Category: 2017

BAKU: OSCE MG would better be involved in humanitarian issues: expert

Jagharian Tania
Trend, Azerbaijan

Aug 17 2017
21:54

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 17

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

It would be good if the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs were more involved in humanitarian issues such as the return of Azerbaijani refugees to their native lands, while settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Elkhan Alasgarov, PhD, head of the Expert Council of the Baku International Policy and Security Network (Baku Network), told Trend.

He was commenting on the recent statements by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair from the US Richard Hoagland.

Richard Hoagland has earlier told Trend that the United States remains committed to working with the parties of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

He noted that the issues relating to the return of territories, return of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs to their lands, non-use of force, and status for Nagorno-Karabakh are all important elements of a comprehensive settlement the parties need to discuss.

“Recent statements of Hoagland are more positive in nature. In one statement he said that one of the main issues in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement is the return of Azerbaijani refugees to their lands. In principle, this is not news, as the Azerbaijani refugees are coming back to Karabakh and the return of Jojug Marjanli villagers to their lands is a vivid example of that,” said Elkhan Alasgarov.

As for the non-use of force, mentioned in the US co-chair’s statement, Alasgarov noted that this issue will certainly be very topical after the return of the refugees.

“When it comes to compromises in the conflict resolution process, it should be noted that the main compromise on the part of Azerbaijan is granting autonomy to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is ready to grant a high degree of autonomy,” he said.

The expert reminded that in another statement, Richard Hoagland said it would be logical to install new electronic equipment along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops and remove snipers. Alasgarov believes that these recommendations, even if realized, will not lead to a decrease in the number of incidents, because the main reason of military clashes is the conflict itself.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Turkey’s missile deal evidence West must rethink policy

Talar Tumanian
Irish Times
Aug 17 2017

Turkey’s missile deal evidence West must rethink policy

Ties between Ankara and West eroding as Turkey moves closer to dictatorship

Stephen Starr

Russian S-400 Triumph rocket systems: purchase puts Turkey in direct confrontation with its fellow Nato members and the West. Photograph: Alexey Sazonov/AFP/Getty

 

On a visit to the ruined, ancient city of Ani last month, my tour guide offers an alternative perspective on the murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians that took place in this region a century ago.

“Foreigners don’t realise,” he says, “that the popular stories about Armenians in Turkey are completely made up.” His is a view regularly repeated by Turkey’s government towards events regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Ani sits on the border that divides feuding neighbours Turkey and Armenia, a border that has been closed since 1993. Ties between the two countries have hardly improved since, as evidenced by a senior Armenian official’s calls in 2013 for Turkey to return territory owned by Armenian communities before the horrors of 1915 happened. Today, Turkey’s already-fraught relations with its neighbours and the West may plummet further as it is set to close a €2.2 billion deal to buy advanced missile systems from Russia.

The S-400 missile deal puts Turkey in direct confrontation with its fellow Nato members and the West. Two batteries are to be shipped within the next year, with two more to be built by Russian weapons engineers in Turkey. Crucially, the missile systems are not interoperable with similar weapons used by Turkey’s Nato allies.

And because the systems will be supplied by Russia and not a Nato member, there is nothing to stop Ankara from placing the missile batteries along its borders with Armenia, an EU ally, and Greece, a member. Numerous Armenian news outlets have picked up on how this represents a new threat to their country’s security.

Sphere of influence

The deal is a consequence of the deterioration of ties between Ankara and the West that has seen Turkey drift out of the latter’s sphere of influence in recent years. “It is a clear sign that Turkey is disappointed in the US and Europe, ” Russian analyst Konstantin Makienko told Bloomberg last month.

When Turkey previously attempted to buy similar missile systems from China in 2013, Nato and western states were able to convince it to walk away from the deal. Now, because of the slow souring of relations, whatever leverage that existed then has evaporated.

The fact that advanced Russian-built missile systems are soon to be operated by a Nato member is a clear sign that the alliance’s members have fallen asleep at the wheel, and represents a major quandary. Nato’s eastern European members are deeply fearful of Russia’s ambitions, a worry legitimised by the annexation of Crimea and occupation of swathes of territory in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Russia’s move for Turkey seems to have fallen under Nato’s radar.

