Ruben Vardanyan, who takes over as Artsakh State Minister on November 1, chaired the inaugural session of a newly organized regional development agency named “We Are Our Mountains” in Stepanakert over the weekend.

“We Are Our Mountains” is a monument outside Stepanakert depicting an old man and woman symbolizing the Armenian people of Karabakh.

The meeting focused on the immediate problems facing Artsakh in the fields of security, demography, education, economy, health care, social security, and national identity.

"I have been here for two months and every time I analyze the situation, I realize that the people who live here are also heroes because they prove with their daily lives that the homeland is important to them, that they see their future here,” Vardanyan is quoted as saying according to a statement released by the IDeA charitable foundation, a Vardanyan initiative.

(The Idea statement does not specify whether the agency is an Artsakh government department, a private organization or something in-between. Such information shortcomings, in both government and non-government press releases, are par for the course.)