8 project ideas advance to incubation phase out of the 12 competing projects from Armenia’s six marzes
YEREVAN, 31 May 2022 – Five Armenian startup teams of adolescents advanced to implementation stage in the Generation Unlimited imaGen Ventures Youth Challenge concluding the weekend bootcamp in Dilijan and each receiving seed funding in the amount of US$1000, equivalent to 444,280 Armenian drams.
Launched in early March by UN Armenia, including UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, and AYB Educational Foundation, the GenU Challenge received 109 submissions from young people of 14 to 24 ages, representing Armenia’s six marzes and the capital city of Yerevan. The submissions presented a variety of ideas, ranging from how to raise the quality of education, encourage civic activism, boost employment or combat climate change, raise awareness of media literacy and mental health.
The GenU Challenge is supported by the Minsitry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Synergy Armenia and BodyShop. Out of the 109 submissions, the selection committee of all partners chose 12 promising ideas to compete in a weekend bootcamp in Dilijan on 28-29 May. As a result of the bootcamp, the following eight teams were selected to proceed to incubation phase:
In the next few months, the project teams will use the awarded seed funding and get additional mentorship from industry experts to put their ideas to practice.
“GenU is about giving opportunities to young people to contribute to the society, about unleashing their potential in entrepreneurship and creativity, as well as about listening to the voices of young people. It’s their time and their turn to proactively tackle social issues in their own communities and, as we saw during the application stage, Armenian youth have no shortage of ideas when it comes to the development of their country and their own future,“ state the organizers.
In July 2022, two of the most promising solutions from Armenia will be submitted to a global judging process. These projects will receive further funding, along with a tailored global incubation programme from Generation Unlimited partners to support them to scale.
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Generation Unlimited: Generation Unlimited is a global public-private-youth partnership working to prepare young people to become productive and engaged citizens. It connects secondary-age education and training to employment and entrepreneurship, empowering every young person to thrive in the world of work.
The challenge calls on young innovators across Armenia and 35 other countries to design solutions to accelerate the SDGs, for example to improve education, employment, civic engagement or tackle issues in climate change, media literacy or mental health. As of 2021, with presence in over 43 countries, reaching over 15 million young people, and involving over 200 organizations, the Youth Challenge is truly a global initiative meeting young people where they are and working with them in supporting the realization of their full potential.
https://www.undp.org/armenia/press-releases/5-armenian-startup-teams-adolescents-receive-seed-funding-generation-unlimited-imagen-ventures-youth-challenge
On a weekday afternoon in early April, Anaïs Gyulbudaghyan and Zachary Asdourian sit at a table on Glendale's Artsakh Avenue, enthusiastically sharing some of the vinyl that they've excavated from dusty record store bins and online marketplaces.
Gyulbudaghyan, a DJ and marketing professional from Yerevan, pulls out a box with a picture of a priest, seated and reading under a tree, on its cover. "This is a Komitas collectible record," she says. She and Asdourian, the L.A.-based founder of electronic music label Critique, came across it in San Francisco, where the box set was tucked into one of those bottom record store shelves reserved for worn vinyl and long-forgotten artists. "The record is in really good condition," Gyulbudaghyan says, opening the box to show the liner notes and art inside a collection made in the U.S. to celebrate the centennial of the Armenian priest, composer and ethnomusicologist.
In the early 20th century, Komitas documented the variety of folk music emanating from villages through the Armenian people's indigenous homeland. Over a century later, Gyulbudaghyan, Asdourian and other similarly-minded collectors are amassing records made across the globe by ethnic Armenian artists during vinyl's original heyday as a way of archiving, sharing and better understanding the Armenian story. Asdourian calls it "neo-Komitasism."
"It's writing a history that hasn't been written and should have been," Asdourian says. In March, he and Gyulbudaghyan launched Discotchari, a collective-style sub-label of Critique where they share their finds on non-monetized YouTube and Soundcloud channels. They also update Discogs, the online database for music releases, with the information they glean from the albums. The goal is to provide access to music that can be difficult to find both in stores and online.