But the West can’t have been all that surprised. Ankara’s rapport with Russia and the difficulties that relationship encapsulates for the West are, in part, down to its own intransigence. Washington has refused to meet Ankara’s demands to extradite Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Turkey for orchestrating a botched military coup in July 2015 that led to the deaths of more than 250 people. The US says there is not enough evidence of the cleric’s involvement to merit Gulen’s extradition. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.

Kurdish militias

Even more troubling, from Turkey’s perspective, is Washington’s support for Kurdish militias in Syria that have, during the course of the war, taken control of much of the northeast. US forces have quietly provided weapons and logistical support to Kurdish-dominated militias fighting to take Raqqa, Islamic State’s so-called capital. Ankara, however, sees them, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, as the Syrian arm of the PKK. Turkey and the PKK have fought a bloody guerrilla war for more than three decades that has killed more than 30,000 people.

Ties between Washington and Ankara worsened further in May when Turkey’s foreign minister called for America’s anti-Isis envoy, Brett McGurk, to be fired for his role in supporting the Kurdish groups. All this has been taking place despite US president Donald Trump’s summation of relations with Ankara as “a great relationship [that] we will make even better.”

Turkey’s actions are also deeply troubling for the EU. In July, Germany, Turkey’s largest trading partner, said it would overhaul its Turkey policy because of a campaign to jail journalists and human rights activists that has followed the failed coup.

It is clear the West and particularly the EU tolerates Turkey’s transgressions only because it must. Turkey’s military bases are essential to carrying the fight to Isis, and Ankara has ended the flow of refugees and migrants into Europe via Greece by requiring visas of Syrians, and tightening security on its land and sea borders.

Russian deal

While ceding to Turkey’s demands would certainly be foolish, the missile deal means that Nato and the West must finally try to cobble together a new roadmap for dealing with Ankara. There is no doubt their respective interests have diverged significantly over the past decade and that all parties realise, without ever stating so, that the accession of Turkey to the EU sits dead in the water.

Regardless, Turkey remains crucial to upholding Europe’s security and Nato’s position as the world’s leading military alliance. Drawing Ankara away from autocratic regimes such as Russia’s, Iran’s and China’s should be a priority for the West.

The purchase of the missile systems from Moscow signals Turkey is willing to threaten regional stability as well as Nato’s own internal cohesion. And while appeasing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party government has clearly only served to embolden Ankara, shunning him would bear no tangible solutions either.

Repairing that relationship would doubtlessly serve the interests of all parties. But it is up to the West to offer the first olive branch before it loses an important partner that has been wandering, with increasing abandon, further down the path to dictatorship.

Stephen Starr is a journalist who has lived in Syria and Turkey since 2007. He is the author of Revolt in Syria: Eye-witness to the Uprising

Survivors’ Stories gathers youth from communities affected by genocide to share their stories

