Author: Garnik Zakarian

 17:24, 4 July 2022

YEREVAN, 4 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 4 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.43 drams to 407.52 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.45 drams to 425.90 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.05 drams to 7.41 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.91 drams to 494.73 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 281.26 drams to 23550.32 drams. Silver price down by 9.32 drams to 258.44 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

Armenian MP steps down

 15:25,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament Artur Davtyan has submitted a resignation letter today, the Parliament’s press service said.

Artur Davtyan is a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction of the Parliament.

 13:16,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan signed a decision on dismissing Tigran Gabrielyan from the position of deputy minister of economy.

According to the PM’s another decision, Tigran Gabrielyan was appointed deputy minister of environment.

 20:00,

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS.  On June 24, a memorandum on trilateral cooperation on diaspora issues was signed between Armenia, Greece and Cyprus in Athens.

The memorandum was signed by High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia Zareh Sinanyan, Greek Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Andreas Katsaniotis and the Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues and Overseas Cypriots, Fotis Fotiou.

As RAMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia, the signing ceremony was preceded by a face-to-face meeting between the two sides and a “2+1” meeting between the delegations.

Armenian Ambassador to Greece Tigran Mkrtchyan was also present at the meetings and the signing ceremony.

The Memorandum sets the directions of cooperation between the three countries in the Diaspora, including the exchange of experience, inter-community cooperation, joint educational and cultural events, youth initiatives and more.

During the press conference that followed the signing, Zareh Sinanyan stressed the importance of historical friendship and common values of the three countries.  “I would like to stress that our Diaspora communities in the different countries are cooperating with each other and it is our commitment to encourage them to more actively collaborate and exchange best practices and know-how and finally to take actions toward promoting common values and interests to the greatest extent possible.” said the High Commissioner.

During his working visit, Zareh Sinanyan also met with the Armenian community in Greece and presented the activities, programs and policies of our Office. Then, they discussed the repatriation process, integration programs, the establishment of the first Repatriation and Integration Center in Armenia, and investment policy.

During the meeting, Zareh Sinanyan also touched upon the domestic policy of the Republic of Armenia, external and internal challenges, and the development of the regions of Armenia.

 10:38,

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS. Not only the circumstances, but also the great will to fight to live saved Aurora Mardiganian from the 1915 Armenian Genocide, allowed to settle in a foreign country and move forward by overcoming all the challenges.

Aurora’s Sunrise, a historical animated documentary film about the life of Aurora Mardiganian, premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France recently.

The film will be screened at the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival on July 10-17.

Speaking to ARMENPRESS, Director of the film Inna Sahakyan said that the idea of creating the film came while developing a program ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, within the frames of which the creative team had a goal to touch upon ten stories. But when the Zoryan Institute sent Aurora’s interview to the director, who called it special, the project changed a little and the idea of creating the film “Aurora’s Sunrise” arose.

“CEO of Bars Media Vardan Hovhannisyan was familiar with the interviews of a collection of oral history of the Armenian Genocide. Since 1970s the Institute has documented the stories of the Armenian Genocide survivors. They have been provided with a questionnaire, through which the historical facts have been collected. This archive is very important as the Genocide survivors tell their stories sitting in front of the camera. However, in visual terms the materials are in low quality. We thought it would be nice and interesting if the interviews are retold through animation”, Inna Sahakyan said.

Aurora was given the same questionnaire which was provided to other survivors, but while answering to the questions she has constantly talked about the Hollywood film in which she starred. As a result of her answers, the questions have changed, and the talk went on a different course. It was revealed that after surviving the Genocide Aurora has starred in the movie “Auction of Souls” in the United States.

“It’s surprising to see how a girl, who has survived the Armenian Genocide, has starred in a film telling about her life. I got acquainted with other interviews as well, the American media reports and the articles about the film. We understood that we are going to make a full-length film, and it cannot become one of the ten small stories”, Inna Sahakyan said.

“Aurora’s Sunrise” is based on the interviews of the Zoryan Institute and the Armenian Film Foundation. Sahakyan has also used the book “Ravished Armenia”, professional literature, American press materials, etc.

According to Inna Sahakyan, the telling story is the most important element in the animation film. The “Auction of Souls” movie’s full version has not been maintained. Only an 18-minute part from the movie is available in the National Archive of Armenia. It has been restored and has been used in the visual section of the movie.

“I am very happy to have finished the film. Aurora has often survived because of her fate, but there have been situations when she continued moving forward as a result of her decisions. It was interesting to follow her story. I think the film transfers these emotions to the audience”, Inna Sahakyan said.

She is sure that people will watch the film with interest. Their target isalso the youth, and not only the Armenian youth.

“This is an important film for the Armenian audience, however both in terms of visual and script composition we have tried to do the utmost for the international community to be interested in it as well. I compare Aurora with Anne Frank. Anne was also a young girl, and the whole world knows about her, however very few people know about Aurora”, Inna Sahakyan said.  

At only 14 years old, in 1915, Aurora faced the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. Within a year, witnessing the deaths of everyone in her family, Aurora had lost everything, and was sold into a Turkish harem. But with extraordinary courage and luck, she escaped to America, where her story became a sensation. 

The Zoryan Institute’s objective with this film is to bring to life the ZI’s Oral History Testimonies onto the big screen, through animated documentary films, to relay the stories of the Genocide survivors to the younger generations, especially of girls and to empower them, and  to represent their communities in the face of great adversity and violence. 