The breadth of what can be considered Armenian music is ever-expanding as collectors find more and more records in far-flung locations. It might be the kef, or party, bands that formed in 1950s and 1960s Armenian American communities. It could be artists who fused traditional sounds with psychedelic rock and cumbia, like in early 1970s Uruguay, or were influenced by disco, as in France during the late 1970s and early 1980s. What they often have in common is use of the Armenian language. They might also include then-contemporary renditions of folk songs or make use of instruments like the oud, qanun kanoun, doumbek or duduk. If someone were to put all these recordings together, it would tell the story of Armenians post-Genocide, of people retaining their culture after a forced displacement while adapting to new home countries.
It's definitely an indication of how preserving the culture is something that's ingrained in our brains.Bei Ru, L.A.-based producer and record collector
"It's definitely an indication of how preserving the culture is something that's ingrained in our brains," says L.A.-based producer and record collector Bei Ru.
The complication with telling this story, though, is that a lot of the records are difficult to find and many remain largely unknown. Sure, music from some of the higher profile artists, like oud player Richard Hagopian or singers Harout Pamboukjian and Adiss Harmandian, as well as releases from larger labels, are available digitally or on streaming platforms. A rare few, like John Berberian and the Rock East Ensemble's album "Middle Eastern Rock," a seminal fusion of traditional music, rock and jazz that was originally released on Verve Forecast in 1969, have been reissued on vinyl. But, there's plenty more out in the wild. Even seasoned crate diggers aren't certain of what might turn up in their searches.
"In Armenian music, I would always find records that I never knew existed," says Bei Ru. Sometimes, he would look at the credits and notice home addresses, the sign of private press recordings, meaning that the musicians released the albums themselves. That's one reason why Armenian music can be hard to trace. Some of the releases were extremely DIY.
Years ago, after coming into possession of family members' collections, Bei Ru sought out more Armenian music and those sounds influenced his early, instrumental hip-hop recordings. While he has moved onto different terrain as a producer, Bei Ru still maintains a collection of Armenian music and has his eyes peeled for a few more titles to add to it. He considers the pursuit "archaeological" in a way.
"There are all these organizations that preserve certain buildings and monuments and things like that, which I get," says Bei Ru, "but this is art and it's such a big part of the culture."
In music circles, clout comes with tracking down obscure music. You might become the DJ who popularizes a 40-year-old song that was overlooked in its time or the producer who twists an unfamiliar beat into the backbone of a new hit. But, for the Armenian collectors of Armenian music, there's a purpose that goes beyond the dance floor, the production studio and the props that go with it.
"If you're not going to do it, then who is going to do it?" says Glendale-based producer and DJ Lara Sarkissian, who collects Armenian music on various formats.
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sarkissian was exposed to Armenian music through her mother, who collected records while living in Iran. "That had a major impact on me, but I never thought of it," she says. It wasn't until after college, when Sarkissian grew more active in producing leftfield electronic music, that she realized how influential this was. In fact, in 2016, she used her mom's collection as the basis for a mix.
Sarkissian incorporates Armenian references in her productions through "heavily manipulated and synthesized" sounds derived from the duduk, a woodwind instrument, and samples. As a DJ, she plays Armenian music in her sets and has hosted two Armenian music specials for online radio station NTS, where she has a monthly show. All this is a form of archiving culture. It's also a way to foster relationships within the music community.
"It's something that has allowed me to connect with other people in my music community, people who come from similar diaspora experiences, immigrant family experiences," says Sarkissian. "If anything, it's helped me be in dialogue with others outside of Armenians."
And that, in turn, can bring greater awareness of Armenian music and culture to the general public, particularly as music from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region made between the 1960s and 1980s gains popularity. "There are a lot of really cool collectives out there and the main focus for them is the SWANA region music," says Gyulbudaghyan. "I feel like everybody forgets about Armenia when they're doing that, because they don't know what's going on in Armenia. They don't have access to Armenian music."
Another reason why Armenian music can be difficult to locate is because people simply don't know how to categorize it. A record made in Iran or Lebanon might turn up in a Middle Eastern bin, while one made in Soviet Armenia is filed with Russian records and mid-20th century American-made albums land in the exotica or "other" sections. One recent compilation record, though, brought some much-needed cohesiveness to the expanse of Armenian music with its focus on funky and psychedelic sounds made in the mid-to-late 20th century.