Adrine Hakobian 
Canada NewsWire
 Tuesday 1:57 PM Eastern Time
Survivors' Stories gathers youth from communities affected by genocide
to share their stories
TORONTO, Aug. 15, 2017 /CNW/ - Diversity is Canada's and Ontario's
greatest strength. We have flourished as a society because of our
welcoming spirit to people of all creeds, cultures, and backgrounds.
At the same time, we recognize that many communities are still
struggling with the impact of past atrocities. The Mosaic Institute is
reaching out to some of those communities with Survivors' Stories, a
cross-cultural discourse in keeping with the Mosaic model of
respectful dialogue with a focus on both youth and elders to share
their common lived experience.
The Mosaic Institute has partnered with the Aboriginal Sport and
Wellness Council of Ontario, Canadian Romani Alliance, Armenian
General Benevolent Union, Canadian Association of Rwandan Youth,
Rwandan Canadian Association, and The Centre for Israel and Jewish
Affairs- whom all have faced genocide or crimes against humanity in
their community's histories - to establish a youth Steering Committee.
The Committee will meet throughout the year to share their stories and
attend awareness-building community events. The outcomes of the
dialogues will be ultimately transformed into resources that will be
shared broadly to strengthen intercultural understanding amongst
Canadians. We are looking to bring on other communities with similar
historical experiences in the future.
An Indigenous steering committee member, Hayley Cochrane notes, "We
acknowledge those who did not survive their countries' genocide and we
do this work in your honour. Our unique Committee is made up of family
members of survivors from different genocides that took place around
the world. We feel the loss that our ancestors felt. We are here to
offer healing to those who need it and to implement proactive measures
to ensure that genocide ends for good."
One of our Rwandan steering committee members, Kizito Bijyinama
Musabimana adds, "A genocide survivor's experience never ends with the
atrocity. Its horror lives on in our minds, and the more we try to
forget, the more horrifying our life can become. As we enter new
societies, we cover up - daring never to be asked the question; what's
wrong? From this day, we do this - no longer, ready to face our
challenges. We hope to learn from each other by engaging in bold
conversations, bringing comfort and creating inclusivity through
shared experience."
Bernie M. Farber, Executive Director of the Mosaic Institute noted,
"Communities whose children have grown up in the shadow of inhumanity
carry with them a special strength and a strong soul. We are grateful
to the Province of Ontario, through the Ontario150 program for
providing the funding which will permit these young people to not only
share their common felt experiences but to also learn from others
outside their communities."
"Ontario150 is an important time to reflect on our diversity and
commit to better relations between and within all communities,
particularly  religious or ethno-cultural communities with painful
connections to conflict," said Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Tourism,
Culture and Sport. "That's why I'm proud to support Survivors'
Stories, an important project from the Mosaic Institute that will help
build a stronger, more inclusive Ontario and assist reconciliation
efforts with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples by
facilitating the therapeutic airing of historic tragedies to promote
healing."
About Ontario 1502017 is the 150th anniversary of Ontario as a
province. To recognize this historically significant year, the
government has launched Ontario150, a year-long commemoration that is
honouring the province's past, showcasing the present and inspiring
future generations.  Through the Ontario150 grant programs and a
series of signature initiatives, Ontario is engaging youth,
encouraging cultural expression, promoting participation in sport and
recreation, and creating economic opportunities across the province.
Mosaic InstituteThe Mosaic Institute is a charitable not-for-profit
organization founded in 2007, which works to amplify the voices of
Canada's diverse communities across the country.
SOURCE The Mosaic Institute
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After decades in exile, musician finds way home to Diyarbakir

Jhanna Virabian
Al-Monitor

Aug 16 2017

Author: Mahmut Bozarslan

Posted

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Oud player Yervant Bostanci can be considered a symbol of the richly diverse and divided Diyarbakir, the historical metropolis of southeastern Anatolia. An ethnic Armenian in a predominantly Kurdish city, he left his country in the 1990s. His life was threatened when he sang in his mother tongue and he fled, only to return as an international celebrity decades later. Now, despite all the unrest in Diyarbakir, he is determined to stay in the city he first escaped, then re-embraced.

In 2004, the older attendees of the Diyarbakir Culture and Arts Festival thought that an oud player from the United States who could sing in Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, he was identified as Yervant, the son of Yako, a maker of pushis, the traditional headgear of the region also known as keffiyeh. The prodigal son who had left his hometown in 1976 had returned after more than four decades. He was no longer a wedding singer but an internationally successful musician with several records to his name.

Bostanci, who agreed to tell his story to Al-Monitor, suggested that the interview take place at the historical Suluklu Han restaurant at the city center. “I grew up here. The owner was a friend of my father’s,” he said.

Bostanci, born in 1955, said that music has been part of his life since he began learning how to play local instruments at the age of four. First he learned darbuka, a percussion instrument common to Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Armenia. Then he built his own baglama, one of the most common stringed instruments in Turkish folkloric music, by tying wires to sticks.

“My father was my master,” he said. “At the age of 10, I would play darbuka at weddings. I started taking lessons.” His teacher was Asik Zulfu. Asik is the term used for folk musicians in Turkey; their songs of love, faith and everyday events form an important part of the oral history and literature of Anatolia.

“Asik Zulfu had a cumbus on his shop window. Each time I touched it, I would be deeply moved by the sound it made.”

He made it clear, however, that his most important influence came from his father, saying, “I took a lot of lessons from the local musicians of Diyarbakir, but my best teacher was my father.”

Bostanci used the tools of his father, the headgear maker, to make his own instruments: “He would use kuci in the fabrics — a thin metal wire with silk around it. I would take them and use them to make strings for my musical instruments. I would take the piece of wood and sing and play local songs the whole day, under the sky of Diyarbakir.”