In 2015, during the year of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Zoryan Institute, signed a partnership agreement with Bars Media of Armenia to produce the animated documentary based on the testimony of A. Mardiganian. Aurora’s Sunrise was made possible with the academic contribution of the Zoryan Institute Armenia, based on its oral history archives (filmed by the Zoryan Institute on January 29, 1984). 

The film is directed by Inna Sahakyan. It is produced by Bars Media, led by Vardan Hovhannisyan, Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion & Artbox Laisvalaikio Klubas, with the financial partnership of Eurimages, the Zoryan Institute Armenia & the National Cinema Center of Armenia, and with the contributions of the Lithuanian Film Center, ZDF/ARTE, Public TV Armenia, and LRT.

Wedding ceremony on peak of Mount Ararat: Young Armenian couple shares story of their unique marriage

 09:00, 16 June 2022

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, ARMENPRESS. The peak of Mount Ararat – the place of the ceremony, the outfit – hiking clothes, you are invited to a wedding.

This is how the young Armenian couple – Ishkhan Gevorgyan and Ashkhen Hovhannesyan, organized their wedding ceremony.

They both like nature, hiking, climbing mountains, and this common preference became a reason to organize the wedding ceremony.

In an interview to ARMENPRESS, Ashkhen said she told her fiancée to participate in trekking tour to Mount Ararat instead of organizing the honeymoon in any resort.

“I and Ishkhan have talked about the dream of climbing Masis for many times. Most of Armenians always dream of climbing Mount Ararat, this desire, seems, is from childhood. I was always suggesting Ishkhan to go to a trekking tour to Mount Ararat after marriage. One day he told me “let’s go and get married on the top of Masis, there couldn’t be a better wedding ceremony than this”. And of course, I agreed”, she said.

And they turned their decision into an action: they reached the peak of Ararat on August 26, 2018. Due to lack of oxygen, movement is quite difficult there, feeling bad is also possible, however, nothing stopped this couple to go for their dream. Ishkhan Gevorgyan says that very few people in the group were aware of their plans.

“Most of the members of the group got informed about our plan in the end. When we arrived in the peak, we told them that you are invited to a wedding. Martin Martirosyan hold the cross, and the others helped to pour the champagne”, he said.

Years have passed, but the young couple still remembers that wonderful day with smile and excitement. They already have an opportunity to share their story with children as after the marriage they continue hiking by engaging also kids.

The couple is guided by the following principle – if you love your country, firstly you need to know it. By discovering Armenia and Artsakh together, they now try to bring their contribution to other initiatives as well.

The couple got acquainted with each other in the Art of Staying Alive NGO. Today they are having their investment in the Azatazen initiative, by establishing a shooting range which allows to get acquainted with the skills of using a weapon.

“We made a decision to come up with this initiative after the war. We had no place to train. As there is no large shooting range in Armenia, we were going to mountains to shoot, which is risky. Today there are many places of entertainment in Yerevan, but there is no shooting range. We decided to change the picture in the country and with our combat friends founded the Azatazen military-educational NGO. It will teach those who want to get acquainted with the secrets of weapons”, Ishkhan Gevorgyan said, adding that his wife, Ashkhen, is also actively involved in the project.

By keeping the feelings of the peak of Ararat in their hearts, the young Armenian couple is going to make new discoveries.

Reporting by Anna Gziryan

Photos from the archive of Hayk Manukyan, Ishkhan Gevorgyan

 18:03,

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. The activity of the Commission on Demarcation and Delimitation of the Borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan has nothing to do with the situation around the village of Askeran region of Nagorno Karabakh (ed. Parukh), ARMENPRESS reports the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said.

“At the same time, we expect that the work of the commission will contribute to the increase of trust between Yerevan and Baku, the prevention of incidents both on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent,” Zakharova said.

She added that Moscow is ready to facilitate the commission’s meeting in the near future, adding that Russia is waiting for proposals on the terms of the meeting from Yerevan and Baku.

 17:15, 8 June 2022

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received today President of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission Claire Bazy Malaurie, the PM’s Office said.

During the meeting the Prime Minister praised the fact that the government of Armenia is actively cooperating with the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission aimed at constantly improving the quality of legislative field necessary for the strengthening of democracy, protection of human rights and development of independent judiciary. Pashinyan assessed the partnership with PACE effective, the recent resolution of which records the normal and positive course of democratic reforms in Armenia, as well as the fact that the page of falsifying elections has been closed. In the context of the cooperation between the government of Armenia and the European structures, the PM recalled also the consistent work with the ECHR in the direction of the return of Armenian prisoners of war, hostages and other persons who are still held in Azerbaijan after the 44-day war.

The President of the Venice Commission thanked for the appreciation and reaffirmed the readiness to support Armenia’s democracy agenda so that the legal regulations in the country will be as firm as possible.

The sides exchanged views on the agenda of the bilateral partnership. PM Pashinyan said the reform of the judiciary – as an important institutional reform, remains one of the priorities of the government, and in this context the constant efforts for forming trust towards the justice quality, the judiciary, as well as for ensuring social guarantees for judges are important. Claire Bazy Malaurie said she shares the view of the Armenian PM, adding that the Venice Commission will support the Armenian government, the Constitutional Court in this process with all its tools.

Issues relating to the cooperation between the Commission on constitutional reforms and the Venice Commission were discussed at the meeting.

Both sides emphasized the importance of civil society engagement into the reforms process.

Nikol Pashinyan said that the government is determined in implementing the agenda of reforms and highlights on this path the support of the Council of Europe and the European structures.