The vinyl sleeve art for Darone Sassounian's "Silk Road: Journey of the Armenian Diaspora 1971-1982," a compilation record of Armenian music with a focus on funky and psychedelic sounds made in the mid-to-late 20th century. | Courtesy of Darone Sassounian
"The Silk Road: Journey of the Armenian Diaspora" was novel upon its release last year. While there are many compilations bringing together the often-overlooked global rock, funk and soul cuts of the 20th century, none looked specifically at the Armenian diaspora. It took L.A. DJ Darone Sassounian several years of research and negotiations to make that happen. The album, which included music made by artists in Lebanon, France, the U.S. and Australia, sold out of its first 1,000-unit pressing in three weeks. Another 800-units followed and that pressing has nearly sold out.
"The general public has been very welcoming," says Sassounian. He adds that, based on the demographic information he's seen, those first-pressing sales were primarily to a non-Armenian audience. Meanwhile, he saw interest from fans of reissue labels like Habibi Funk and Soundways Records, as well those who tune into globally-minded internet stations like dublab.
"What I did is just a labor of love and, hopefully, it's the first of many," he says, adding that he hopes it inspires others, Armenian or not, to explore their roots. "I think it's important to know one's past to understand one's future."
For Armenians, there is a growing interest in this kind of cultural exploration, particularly in light of the 44-Day War in Artsakh that transpired in 2020 and continues to impact Armenians in the homeland, as well as the diaspora. "Young people started showing their interest in Armenian culture in general and they're finding different ways to promote the culture, to be more around the culture," says Gyulbudaghyan.
In these vintage sounds made by Armenian artists, there are clues to help understand identity, something that can be quite complicated, particularly for those who are now amongst the third, fourth, perhaps even fifth, generations born in diaspora. Asdourian notes that there is emotional and sentimental value to these obscure albums as well. They are a way, he adds, for people to consider, "what it means to be an Armenian person in this day and age."
Since the first incursion into Syrian territories in 2016 by the Turkish occupation forces and the occupation of the city of Jarablus Turkish threats against NES and the peoples are on the rise. Turkey depended on foreign and Syrian mercenaries.
Components of NES are very aware of the threats posed and the dangers made by the Turkish occupation state against the region. This was inducted from the history of the Turkish occupation state and the massacres committed against peoples and by the current situation and reality on the ground in the occupied areas of Azaz, Jarablus, Sere Kaniye, Bab, Tal Abyad, Idlib And Afrin.
Co-chair of the Armenian Social Council Arif Qasiban affirms that the Turish occupation state seeks via its constant attacks to continued threats to occuy and annex more Syrian territories contrary to what it alleges. Its threats against the region threaten the local peace and security.
Arif said ''the Turkish occupation state by its attacks and threats seeks to subvert the co-habitation in the region and the coexistence in North and East Syria. Arif says 'this to make its aspirations a reality and to re0enact the scenario of massacres committed against Armenians. This is well seen as it targets the Assyrian and Armenian villages in Tal Tamr to expand the spot of it occupation.
Arif believes that the complementarity in the North and East Syria is the reason that aborts all schemes of the Turkish occupation state against the region and in occupying new areas. Arif laid stress of the necessity that international powers and countries bear their responsibilities in protecting people of the NES and to prevent further attacks by the Turkish occupation state against the region.
In turn activist Lusnak Kavorian says that ''the attacks of the Turkish occupation state are on the rise and its threats continue. These are an extension to the previously ones committed by the Ottomans against the Armenians and aim to annihilate the other components living peacefully in the North eastern Syria and to occupy more lands as it was the case of the Ottomans against her forefathers''.
Kavorian expressed confidence in the NES peoples and t=in the military formations to stand up to any potential attack on the region for the NES people depend on their will.
Syriac citizen Silva Bri agrees with Kavorian that the bids of the Turkish occupation state aim to occupy more lands citing what is being taking in the Assyrian villages in Tal Tamr district of the Hasaka Canton and the destruction afflicted upon villages and churches due to the shelling carried out on daily bases by the Turkish occupation forces and the affiliated mercenary groups.
Silva said '' the Turkish occupiers seek to expand the spot of areas they occupy and to occupy more lands. And to pass its Ottoman project in the region and to occupy NES.
Silva called on the human rights organizations and foundations and the guarantor states to bear their responsibilities to cease fire and to find solutions to the crisis.