But an ill-fated love story caused him to leave town with his parents and siblings: “I fell in love with a Kurdish girl. An Armenian boy and a Kurdish girl — no good would come of it. They told me that I could just convert to Islam, get circumcised and all, then marry the girl. I was not against anyone’s religion but did not want to change mine either. Nor would I ask her to change hers. We met a few times, though we did not even hold hands. We just met and declared our love. But her friends and family saw us. There was a fight. They would have killed me if my family did not take me and hide me somewhere. We escaped from Diyarbakir. We took a train in 1976 and traveled to Istanbul.”

Istanbul, the city whose roads are paved with gold, meant a new life. Bostanci started playing the oud with the Uskudar Musical Society and singing at the taverns of Istanbul. But when he sang an Armenian song in 1991, a group of spectators started swearing at him and threatened to kill him. “I was surprised because most of my repertoire was in Turkish. I sang the odd Armenian song just occasionally. Singing a Kurdish song was out of question,” he told Al-Monitor.

Faced once more with ethnic hatred, Bostanci made the difficult decision to leave Turkey. “I hardly slept that night. I was outraged. Here I was, a tax-paying citizen who devoted 20 months of his life to a full term of military service, a model citizen with no criminal record — that was me! But the fact that I could not sing in my mother tongue made me want to leave,” he said, his eyes growing misty.

He landed in the United States. He continued his musical works in Los Angeles, where he was known as Oud Player Bostanci. He carried the songs of Diyarbakir all around the world, with concerts in Germany, France, Belgium and Holland. The name of his first album, “Since you’ve been gone,” was an homage to the life he left behind. Another album was called “Diyarbakir, my land, I mourn your loss” and still another “Diyarbakir, whose walls whisper.”

Once he became a US citizen, he had even less desire to go back. “I simply thought that I would never return to the place that had driven me away,” he told Al-Monitor. This sense of exile did not change until he received an invitation from the Diyarbakir Municipality in 2004. “I made all sorts of excuses not to go back,” he said. “They had Seyhmuz Diken, a well-known Kurdish writer, call me.”

After reconnecting with his city in 2004, he started dividing his time between Turkey and the United States. “We have had good memories as well as bad ones. It was not just me but my people. We had great friends but there were also locals who hated us profoundly. Sometimes, when you took your dead to be buried, we’d be sworn at or stoned. All of this fanned my fears and although I continued to divide my time between Los Angeles, Diyarbakir and Istanbul, I could not bring myself to return to Diyarbakir for good.”

In 2013, Culture Minister Omer Celik sent him several messages asking him to come back, Bostanci decided to accept the invitation and settle in Turkey for good. He held a meeting with Celik and other top ministry officials who assured him that the times had changed. Churches were being restored and Armenian songs were being sung.

At the time of his return, there was no fighting in the southeast and talks on the Kurdish issue were underway. But shortly after his return, the clashes started — right at the heart of the city, near the ancient city walls, where Bostanci was born. Neighborhoods were destroyed, including the “neighborhood of the infidels,” so called because of the large number of Armenians, Syrian Orthodox Christians and Jews who once lived there.

Although his friends started packing up, Bostanci did not. “How would I leave Diyarbakir?” he said. “My memories, my childhood, the past of my parents is here. It is right here in this Suluklu Han. It is one of the rare places that has survived. There are hardly any other places left where we can chat and have tea. When I returned in 2013, I noticed that a lot has changed. People had become more aware, happier, probably because of the peace process. When the Diyarbakir church was torn down, they tried to rebuild it. I wish the peace process had not ended.”

He said that he found himself in the middle of the war. “I saw my people running away. … I was saddened to see all this. My heart grew cold toward the city again. I wished I had not come back.”

Bostanci admitted that he missed the United States. He now sings in the Diyarbakir Choir — the first ethnic Armenian to do so. He has put down roots in Diyarbakir, married and had a son he named “Dikran” — short for Dikranagerd, the Armenian name of Diyarbakir. It was the first time the name Dikran was registered in the city in 41 years. He has also brought his mother to Diyarbakir from Istanbul.

Asked today if he would leave, he replied, “How can I? I belong here now.”

Ottoman records from the end of the 19th century show that of the 21,272 residents of the city, 7,678 were Armenians. There were 1,608 Assyrians, 974 Chaldeans and 280 Jews. It was a lively and multicultural city with various ethnic and religious groups. Its vibrancy faded as these groups left the city, leaving only a handful of Armenian and Assyrian families. Bostanci said he alone has come back for good, and he and the remaining exiles are united in sorrow for the city that once was.

