Tigran Paskevichyan
Everyday Immortality

[September 10, 2007]

“Now we can definitely say that Armenians played a significant role in the development of photography in the Middle East,” said photographer Vahan Kochar. He is the editor and publisher of the Encyclopedia of Armenian Photographers that was recently published in Yerevan ... [full story]

Edik Baghdasaryan
Excavations at Tigranakert Suspended

[July 23, 2007]

Excavations at Tigranakert were suspended on June 16 (See also: Excavations for 2007 Begin in Tigranakert, article in Armenian, as well as Tigranakert). Hamlet Petrosyan, head of the archeological group working in Nagorno Karabakh, made the official announcement about the cessation ... [full story]

Gayane Torosyan
A Human Being with Armenian Seasoning

[April 30, 2007]

On the cold night of February 16 th , a small battalion of Armenian music lovers rolled around the Harvard yard, growing like a snowball, ready to follow anyone who would guide them towards the mysterious Paine Hall. Brandeis University graduate student Teta Kokhreidze, 25, appeared at the avant-garde of the crowd despite her high heels, holding a plastic bag full of garlicky dumplings ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisyan
Screamers

[April 23, 2007]

The problem with genocide is you cannot kill them all; there are always survivors. And those survivors become the “screamers”, the ones who cannot rest until the world knows what has happened, says Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard Professor Samantha Power in the documentary Screamers ... [full story]

Armenia’s Architectural Language: Getting Lost in Translation

An Interview with Jane Britt Greenwood, AIA

By Khatchig Mouradian and Jason Sohigian

[April 16, 2007]

“If and when the border of Kars and Gyumri opens up, there is going to be a big economic boom in Gyumri. So, that historic district is at risk of being destroyed through this whole notion of economic development, and if we go through this process of education and documentation and look at restoring some of these structures, we can get a foothold in helping people recognize the value of what they have.” ... [full story]

“In Iran, they do what they can to restore them. In Azerbaijan and Georgia, they do what they can to destroy them.”

Interview with Samvel Karapetyan, director of the Yerevan office of the NGO Research on Armenian Architecture (RAA)

[March 12, 2007]

- How many Armenian architectural monuments are there in the liberated territories adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh?
- I began working on investigating and documenting Armenian architectural monuments in 1993, following the liberation of the territories... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisyan
Speghani Choir: Bearers of Armenian Song

[February 19, 2007]

The Speghani girls' choir has been called “the choir of angelic voices,” “the bearers of the purest Armenian music,” and “a phenomenal occurrence”. The choir's huge repertory combines the music of various nations, currents and periods – from medieval spiritual works to works by contemporary Armenian and foreign composers ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Song Carriers

[November 20, 2006]

If you take a handful of sand from the Thar Desert, add different kinds of spices and a splash of Fauvist paint you will get a celebration of life – in other words the music performed by Dhoad, a band of Rajasthani gypsies who some years ago settled in France ... [full story]

A Small World, Away From it All

[October 30, 2006]

The Children's Creativity Center in Hadrut has a history that spans fifty years. For a little under half a century it was the favorite spot of a number of generations in Hadrut. The ‘little under' refers to the years of the war. It was reopened after the war to rehabilitate the children mentally scarred by the war ... [full story]

So that Hadrut is Always Beautiful

[October 23, 2006]

Larisa Sargsyan lives in Hadrut. She is a solo singer and one of the founding members of the Karabakh Song and Dance Ensemble; she has been with the ensemble for more than four decades. When the Song and Dance Ensemble was being founded in 1957, talented boys and girls from all the regions of Karabakh were invited ... [full story]

Armenian Pagan Deities Are Reappearing

[September 25, 2006]

Nineteen years ago historian Hayk Hakobyan had no idea that he was standing above an entire complex of pagan temples. In 1987 he and a group of archaeologists arrived in the village of Hoghmik in the Amasia region to study the area before the construction of the Kaps reservoir began ... [full story]

Prehistoric Site in Karabakh

[September 18, 2006]

In the 1970s, Azerbaijani scientists announced to the world that the site of a prehistoric human settlement and the bones of prehistoric man had been found in the village of Azikh, located in the region of Fizuli. The items and bones found were moved to Baku and have been kept at a museum there ever since. In reality, these reports referred to the village of Azokh in the Hadrut region of Mountainous Karabakh ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
In Those Distant, Neighboring Villages

[July 31, 2006]

From the Armenian village of Aygepar, the houses of the Azeri village of Alibayli are visible. Only a distance of 100-150 meter separates the two villages, but there is a bigger distance between them - fourteen years that obliterated the friendship that once existed between them, that turned them into them enemies ... [full story]

Lena Nazaryan
A Year of Hetq in Pictures

[July 31, 2006]

Visitors to the exhibit of photographs entitled A Year of Hetq in Pictures that opened last week at the Narekatsi Art Institute may have felt they were seeing realistic pictures of homeless, forsaken and betrayed people in Armenia for the first time . [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
The Poetry of the Golden Apricot

[July 24, 2006]

It is said that only the first and the last impressions matter and what is in the middle will be forgotten anyway. But just the opposite happened to the third Golden Apricot International Film Festival ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
The Return to the Future

[July 24, 2006]

1987. I am invited to the International Theatre Festival in Istanbul, but only for a few days. It is my first time here. Istanbul, the same city that my grandfather used to call Polis, i.e. the city of cities ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
The Duduk: From Village Feasts to Hollywood Movies

[July 17, 2006]

Varpet (master) Rubik's day begins this way: with a cup of black coffee in front of him on the table and a cigarette in his hand, he leans back in his chair, closes his eyes and begins sketching the future instrument in his mind. But no, not every day starts like this ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Sheranik, The First Armenian Pantomime

