The boy would only come home on the weekends, but now makes the trip more frequently due to his father’s ill health. “Misho works now, since I can’t,” says Sergei glancing at his son.
Vakhtang Mikayelyan, a 49-year-old resident of New Kharberd, a village just south of Yerevan, needs emergency heart surgery.
During 2012-2015, 3,500 Syrian-Armenians filed petitions for employment with the ministry. In cooperation with the State Employment Service and 200 organization in Armenia, 2,500 were given jobs.
“Every time a gas tank blows, we think it’s as a bomb. The situation? It’s really bad there,” says Arpi, who then remains silent.
In the past five years, according to Zarmig, the Armenian population of Aleppo has seen 200 dead and as many wounded. The editor says that most died while serving in the Syrian army and others while defending Armenian neighborhoods.
ARF member Nairi Kirakosyan was elected mayor of Udjan, a village in Armenia’s Aragatzotn Province, yesterday by a vote of 869 to 622.
The meeting in St. Petersburg was a disappointment in that little progress was made from the meeting of the co-chairs in Vienna on May 16. There was no mention of two significant measures promised in Vienna: a commitment to “resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement” and the creation of an “investigation mechanism” for violations of the ceasefire.
Karen, a 13-year-old boy in Kapan, has just one wish. “Dreams? It’s important that my mother can see. We’ll take care of the rest,” he says.
As we talk, Artour is preparing nails for a horse’s hoof. There used to be some one hundred horses in the village, he says, now just a handful remain. “Today, they all have cars,” says Artour, who charges 3,000 drams ($6.4) to shoe a horse.
It was 1992. Stepanakert, the Artsakh capital, was being shelled.
The farmer has no complaints and just desires peace. “Everything will be fine as long as there’s no war,” he says.
“What’s kept you here for 44 years?” I ask Yura. He chuckles, saying that he had to learn some kind of a trade, either the hair business or shoe repair. His final decision, it turns out, wasn’t accidental. “My story comes from another place,” he tells me.
“Aghasik, look, the Turks are firing on us from here. And this is our house. Hey, Aghasik, pay attention,” says 5 year-old Arman, as he draws lines in the sand with a stick.
First off, the philosophy of the Minsk Group regarding the settlement of the Karabakh-Azerbaijan conflict is based on the following important concept – nothing is agreed to if everything isn’t agreed to.
Now, the family has a new home thanks to the financial assistance of the Minakian and Kenden families of New York and the Fuller Center for Housing.
The factory building itself is being demolished and the sound of bulldozers fills the guard house.
MPs from four of the six factions in Armenia’s National Assembly responded to the following question: “What do you think about Yerevan’s current architectural profile? Can a new Yerevan be built by demolishing the old?”
16 year old Anya’s blue eyes redden when we speak of her dreams.
The building looks like it was bombed a few days ago. Some of the walls have collapsed and the roof ominously sways.
Gor tells me that wine is a living organism that demands constant attention. “If you neglect it, the wine gets angry and sick”.
10 year-old Davit and I talk on the grounds of the animal farm. Sunlight hits his face. He closes one eye from the burst. Then, he looks at me and smiles. We descend from the dilapidated wall and he tells me – let’s go and ask my grandpa. The door to the security post opens without a screech. “Grandpa, hey grandpa, when’s my birthday?” asks David. “Hey boy, don’t you know?” is the response of the old man, his eyebrows scrunching...
The village was freezing but Samvel only wore a thin jacket. He said he was used to it. Samvel has no permanent job and sustains the family by gathering what he can from the local forest. “If it wasn’t for the forest, I don’t know what would become of us,” he says. Chickens run to and fro as we enter the yard of the house.
“This is a cave; we are cave dwellers,” says Karineh, her damp eyes gazing at the table.
Her husband Norik and his mother Nouneh leave the house every morning at six and walk to the dump. It takes one and a half hours. They make the same trek back every evening.
On January 27 of this year, the Standing Committee on Health Care, Maternity and Childhood of Armenia’s National Assembly decided to postpone hearings on a bill regarding the enrichment of wheat flour to allow more public debate on the matter, given evidence that long-term exposure to folic acid may raise the risk of cancer.
Water coming from the discharge pipe and dripping rainwater has accumulated in the yard outside the dormitory in the town of Masis.
The wall of 90 year-old Yerevan resident Dounya Sargsyan’s living room is awash with framed artificial flowers – carnations, roses, and others.
We walk through a long narrow hallway where Mr. Alaverdyan lives. Shoushanik, his wife, cracks open the door. They have a confused look on their face. After all, we are total strangers. “Is this where Artur lives?” we ask. “We are reporters.” Shoushanik opens the door further.
The blacksmith stirs the fire with an iron rod. “It’s torturous work. Sometimes I tell my wife to help out but she’s getting up in years as well. When I ask Rafik why he continues to slave away, his response is simple – “He, who loves to work, will work.”
Heghnar Petrosyan, from Armenia, loves to collect wild flowers and use them artistically. After all, she’s a painter.
Some days, he returns with no money to show, other days he can make 2,000 – 3,000 drams ($4-$6).
One can occasionally see 11 year-old Arman selling tissues on the streets of downtown Yerevan. His makeshift mobile store is a cardboard box.
It is possible that all this will suddenly get out of hand and lead to much wider operations. Our challenge is to be prepared for all eventualities.
“I’m the only pigeon fancier left in the village,” Sargis boasted.
We walk down the dusty road in the village of Yeraskh towards the new house of Sergey Stepanyan.
Fadil’s family of nine and that of his brother (5 members), took the flight from Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and arrived in Armenia last night.
The Markosians say that their Nairian company will be the first to produce natural cosmetics in Armenia. They use only natural ingredients and do not add synthetic scents. The aromatic oils they use are derived from plants.
Thanking the benefactors, we’d like to tell readers that Hetq will visit the family once they’ve settled in.
On the Occasion of the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims.
Hope died over the course of several years and after several developments. I might say over a few decades. But we will restore it. It will return. I am sure.
In 2014, 180 million dram of Yerevan taxpayer money was allocated for putting on the capital’s anniversary celebratory events (Erebuni-Yerevan 2796) held from October 11-12.
By a vote of 74 to 11, Armenia’s National Assembly today passed a bill making changes and amendments to the existing Law on Referendums.
It’s early Sunday morning, not yet ten. Children are seen filing into the St Gevorg Armenian Apostolic Church in Tbilisi.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) has provided a €3.5 million fifteen year loan to the Republic of Armenia for the construction of the first EU compliant regional landfill and relevant infrastructure in the country.
Waiting at the village bus stop I remember the words of the village mayor – whoever assists Anzhela’s family will be blessed a thousand fold.
On May 9, Armenia won the Venice Biennale 2015 Golden Lion award for Best National Participation. The pavilion curator for Armenia was Adelina Cuberyan von Furstenberg, who curated around the theme of “Armenity.” The chosen name wasn’t a random one—it comes from the French term Arménité, which is used by French-Armenian youth to portray the survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
“I didn’t go for the money or to plunder. Nothing really happened to me. I went to defend my children,” he notes. When I asked what dreams he had at the time, he sighs and says, “All that should stay within us. We won and finished. But that should stay within us. We should have gone forward to shed blood. It was shed. We should have taken this too (pointing to Nakhijevan).”
One June 3, 2014, the Yerevan Municipality signed a deal with the Yerevan Cognac Factory to buy 28.8 million AMD (US$62,000) of the Armenian produced brandy.