Wine Cubes: new business culture in Armenia

Mary Lazarian
Banks.am, Armenia

Aug 15 2017
ONEArmenia in cooperation with Semina Consulting initiated a fundraising campaign, aimed at supporting local farmers and developing winemaking in Vayots Dzor marz. Banks.am talked to Country Director of ONEArmenia Anahit Galstyan and Executive Director of Semina Consulting Vahe Keushguerian about their goals and fundraising process.

“Neglected” winemakers

“ONEArmenia tries to implement a project, which will involve more Armenian farmers in winemaking,” Anahit Galstyan told Banks.am.

ONEArmenia came up with an offer to Semina Consulting, which turned out to also be interested in implementation of a similar project. Executive Director of Semina Consulting reminded Banks.am that after the collapse of the USSR, independent winemakers were “neglected” as they did not have the required skills for making high quality wines. Consequently, for years they had to purvey grape at low prices, while they could make a few times more revenue on selling ready and bottled wine.

Wine Cubes

Vayots Dzor is the center of winemaking traditions, so the project will be implemented in this region. The program envisions selecting 3 farmers, which will receive support and consultation on winemaking and marketing. The program will also provide beneficiaries with tasting rooms for receiving guests and selling their own production.

“Semina Consulting is responsible for selecting the beneficiaries, as they have the required experience in working with locals. At the same time, we wish to choose people with entrepreneurial potential wishing to develop further with their own means instead of just staying on the same level,” Anahit Galstyan said.

2 winemakers from Areni and Aghavnadzor have already been selected. The organizers plan to construct the third tasting room near the busy intersection of Areni village.

Business cooperation with privileges

Although the initial investment for opening tasting rooms is made within the frames of the project, the initiators jointly state that “This is not a charity project”. According to Anahit Galstyan, this is exclusive business cooperation, when businesses help entrepreneurship develop.

  • Image by: One Armenia

After signing the agreements with beneficiaries, Semina Consulting in cooperation with EVN Wine Academy will teach them how to grow quality grape. After harvesting, 2 tons of grapes will be purveyed from each farmer, which will produce 2000-3000 bottles of wine to be returned to the farmers. ONEArmenia will support farmers to organize the branding process and marketing issues, as well as form supply chain. According to Vahe Keushguerian, the initial stage of the program will require farmers to grow quality grapes and provide sanitary conditions in tasting rooms.

“We will provide the temporary tasting rooms, wine production and flow of tourists, while farmers should only sell the wine. If they wish to own the tasting rooms in 2-3 years, they will have to pay certain amount of money from total sales so that the program becomes continuous,” Vahe Keushguerian said, adding that this support may grow into business cooperation with certain privileges.

If farmer does not want to buy the tasting room, other beneficiaries will use it in 2 years, so the project will be continuous.

Analyzing the experience of past charity projects, Anahit Galstyan concluded that they did not bring about long-term results, as people do not value what is given them for free.

Preventing emigration

Project authors expect it to revive Armenia’s wine culture, interrupted for a century, and increase the number of small producers in wine industry. Moreover, development of winemaking can attract tourists, who can visit Vayots Dzor not only to see local attractions sightseeing, but to also tour the vineyards and learn about winemaking history of the country.

  • Image by: One Armenia

“On the other hand, stable revenue makes country folk stay put. We want those people to stay in their home villages, earn their living there, buy cars, and we want others to see that and feel encouraged to do the same,” said Vahe Keushguerian, bringing up the example of Piedmont, Italy that had similar experience in the 80s. “In that time, all villagers sold their grape to 3-4 big factories. Some villagers traveled to France and saw how things were done in Burgundy; then they came back, bought a few barrels, made wine, and so began the revolution. If you visit Piedmont region now, you’ll see all farmers driving expensive cars, as they sell wine for EUR 24 per bottle instead of selling grape for EUR 1 per kilo.”

Project authors hope that availability of tasting rooms in different communities can serve as a precedent and encourage other villagers to join their project as beneficiaries.

Fundraising

They launched a fundraising campaign on June 8, aiming to collect USD 61,515. The money will be allocated to training courses for beneficiaries, as well as construction and furnishing of tasting rooms.

