Regnum news agency, Rusia Dec 22 2017 Armenian army to use satellite imagery for reconnaissance [Armenian News note: the below is translated from Russian] Yerevan, 22 December: The Armenian Armed Forces are expanding their reconnaissance capabilities, and in the near future they will start using "images from space" to conduct operational reconnaissance of the territory of neighbouring states. To this end, the Armenian government has allocated 300m drams (625,000 dollars) to Geokosmos closed-type joint-stock company [CJSC], which was set up in November. According to the government's decision [to start using "images from space" to conduct operational reconnaissance of the territory of neighbouring states, the money will be used] "to put into operation and upgrade the software and hardware used by the receiving station at Geokosmos". Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the spokesman for the Armenian Defence Ministry, said that details of the agreement as well as any further information related to the government's decision, could not be disclosed. "The decision to cooperate with Geokosmos CJSC will expand Armenia's reconnaissance capabilities, particularly by means of space technologies," the spokesman said. Asked whether the establishment of Geokosmos would pave the way for the launch of an Armenian satellite into space, Hovhannisyan said: "I cannot say precisely what is possible, but the Armed Forces must gradually develop, and they do develop their means of reconnaissance and all means of ensuring combat capability in general, and they do take clear steps in that direction, and you can see that. The draft law is one of those examples." The April 2016 war in Nagorno-Karabakh showed that the Armenian Armed Forces did not possess technical means to carry out deep reconnaissance and detect the wide scale of military operations prepared by the enemy. According to some observers, the Armenian Armed Forces will now be able to obtain information not only from Russian satellites or those of member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, but also from satellites that belong to other states.
Author: Tania Jagharian
Art: Moscow hosts exhibition of prominent Armenian sculptor Ara Harutyunyan’s artworks
Panorama, Armenia
Nov 18 2017
An exhibition of artworks by prominent Armenian sculptor Ara Harutyunyan kicked off at the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia in Moscow on Friday, the Armenian ministry of culture reported.
Titled “The Sun in the Stone”, the exhibition features Harutyunyan’s sculptures and graphic works from the collection of Moscow State Tretyakov Gallery, as well as more than 60 works belonging to the artist's family and private collectors.
The event is organized with the support of the Armenian ministry of culture and the Armenian Embassy to Russia in cooperation with Rosconcert Company.
The exhibition runs through 24 November.
Ara Harutyunyan is the author of more than 40 sites, monuments and architectural sculptures in Armenia and abroad. Among them are such iconic works as the Sardarapat Memorial, the relief of Sundukyan State Academic Theatre, the portal of Erebuni Museum, the obelisk dedicated to the soldiers of the 89th Taman Division, the monument to the head of French anti-fascist resistance movement Missak Manouchian and many others.
Turkey has nothing to do in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process – Vice Speaker Sharmazanov
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia Tuesday Turkey has nothing to do in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process – Vice Speaker Sharmazanov YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict remains one of the key issues of Armenia’s political agenda, Vice Speaker of the Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov said, reports Armenpress. “Despite Turkey’s aspirations to assume any role in the settlement process, that country has nothing to do there. Turkey runs a criminal policy of supporting Azerbaijan and keeps the border with Armenia closed. This policy is unacceptable and condemnable”, Sharmazanov said. He said the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format is the only acceptable format not only for the Armenian sides, but also for the international community. “In order to ensure progress in the negotiations it is necessary to immediately implement the Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva agreements. Without their implementation it is impossible to imagine any progress in the settlement negotiations”, Sharmazanov said. He stated that all attempts to limit Artsakh people’s right to free and independent expression of will should be strictly condemned. Artsakh has declared its independence in accordance with international norms and the USSR legislation. Sharmazanov highlighted that there is no alternative to the international recognition of the Artsakh Republic.