[July 3,, 2006]

Ani at the beginning of 13th century. The citizens are unselfconsciously celebrating Barekendan. This is the single day in a year when absolutely everything is allowed, when consciousness dimmed by lavishly served wine breaks all limits, when paganism, having been strangled, hidden deep inside the virtuous Christians for a whole year, breaks out ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Armenian Dance as a Sandwich

[June 26, 2006]

It all started from simple curiosity and eventually became a way of life. A Dutch folk dance teacher, Tineke Van Geel, took her first classes in Armenian dance from two Armenian teachers in the Netherlands around 30 years ago, and now she herself teaches Armenian dances all around the world and even organizes dance tours to Armenia ... [full story]

Anush Babajanyan
An Armenian Painter, Commerce and a Shot of Vodka

[June 26, 2006]

"I love rocks. I paint rocks. They show me a tree, but its leaves fall," the stout bearded man talks with friends at a table in his well-lit studio, gesturing with one hand and holding a cigarette in the other. Martin Akoghlyan is neither one of the most nor the least popular painters. He is just an Armenian painter. Armenian rocks and mountains are what he paints ... [full story]

The Best Player on the Armenian Team

[June 12, 2006]

The national chess team of Armenia has for the first time in history won the world chess Olympiad. The gold medals of the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin were awarded to grand masters Levon Aronyan, Vladimir Akopyan, Karen Asryan, Smbat Lputyan, Gabriel Sargsyan, Artashes Minasyan and coaches Arshak Petrosyan and Tigran Nalbandyan ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Santosh: An Armenian Woman from the Seventeenth Century

[June 12, 2006]

'Let me tell you a story. Someone ate a banana and threw the peel on the ground, I passed by, saw the peel, but did not pick it up, and another passer-by did not notice it, slipped, fell down and broke a leg. Who is to blame? ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Music of a Confused Society

[May 29, 2006]

From the top of the mountain, Alagyaz looks like one of Van Gogh's paintings of Arles. The houses are colorful but not bright. Only the houses on the edge are visible. I am trying to find the old singer's house, which we visited just before climbing the mountain ... [full story]

Onnik Krikorian
Yellow Bird Indian Dancers in Yerevan

[May 29, 2006]

On 27 May at The Cascade in Yerevan, the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers performed for an assembled audience of local Armenians and representatives of diplomatic missions in Armenia, including the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Festival of National Minorities in Vanadzor

[May 29, 2006]

Vanadzor's Hovhannes Abelyan Dramatic Theatre was recently host to the third Children's Song and Dance Festival of the National Minorities of Armenia. Ten of the eleven national minorities registered in Armenia took part in the festival. Only the Germans were missing ... [full story]

Onnik Krikorian
Bambir's Midnight Bash

[May 15, 2006]

On 14 May 2006, the young Gyumri rock band Bambir presented the premiere of their new live set at The Club in Yerevan. Billed to start at 11.43 pm, the band's new musical programe commenced a little past midnight ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Once Upon a Time ...

[April 24, 2006]

It happened or did not happen; it is true or false. And I forget I am an adult, have "serious thoughts", read "serious books". And I become a little kid who, sitting on the carpet with my legs crossed, all ears, waiting for another fairy story from my grandma, my mom, my neighbor ... [full story]

Onnik Krikorian
British-Armenian Photographer Among World Press Photo Award Winners

[February 27, 2006]

The morning of July 7 2005 was the same as any other for Edmond Terakopian, a staff photographer with the British Press Association (PA), until his cell phone rang during a photo shoot at London's Natural History Museum ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
From One Extreme to Another

[February 20, 2006]

"Hello, do you speak English?"
"Yes," I said turning around. I saw a broad smile between the plump cheeks and eyes, squinting because of the sun. Then shorts and T-shirt with "Manchester United" written on it.
He is an Englishman. Arrived in Armenia just yesterday. Do I mind him walking with me a bit? ... [full story]

"The Karabakh conflict is a hindrance in the path of the development of the two states."

An interview with filmmaker Ayaz Salayev

[February 13, 2006]

Ayaz Salayev is a film director. In 1995 he made the film Yarasa (the Bat) with private financing; the film was entered in 25 film festivals, won the Grand Prix at the International Film Festival in Angers, France and was screened in movie theaters in Paris, Montreal, Berlin, and Zurich ... [full story]

"The story of the Karabakh war has not been written yet."

An interview with filmmaker Tigran Khzmalian

[February 13, 2006]

"Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a system in which art allowed a person to be, to some extent, independent and free, the status of the artist - a man of art, culture-has changed sharply. Because from a relatively independent position, a free status, we have stepped backwards and found ourselves in the most dependent state ..." [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian, Mihran Sahakyan
Armenians in London

[January 9, 2006]

The morning train is bringing us - me, Martin and Haniel to London. Martin and Haniel are my English friends. More precisely, Martin is an Englishman and his wife, Haniel has a mixture of French, Greek and Armenian blood ... [full story]

Onnik Krikorian
Rock 'n Roll Rebels

[November 21, 2005]

YEREVAN, Armenia - It's well past midnight when Narek Barseghyan and Arman Kocharyan, lead guitarist and bassist with the Armenian rock band Bambir, return home. For once, they've decided to call it an early night, providing me with the opportunity to interview them over a bottle of vodka diluted down with orange juice ... [full story]

Hasmik Hovhannisian
Armenian Dance in Nottingham

[November 21, 2005]

The light is off in the room. It is evening but not dark yet. Through the half-open door typical English old men in dark breeches can be seen bowling, with expectant smiles. Inside the room the dancers have gathered. They all are English women. Chrisandra puts the CD into the player ... [full story]

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