You can meet gypsies everywhere, but there are only few gypsies in Armenia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union they moved to more developed countries. They stay wherever it is good for them. Post-soviet Armenia was poor and the gypsies that told fortunes of people for money were not interested in Armenia any more. It is more than ten years they don’t come up to people in streets and offer them to tell their fortunes. Gypsy Esenia probably is the only representative of gypsies in Armenia. She tells fortune for money, but he doesn’t like the other people that do the same. She says that she believes in God very much. Esenia also likes to sing and dance. She is often invited to nightclubs and show clubs to dance and sing there. She is sure that the talismans she makes help people. Esenia likes to be free, but she wants to be a citizen of Armenia.
-I am not a citizen of any country, I am a citizen of the world, I don’t have any passport. When is Kocharyan going to give me a passport? All nations provide gypsies with places and territories to live in. Shame on Kocharyan, because there is only one gypsy in his country and he doesn’t call me to tell his fortune and tell what kind of problems he has. I want only a passport, because when going abroad I have to show a passport of a passed away person. If he doesn’t give me a passport I will blame him. Write it please, I want him to learn about this and take care of me. I have sent him a letter but there is no answer from him yet. I have no birth certificate, that is why I can’t get a passport. Everyone knows that gypsies didn’t have any passports and that they didn’t have any documents before. Do you know what we told policemen when they stopped us during the Soviet period and asked for documents? You can ask this from old policemen, we told them: “I have only one passport and I show it only to my husband”. Old policemen often told their new colleagues to go and ask for a passport from us in order to tease them. We used to be free before. But now I ask for a passport, because I have difficulties with going abroad.
– Where were you born, Esenia? Do you have any relatives?
– I was born in Southern Sakhalin. I am in Armenia since 1976. I have nine brothers, and I am their only sister. I have no relatives in Armenia except the relatives of my husband. My husband was Armenian. I have one son, one daughter and four grandchildren. My children had families with Armenians, so I am Armenian too. The other gypsies that I came with left Armenia, but I stayed here, I was alone here. I see my brothers once in an couple of years. Now they don’t come here, because most of them don’t have passports. Putin doesn’t give them passports. On the other hand he doesn’t know which one of them to give a passport, because there are a lot of gypsies there. But there is only one gypsy here. Why Kocharyan doesn’t give me a passport? We could go everywhere before, but now I can’t leave abroad.
– You have been living with Armenians for a long period. Haven’t you forgotten the habits and customs of gypsies during this long period?
– Honey, Armenians and gypsies are alike: you are smart and cheaters too, that is why there is no lodging for gypsies here. Ok, this is a joke, take it easy… People call us as “thieves”, but we are not bad people. We don’t harm people, we just earn money slowly. There are bad people everywhere. There are bad people in your country too.
– Gypsies that used to live in the Soviet Union usually spoke Russian. But you speak Armenian very well.
– I know both Russian and our language well. After the incidents in Sumgait people told me not to speak Russian, that is why I did my best to learn Armenian. We have all sounds that you use. For instance other people can’t pronounce some Armenian words, but we can. This is the reason I speak Armenian well.
– You have a lot of clients. How do you gain the attention of people? Do your talismans and charm help you to do this?
– Both of what you said help me. That is why I have a lot of clients. If I cheat them, I will never have so many clients. I often tell them what I can do. The talismans that I make can protect what they have. If there were any talisman for love and marriage, I would make it first of all for me. Why do you look at me in such a strange way? I am old already. I don’t need to be in love. If there were such a thing I would make it to gain the attention of Putin and then present apartments to my children and make them happy. Then after having what I want I would throw that away and would tell him to leave…No one can change what God has given to us, no one can change our destinies, they can only prevent us from what is given to us. Telling fortune is not a satanic thing as some people say. I mean for instance you come to me, I tell you your fortune, I tell you that there is a wall in your destiny, and then I tell you what God has given to you on the other side of the wall, money, happiness, etc… If God has given something to you, I help you to collapse that wall and reach what you have on the other side of the wall. I am a normal person like you are. I can’t give happiness to people, only God can dispose that.
– Did you learn how to tell fortunes from your gypsy relatives?
– Some people are born as scientists, mechanists and so on. I was born as a fortuneteller like my gypsy relatives. We are fortunetellers from our early childhood. I collapse walls, but there are people who were born to make these walls. I can’t tell people how long they are going to live, I can tell you what God has in store for you. I can only say for instance you will live long, you are going to have grandchildren too, so that is all that I can tell. But if I see that someone has blamed you and you are going to die, I will inform you and will help you to collapse that wall. But other tellers may tell you that you are going to die. You will be scared, you will lose your head and somehow will get into an accident by chance. Then people will say that the fortuneteller told the truth. But this is impossible.
– What makes you differ from other fortunetellers?
– There are black and white magic. Black magic is the satanic secrets that were written in books by fortunetellers. White magic is the secrets of those fortunetellers that collapse walls. These secrets have been kept by people and passed to each other in the form of words. If we wrote these things in books, Satan would learn these secrets and would create something contradicting them. Like we read the secrets of black magic and create formulas how to collapse those blaming walls. Our talismans are to protect you from other people’s blame and bad wishes. These talismans will help you to be protected and will return those wishes to people who blame in such a way. Only 3% of world fortunetellers are involved in white magic. It is easy to learn who makes white magic and doesn’t blame other people. No one can serve both for satan and God. They can’t both blame and collapse these blaming walls.
– Esenia, how can you say that you believe in God if you tell fortunes?
– I said that I can’t tell what God disposes. I only make white magic and help people. I don’t like people that make black magic. They are the most dangerous people, because they speak in the name of God. Sluts, killers and criminals are not so dangerous as these people are. They have violated the Bible during a lot of years. Some of them say: “God came here and I saw God”. God is not a person. God is God. Stay far from those people.