Chris Cornell to Posthumously Receive Inaugural "Promise Award"
Loud Wire
Nov 10 2017
Chris Cornell to Posthumously Receive Inaugural "Promise Award"
In the spring of this year, Chris Cornell released "The Promise," a beautiful acoustic song he penned for the Christian Bale film of the same name that documents the last days of the Ottoman Empire and the genocide that swept through it. Cornell reflected on the Armenian Genocide in the track and used it as a vessel to further refugee advocacy, a cause close to his heart. Now, the Los Angeles Committee of Human Rights Watch will honor the late musician's efforts with the inaugural "Promise Award" at a dinner on Nov. 14.
"The award recognizes an outstanding song, television show, or film that advances the values of equity and justice in an original and powerful way," states a press release describing the purpose of the "Promise Award." System of a Down's Serj Tankian, who is of Armenian descent, will be on site at the Voices for Justice Human Rights Watch Annual Dinner to present the award. The singer served as the Executive Music Consultant for The Promise film and also contributed a song to the soundtrack.
Since Cornell's passing, celebrities like Cher, Elton John, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Lopez, Christian Bale, George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Tom Hanks and Oscar Isaac vowed to maintain the rocker's passion for refugee advocacy in a compilation video.
"'The Promise' to me is mainly about paying homage to those we lost in the Armenian Genocide, but it's also about shining a light on more recent atrocities. The same methods used in the Armenian genocide were used to carry out crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Darfur, Rwanda and right now in Syria on multiple fronts, contributing to a massive global refugee crisis. Unfortunately, the words 'never again' seem like just words when we recall these mass executions of the twentieth century, as well as renewed racism and prejudice around the world," stated Cornell upon the song's release.
The only water source of Poqr Ayrum brings with it “every kind of garbage” (video)
The villagers of Poqr Ayrum are not satisfied with the water quality of the village’s only water source.
Recently, villagers notice silt and other things in the water; for example, the animal’s hair or threads, or as they say, “every kind of a garbage.”
There are views that some animals are entering the water or some villagers are washing clothes there. In any case, after 11 am, the water is clean.
Sports: Lewandowski sets goal record for Poland during rout of Armenia
RFi – France
Oct 6 2017
Robert Lewandowski eclipsed Wlodzimierz Lubanski's goal record for Poland with a hat trick against Armenia.Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili
Robert Lewandowski scored a hat trick on Thursday night as Poland routed Armenia 6-1 to move to the the brink of qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The 29-year-old Bayern Munich star started the game with 47 international goals, one behind the record of 48 held since 1980 by Wlodzimierz Lubanski.
Kamil Grosicki scored Poland's opener after just two minutes at the Hanrapetakan Stadium in Yerevan with a near-post finish from Lukasz Piszczek's cross.
Fifteen minutes later Lewandowski curled in a free-kick to make it 2-0 and draw level with Lubanski.
Lewandowski claimed the record when he blasted home an indirect free-kick on 25 minutes and he completed his treble in the second half to make it 50 goals in 90 appearances. Jakub Blaszczykowski and Rafal Wolski were also on the scoresheet for Poland.
Lubanski, who played for the majority of his career at Górnik Zabrze in Poland and Lokeren in Belgium, set his tally in 75 internationals between 1963 and 1980.
Poland require just a point from their final qualifier at home to Montenegro on Sunday to clinch their place in the finals.