L.a
https://hawarnews.com/en/haber/armenians-and-syriacs-turkish-threats-spares-neither-component-h31093.html
Watch the video report at the link below:
https://www.hawarnews.com/en/video/armenians-and-syriacs-turkish-threats-spares-neither-component-v1757.html
Artsakh—which occupies a portion of the Nagorno-Karabakh region—sits squarely in the larger border disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia and is internationally recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently hinted at a pro-Azerbaijani stance regarding the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in a bid to mend Armenia-Turkey relations. In response, opposition factions held mass rallies and demand a resolution on Artsakh’s sovereignty.
Today’s draft resolution supports the sovereignty of Artsakh with Armenia as its sole security guarantor, a land connection between Armenia and Artsakh and the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from the area—with the intention to finalize the demarcation of Artsakh’s borders. In the context of Armenian-Turkish relations, the opposition maintains that it would refuse a potential land connection with Artsakh if this meant a dual connection to Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The ruling Civil Contract party is unlikely to participate in today’s session. The Russia-Ukraine war has sapped Russia’s ability to back Armenia, and Turkey is becoming the power broker in the conflict. Repairing Armenia-Turkey relations may provide the country with better bargaining ability in the future.
This year’s premier event for high school biologists is in Armenia from July 10.
Hillcrest High School student Janet Guo is one of four New Zealand students who has qualified to participate.
“Science is conventionally still quite a male-dominated field and so like it provided confidence for me to go deeper and be like, 'oh yes, I can do this too.'"
Guo says science brings her happiness and has shaped her world view.
“It helps me think rationally… especially biology, I think it’s helped me understand how to perceive the world through literally reading about like sensory receptors.”
Guo said fundraising for the trip is eating into her study time.
“For us, it’s quite distressing I guess… it's been multiple 10 hour days for a lot of us and to feel like that might be taken away from us because of the immense costs, like $13,000 is a lot for all of us, I'm not from a wealthy family,” Guo said.
The Talented School Students Travel Award was put on hold by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment because of Covid-19 and is now being reviewed.
The scheme began in 2003 with a budget of $30,000 per year and grew to $250,000 per year until the fund was paused.
Some funding went to applicants to cover costs to attend competitions virtually.
The remaining $110,000 from the 2020/2021 budget for the scheme was spent on other initiatives from the MBIE Science in Society portfolio, including the New Zealand in Space exhibition, development of science resources for students to access during Covid-19 lockdowns and funding for the Science Media Centre to respond with information to media during the pandemic.
"We feel now it is timely to assess whether changes are needed to ensure a broader range of opportunities are available to students," an MBIE spokesperson said in a statement.
"We also want to see whether different types of opportunities should be offered as part of the award, and these mightn’t necessarily be international travel opportunities."
The Government agency said Covid-19 still makes travel high-risk.
"Logistics are unable to be safely managed for students travelling at this time," the spokesperson said.
MBIE said, "locally relevant initiatives within New Zealand are being created to make the most of the country’s excellent research and learning opportunities.
"In the future, select international opportunities may also be supported to provide a wider variety of experiences, once the logistics can be safely managed."
A draft research paper from New Zealand International Biology Olympiad chairperson Dr Angela Sharples includes reports from former participants that the local competition and international competition influenced their decision to pursue careers in science after high school.
"Programmes like this give students the confidence to consider themselves as scientists so they’re creating links through our programme in New Zealand, we work with universities throughout New Zealand to link them up with top researchers in biological scientists and then when they represent New Zealand, they link up with students who are also interested in those," Sharples said.
“They’ll be their colleagues working on collaborative science research later in life so we’re creating a network of students with a passion for science who will contribute to our economy, now we don’t always know in what way, we don’t have a crystal ball as to what the latest scientific research will be, but we do know that these are our top students.”
Sharples said the students who have been selected for the New Zealand team have been working towards it for more than two years.
“They’ve worked so hard so to fall over at the last minute because of the lack of funds and to have the fund on hold for Covid when the borders are now open and these students are travelling to compete face to face, that’s pretty disappointing.
“I would be absolutely gutted if these students can’t go through… it’s life changing to represent New Zealand in a competition like this with over 70 countries competing.”
The state minister of the de-facto Artsakh Republic stated that Russian peacekeepers should remain in the Nagorno-Karabakh region indefinitely in an interview with RIA Novosti on Friday, following weeks of skirmishes along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The Republic of Artsakh is a de facto republic internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. In 2020, the area where the republic is situated was recaptured by Azerbaijan.
