Yelena Kasabyan fingers a lace tablecloth lovingly.

"My mother made this," she says. "I brought it with me."Other tables hold other treasures: intricate hand-painted chess pieces, a saddlebag for camels, filigree shawls, delicate china, hand-plated wall hangings, an oil painting of an onion-domed church, a large metal statue of Saint George slaying the dragon. Shawls hang from the ceiling, and tapestries adorn the walls. A loaf of bread and a bowl of sugar mark the entrance, below a sign that reads: "Best friends - You are welcome."

A low-income, subsidized housing unit is an odd place for an art exhibit, but Capitol Villa (239 W. 600 North) has exactly that. A number of residents who came to the United States as refugees from the former Soviet Union are offering their American friends a look at their culture and the treasures they carried from their homeland, as well as art they have created while here.

The exhibit continues in the Rose Room at the villa today from noon to 8 p.m.

Galina Cholanyan and Rimma Allakhverdyan are arranging delicate pastries and potato and cabbage rolls on plates. Stella Bebayeva wanders around, offering hugs and smiles in lieu of conversation, since she struggles with English.

Kasabyan, who was a lawyer in the old country, gathered the art items for the exhibit, contacting people in and out of the building for items to display. She and Allakhverdyan act as unofficial translators because they have been here longest - close to two years. When they get excited, these refugees all talk at the same time in a mixture of languages, laughing and correcting each other.

Most of them are Armenians from Baku, Azerbaijan. They left in terror after watching friends and relatives killed in a religious war they don't understand and can hardly believe happened.

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"We had no time to think. We had to run," said Kasabyan, who emigrated with her friend of 44 years, Sofya Semenora.

In most cases, they were told to settle in Utah, although a few came here to be near relatives who had already settled in. At first, each was lonely and a little frightened. But they started finding each other - some in Capitol Villa and some nearby - and bonded into an informal support group. They also found they had people in common. Allakhverdyan knew Kasabyan's husband as a child. Kasayan and Bebayeva knew each other in Baku.

Bebayeva, an engineer who came here with her husband Pasko Babayev and architect son, cries a little when she talks about her gratitude to the American government for "inviting us to come here. I have home. I have very much friends," she says. "I have happiness."

And that, ultimately, is the purpose of the exhibit, which is co-sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons and the Tolstoy Foundation. Titled "To America with Love," the women agree it is a way of thanking the Salt Lake community for taking them in.

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