Nasr: Egypt is interested in deepening cooperation with Armenia in trade, economic and investment spheres
ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia Saturday Nasr: Egypt is interested in deepening cooperation with Armenia in trade, economic and investment spheres Yerevan September 30 Mariana Mkrtchyan. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received the Egyptian delegation led by the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, who arrived in Armenia to participate in the work of the 5th Armenian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission. As the press service of the Armenian leader told ArmInfo, Sargsyan stressed that the Armenian-Egyptian centuries-old relations are based on friendship and mutual trust, on which, after the establishment of diplomatic relations, interstate relations were built. The Egyptian minister noted that Egypt is interested in deepening cooperation with friendly Armenia in the trade, economic and investment spheres. At the same time, she stressed the importance of involving the private sector in this process. The Minister stressed that within the framework of the intergovernmental commission an agreement was reached to develop a working program according to which the agreements reached will be implemented. The Armenian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission was established in 1996. The next meeting is held at intervals of 12 years, since the last - the 4th meeting was held in 2005 and for many years due to geopolitical developments and unfavorable political conditions in Egypt, the work of the inter- governmental commission was interrupted. At the 25th year of establishment of diplomatic relations, Yerevan and Cairo can not boast of high volumes of trade turnover - within the last 10-12 years the volume of trade turnover between the countries did not exceed $ 1-3 million. The prospective spheres of expansion of economic cooperation between Armenia and Egypt, are, tourism, agriculture, construction, IT. Following the results of the 5th meeting, Armenia and Egypt signed a number of memorandums and agreements in the field of trade and investment, youth and sports, education and science as well as archives.
NK conflict settlement must ensure clear security guarantees for people of Artsakh – FM Nalbandian
Category
Politics
The Azerbaijani vandalisms both during the first years of Karabakh movement and in April 2016 leave no doubt that the struggle of the people of Artsakh for their rights and determination was fair both in the past and present, Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian said during the topical session of foreign policy agenda in the sidelines of the 6th Armenia-Diaspora conference.
“One of the approaches that we have adopted aimed at the solution of the problem is the international recognition of the right of Artsakh to self-determination. Today the right of peoples to self-determination, together with the non-use of force or the threat to use it and territorial integrity is one of the basic principles for Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. These three principles are enshrined in the statements of the Presidents of the Minsk group Co-chair countries and in the documents of the OSCE and some other documents”, the Minister said.
According to FM Nalbandian, the Armenian side has announced many times that it supports the proposals of the Co-chair countries as basis for negotiations, while Azerbaijan constantly refuses them. “It’s clear that there can be no settlement unless Azerbaijan is committed to the principles of the international right. Instead, Baku prefers to fabricate some fictitious scenarios and attribute to the Co-chairs some imaginary proposals”, Edward Nalbandian said.
The Foreign Minister of Armenia emphasized that the conflict settlement must ensure clear security guarantees for the people of Artsakh.
“Ensuring the security of the people is one of the international obligations, and Nagorno Karabakh earned that right also by making great sacrifices and shedding blood. The militaristic rhetoric of Baku, insemination of hatred towards Armenians by the leadership, the regular violations of the ceasefire, new and new threats, and the April crimes leave no doubts that in case of incomplete security guarantees this conflict cannot be settled”, he said.
Minister Nalbandian also noted that in the recent period the Co-chairs have started to indicate the side that has violated, aiming to sober up Azerbaijan.
Music: Yerevan 11th International Music Festival kicks off on 11 Sept.
Panorama, Armenia
Sept 11 2017
Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall is set to host more than 20 famous soloists worldwide as part of the Yerevan 11th International Music Festival to be held from 11 September to 27 October in capital city Yerevan.
The artistic directors of the festival are Eduard Topchjan and Alexander Chaushian, the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra reports.
The opening concert of the festival will be honored by Italian clarinetist Alessandro Carbonare and pianist Alexander Malofeyev from Russia, with the concert program featuring pieces by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Borodin.
The concert will be conducted by the principal conductor and artistic director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Eduard Topchjan.
Yerevan 11th International Music Festival features a series of jubilee concerts.
A concert dedicated to the 200th birth anniversary of Hovhannes (Ivan) Aivazovsky is scheduled on 18 September, with another jubilee concert on 24 September to mark the Independence Day.
A grand concert dedicated to renowned violinist Ruben Aharonian's 70th anniversary is scheduled for 29 September.
The closing concert of the festival dedicated to the 95th anniversary of Ohan Duryan will also be jubilee.
A total of 12 interesting and colourful concerts will be held within the festival. After the concerts, the guest soloists will deliver master classes for young Armenian musicians.