Artak Beglaryan, the state minister, stressed that, at present, there is an "urgent need" for the presence of the peacekeepers, adding that once the conflict with Azerbaijan is settled then the issue of the further stay of the peacekeepers could be reconsidered.
Beglaryan added that the Artsakh Republic will continue its efforts to receive international recognition and, after doing so, could consider joining Armenia. The state minister added that Artsakh officials should look for ways to gradually solve issues in the region, eventually with direct negotiations with Azerbaijan.
The state minister stressed, however, that the settlement of the conflict in the region is impossible in the foreseeable future due to "serious contradictions in the positions of Artsakh and Azerbaijan – they are diametrically opposed," according to RIA Novosti.
Beglaryan stated that while the conflict is a matter of "prestige and ambitions" for Azerbaijan, for residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region "it is a matter of life and death, their existence and a matter of historical justice."
On Friday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that Armenian forces fired grenade launchers and large-caliber weapons towards Azerbaijani forces along the central part of the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"The Armenian side is attempting to aggravate the situation on the state border by using large-caliber weapons in order to divert the attention of the Armenian public from internal processes," said the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. "We declare that the entire responsibility for the consequences of provocations committed by the opposing side falls on the military-political leadership of this country." The Armenian Defense Ministry denied the claims, saying that the situation on the border was "relatively stable."
On Wednesday and Monday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that its forces were targeted by gunfire along the central part of the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Armenian Defense Ministry denied the claims, calling them "misinformation" and saying they have "nothing to do with reality."
On Saturday, the Armenian Defense Ministry claimed that Azerbaijani forces fired at Armenian forces along the southeastern part of the border between the two countries on Saturday morning, seriously injuring one Armenian soldier. Armenian forces responded with unspecified "retaliatory actions."
That incident came about a week after Armenia and Azerbaijan both claimed that the other country had fired toward the border.
Last week, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed Armenian armed forces fired on Azerbaijani forces in the Kalbajar District, adding that Azerbaijani forces took "adequate retaliatory measures." The Armenian Defense Ministry denied the claims, calling it misinformation.
A day later, the Armenian Defense Ministry claimed that Azerbaijani forces fired on Armenian forces near the border, injuring an Armenian soldier. The Armenian forces carried out "retaliatory actions."
The clashes came shortly before Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels to continue peace talks between the two countries.
On April 6, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to hold peace talks to address tensions over the Nagorno-Karabakh area.
In 2020, a war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby areas, ending just over a month later with a new line of contact drawn and Russian peacekeepers deployed along the line. Sporadic clashes have been reported along the line since the war.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-708505
17:37, 2 June 2022
YEREVAN, 2 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 2 June, USD exchange rate down by 2.38 drams to 443.26 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.61 drams to 473.98 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.08 drams to 7.19 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 4.73 drams to 556.20 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 52.33 drams to 26291.93 drams. Silver price down by 3.94 drams to 307.97 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
17:50, 2 June 2022
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, received Deputy Defence Minister of Greece Nikolaos Chardalias and his delegation, accompanied by Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia Karen Brutyan, օn June 2 at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Mother See, the Catholicos of All Armenians expressed satisfaction with the close cooperation between the Defense Ministries of the two countries.
Referring to the difficult situation in the region, His Holiness expressed concern over Azerbaijan's encroachments and incessant threats on Armenia and Artsakh. On this occasion, the Armenian Patriarch expressed confidence that the Armenian Armed Forces will be able to show spirit and will to prevent Azerbaijan's militaristic aspirations.
The Catholicos of All Armenians, in the person of Nikolaos Chardalias expressed gratitude to the Greek authorities and people for their brotherly support to Armenia during the difficult days of the Artsakh war.
The Deputy Minister of National Defense of Greece, thanking His Holiness for the warm reception, emphasized that the friendship of the Armenian and Greek peoples comes from the depths of centuries. Touching upon the Armenian-Greek military cooperation, Nikolaos Chardalias noted that the Greek Ministry of Defense is ready to make every effort to deepen it and assist Armenia in overcoming the existing challenges.
During the conversation, inter-church relations were referred to. On this occasion, the Catholicos of All Armenians conveyed his fraternal greetings and best wishes to Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece.
His Holiness wished that under the protection of God, the Armenian-Greek relations will have new accomplishments for the benefit of the prosperous and peaceful life of the two fraternal peoples.