also where their bishop could come up and have special services. In doing that, they presented an Armenian cross to church, a hand built stone-work cross. Just as you come into the church it’s right there. It was presented by community to St Patrick’s church.

Sarah: The Armenians use the church for all their special services, including their ceremony on the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. And John Dalton has become a contact person for the Armenian community. He’s helped many of them take the written tests for their drivers’ licenses, and he translates for them at business meetings. He doesn’t speak Armenian, but he has a lot of patience and he’s learned to understand their strong accents and their ways of thinking. He’s even a godfather to seven of them.

Kathryn: What do you mean, godfather?

Sarah: Well, during the Soviet era, there was a lot of repression of religion in Armenia, and as a result, many adults have never been baptized. So two years ago, seven of the Armenians adults were baptized in Yellowknife. John Dalton acted as their Godfather, and their Godmother is Hilary Jones, the Director of Arslanian Cutting Works.

Kathryn: So the locals are very interested in the Armenian culture, but have they also been interested in learning about diamond polishing?

Sarah: Not as much. The plants still employ mostly foreign workers. It’s not just the Armenians, but there are also workers from Israel, Belgium, and Mauritius.

There was one attempt to create a diamond plant staffed by aboriginal workers. It was called Deton’Cho Diamonds and it was in N’Dilo, the native community next to Yellowknife. But after two years, it ran into financial difficulties, and the plant shut down. Some of their problems were related to the fact that they were trying to run a factory staffed by people with no experience in the industry. The plant reopened last year under the name Canada Dene Diamonds, but now they employ only foreign workers.

Locals are being trained at Aurora College. I went down to the diamond cutting and polishing program. The Chief Instructor is Mike Botha, who worked in the South African diamond industry.

Mike: We are building up Canadian component. It takes time. If we train ten people at a time and we retain 70% of those, it takes a while. We have a five year program to replace foreign workers, to bring people to a level of competency that they can replace foreign workers.

Sarah: Are there aboriginal workers in the industry?

Mike: We do have some First Nations people who have come through our course and who are working in the industry. The percentage we have is not representative of the population in the north. People living in Rae, Edzo, Wha Ti, Deline, for them to come here is destabilizing and often they prefer to be in their communities.

Sarah: Like Mike’s saying, it hasn’t been easy to attract and keep people in the cutting and polishing industry. The diamond mines have created an economic boom in Yellowknife and there’s almost full employment. The starting wage for a diamond polisher is around $14 an hour, and you can get double that driving a bus at the mine sites. Also, many people think diamond polishing is a tedious job. You spend all day staring at a diamond, sitting in a factory at a polishing wheel. And if you make one mistake, it could cost your company thousands of dollars. So for now, the polishing plants are still dominated by foreign workers.

Kathryn: So we’ll be seeing the Armenian workers in Yellowknife for a while.

Sarah: Well, that depends on the future of polishing in the Northwest Territories. Things have been a little shaky in the industry lately. They’ve been having trouble competing with polishing plants that operate cheaper in India and China. In June, two of the Yellowknife polishing plants, Arslanian and Sirius Diamonds, had interim receivers appointed to them and the banks were demanding they repay more than $17 million dollars in loans. Arslanian has brokered now a deal to get the money from investors, but the future of Sirius is still up in the air.

Kathryn: And there was also the Chamber of Mines report saying the industry wasn’t very lucrative.

Sarah: Yes, that right. In the spring, the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines released a report saying it doubted the cutting and polishing industry would survive without government subsidies. And even with government money, they said the industry has problems with its low profit margins, high worker turnover and a heavy reliance on foreign workers.

But for now, it looks like most of the Armenian workers will stay in Yellowknife. Most of them want to sign another two-year contract. But after that, it’s difficult to say. Armenians have very close families, so being so far from home is very hard for many of them. This is Elmira Chobanyon, the woman who gives the Armenian cooking classes.

Elmira: Canada just great country. For me, it’s difficult without my daughter. Sometimes I doubt I will stay here. The Armenian people, we have a tradition, we live together with family. If my daughter can come and live here with me, I will stay here longer.”

Sarah: Elmira is torn between her son who lives in Yellowknife and her daughter and grandchildren who live in Armenia. So staying in Yellowknife could be a difficult decision for her. I think if the polishing plants stay open, we’ll probably see the younger Armenians settling down in Yellowknife, while the ones who have families already in Armenia might be tempted to go back home.

Kathryn: Well, thank you very much Sarah for coming in and sharing your story.

Sarah: Thanks Kathryn.