To note, the festival is held under the High Patronage of the First Lady of Armenia Mrs. Rita Sargsyan and is supported by the Armenian Ministry of Culture.
Documenting the Past: Yeva Sargsyan Creates Online Encyclopedia of Armenian Architecture of 1960s- 1990s
15:36,
The Hrazdan bus station, built in 1971, is shown in the top photo. It’s a privatized building now, abandoned and damaged. Built by architect Henrik Arakelyan with futuristic elements, this building is one of the hundreds that are neglected by the public and relevant structures.
For seven years, architecture theorist Yeva Sargsyan strove to make a database of Armenian architecture, which would present a detailed classification of buildings, urban elements and small architectural forms, including information about the author, location, construction site and other architectural parameters.
Today, ArmArch.net is an online encyclopedia, presenting the modern architecture of Armenia. It’s unique in its kind. In the encyclopedia, you can find documentary and analytical information about Armenian architecture of the 1960-1990s.
The main information of the encyclopedia is presented with different classification parameters. Each parameter is a separate page. Thus, using a single parameter, you can find the buildings with those elements, and other information.
I talked to project manager Yeva Sargsyan about the idea of creating the online encyclopedia of architecture, ArmArch, the working process and upcoming developments.
How was ArmArch (Language of Armenian Architecture) online encyclopedia created?
The idea of creating a database was born in 2010 when I worked together with my two colleagues on ReArch Architectural Environment Research Center projects.
Over the last seven years, I dreamt of continuing this work and always looked for opportunities and supporters to implement it. Finally, with the help of ARISC, Talinn Grigor and Romina Der-Bedrossian, we could start.
Creating the online structure of the encyclopedia was one of the main challenges. I think it’s a great success to have web developer Momik Vardanyan in our team. He immediately understood the issue and has been devoted to this work of developing the structure of the website and encyclopedia since then.
The structure of the encyclopedia, which you see now, is the result of the continuous and very interesting creative work of eight months. At first, we aimed to create just an architectural library or database where each object would be categorized by clear documentary data (architect, date of construction, etc.). The most important thing was having the opportunity to group objects by parameters, as it would allow us to get a statistical picture of the studied architecture, which, in its turn, would serve as a basis for the analytical work and seeing the patterns.
However, when filling in the database and writing parameters of objects, classification patterns came out, which turned this idea into an analytical research. Thus, the idea to turn the database into an encyclopedia was born, as there were many commentary and analytical texts.
We call it an analytical encyclopedia, as the main emphasis was placed on the interpretation and analysis of the documentary information.
In July-August, we toured Tavoush, Lori and Aragatzotn provinces and thoroughly collected, photographed and studied the local architecture built after the 1960s.
The Armenian Encyclopedia of Modern Architecture is one of the ArmArch projects, which is based on multi-disciplinary research.
There are many tags on the website, especially under the section of featured elements. Why?
The whole meaning of the encyclopedia is the system of tags that we call parameterization. There, you should see the difference between the data type (type of data) and its value or feature.
Data type is a category of attributes such as "architect", "object type", "construction date" or the same "featured elements". They do not contain information, but they give an opportunity to understand what kind of parameterization we deal with in general. The main information is the data itself – the specific architect, date, specific construction technique, featured element and so on.
If it was a classic text encyclopedia, this brief, infographic-based parameterization system would have a lengthy text structure.
The encyclopedia includes buildings that are neglected or have no other sources of information about them. I found buildings unknown to me, such as the Dilijan Beethoven Concert Hall, Ashtarak Trade Center, Hrazdan Bus Station. Are there such buildings included in the encyclopedia, that were unknown to you, too?
Well, the Beethoven Concert Hall is part of the Composers' House complex. Yes, there were, many. Our trip to the provinces was like adventure hunters seeking treasure in a city that’s lost in the jungle. We travelled by car through all the streets and yards in towns to find buildings of interest.
Of course, we had a preliminary list of buildings in every town, but the meaning of the tour was to find new ones. We often discovered buildings on some side streets. Sometimes we intuitively knew that seemingly uninteresting building in the distance could be an important discovery. We went there, through winding streets, climbing the slopes of the mountains, not seeing it from time to time, and looking forward to reaching it to understand whether we found a treasure or something ordinary. And, most often, our intuition did not deceive us.
For example, that was the case with the Hrazdan Culture House, which is on the outskirts of the city, on the hill away from the street, and, naturally, the building’s interesting volumes and frontal design aren’t apparent from afar. Or, often, when we were driving from one town to another by car, we saw some building on the road and had to come back.
Many of the buildings we discovered were new to us and even to our colleagues. Only a few architects are even able to remember the names of those who designed certain buildings. We often can’t locate the architects. And the non-professional community is not familiar with those buildings at all, or, living under their shadows, does not realize their significance. Most of them have never been photographed or documented as important buildings.
Cinema "Spring", Vagharshapat
Sargis Gourzadyan, Mikayel Alexanyan, 1978
Can you highlight the types of buildings that are particularly in need of attention and aren’t appreciated culturally or architecturally?
The Soviet-era "household buildings" were a revelation for us. They existed in almost every city. They aren’t exposed to style or compositional patterns, but studies of the plans will reveal some patterns (they are likely to be master plans) that will help to better understand the functions of those buildings and their architectural solutions.
The “houses of culture”, that were subjected to style patterns as they served political, propaganda goals, are also interesting.
In general, there are interesting and ordinary structures in every architectural type. It is impossible to say that there is a type which is of particular interest. Of course, it’s more likely for all museum buildings to have their own, specially designed and exciting architecture, while the buildings of schools or kindergartens are typically unattractive.
Are there architectural structures that need special research and can be characterized by being unique?
Almost every building has an interesting story of creation. We are particularly interested in the stories that explain the architectural structure of a building – why it was built so, what it “tells, conveys or imposes” with its structure.
However, in terms of architecture, there are few buildings that can be classified as unique and important architectural concepts in the local or global architecture.
Beethoven Concert Hall, Dilijan
Levon Hovhannisyan
For me, every building is an architectural gem, even if it’s an example of a transitional, eclectic and weakly erected building that illustrates the search of the architect and the solution that the author had tried to find. Buildings with naive architecture evidently show the problems faced by the architect, his concerns and creative thinking.
I would like to emphasize the former VDNKh complex (the All-Union Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy) in a southern suburb of Yerevan, which, like most of the buildings we have studied, is currently unused, unknown and gradually declining.
Architect Sargis Gourzadyan, for example, is not so well-known, though he’s created some unusual buildings. In general, we know the names of only few architects, but there are many that had very specific signature and left important buildings.
Will the encyclopedic content be expanded? Will the user be able to participate in that process and, if yes, how?
We’ve “written” only one page out of a few volumes of the encyclopedia. We have a huge archive and materials that should still be posted. This is a routine work, and we will systematically do it within the coming months and years. Any encyclopedia requires years of work to reach a certain level of integrity.
The ultimate goal of the encyclopedia is to become a Wikipedia-like project, where anyone can contribute. At this point, it’s mentioned that it’s possible to contribute by sending us an email.
Finally, as a theoretic and critic of architecture and a professional journalist in this sphere, what do you think are the most urgent issues facing Armenian architecture today?
I wish the Armenian architecture school could regain its professionalism in order to develop the construction market, technical and technological skills and capabilities that would result in having architectural quality and structural diversity.
My hope is that Armenian architecture frees itself from the shadow of badly digested and mechanically repeated structures of the past or international architectural experience, that it looks at its present-day situation, its inner reality and aesthetics, and, guided by the time, place, situation and problems of the area, comes up with a unique architecture school of the 21st century, as it always used to do, even in case of the impersonal, homogeneous international style or modernism.
Photos from ArmArch.