They raised more than USD 22,000 in around 2 months (37% of required sum). It’s noteworthy that people from USA donated more (up to USD 100) than people from Armenia (up to USD 20). The fundraising campaign is to last until the end of August, but given certain circumstances, it could be prolonged.

According to the head of ONEArmenia, they’re looking for partners and cooperating with local businesses apart from raising funds.

In case they collect more than indicated in the goal, they will add beneficiaries or services for them.

“If we don’t achieve our goal, we’ll stop where we get and use the money we collected. We can renew fundraising later,” said Anahit Galstyan, adding that sometimes fundraising campaigns excel expectations.

Perspectives of consumption

Around a year later, when first beneficiaries have their product ready, Semina Consulting will assist in distributing it in Yerevan’s restaurants, winehouses and cafes. The price for one bottle will make AMD 2000-3000.

As for export, project authors believe it’s too early to speak about that at this stage.

“Not because the product doesn’t have quality, there’s just not enough for export,” said Vahe Keushguerian. “Let’s say, each beneficiary produces 2000-3000 bottles. One quarter or even half of that is consumed in the place of production by tourists, while the rest goes to winehouses and restaurants in Armenia.”

  • Image by: Koor Wines

At the same time, project authors don’t exclude the possibility that their beneficiaries will be able to increase production in the future and enter into the global market. They are ready to support winemakers with export too.

“We hope they won’t stay satisfied with 2000-3000 bottles and will increase production in time. And become Semina’s clients, why not?” said Anahit Galstyan.

Victoria Andreasyan 

Education: Schoolboy from Sisian develops automated school bell system

Emil Lazarian
ARKA, Armenia

Aug 16 2017

YEREVAN, August 16. /ARKA/. A 16-year-old schoolboy from Armenian Sisian, Edgar Poghosyan, has developed an automated school bell system that will be tested on September 1 in a number of schools, the press service of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE) said.

The system has four main functions. The first one makes the constant presence of someone in the teacher’s room to turn on the bell unnecessary. Second, the system has a built-in alarm button. The third one enables turning on music during the breaks and the fourth function plays the anthem of the Republic of Armenia before the first lesson.

This system is called Clever Sentry and is available on csentry.com. It is also able to work on mobile devices. -0-

11:25 16.08.2017

Education: Landlocked Armenia looks to ed tech for country’s future

Nahapetian Zhanna
DevEx

Aug 16 2017
By Amy Lieberman


Students work on the computer workstations in the Tumo Center in Yerevan, Armenia. Photos: Sam Dolgin-Gardner

KARINJ, Armenia — The journey from Yerevan to the northern province of Lori normally takes four hours, but with the one main road undergoing repairs in the summertime, the car trip through Armenia’s wild green mountains can now stretch on all day.

A few visitors finally reach the the public school in Karinj, a village of about 700 people in this rural, sparsely populated region bordering on Georgia. The stately, Soviet-style building still holds many of the era’s relics — musty gymnasium equipment, wooden desks and chairs, and even the same strict teaching method once modeled decades ago.

In one tucked-away, bright classroom on a recent Saturday afternoon, a group of 13 students chatted freely in a semi-circle and giggled at the presence of guests. Their teacher encouraged them to stand up and share family traditions, and to also show how they constructed their completed LEGO mindstorms robots — customizable, moveable creations they program by applying lessons of physics, math and engineering.

In a poor, rural school in Armenia, this mix of science and free-flowing creativity in a classroom is still rare — but it might increasingly be what is necessary to help the country face some of its most challenging socioeconomic problems.

Leading Armenian health and education NGOs are driving forward a progressive educational technology strategy to rethink development in this lower middle-income, south Caucasus country: Infuse creative, technology-centered education into the classroom to provide youth with adaptable work and life skillsets, and boost their chances of finding jobs in their hometowns, or within Armenia.

“When you go to these villages you see that these kids are kind of hopeless, in a way. They are disappointed and their main angle is to come to Yerevan, or think about leaving to work in Russia, as their fathers have done, and this is a real problem,” said Ester Hakobyan, a programs director for the Children of Armenia Fund, or COAF. She led the session in the “SMART” classroom on storytelling, designed to teach kids the art of collecting family historical stories and sharing tales, skills they could use if they go into the local tourism industry.

“What we try to do is create some kind of future in the villages for these kids,” she explained.

While migration from Armenia has slowed since the 1990s, weak economic conditions have contributed to more than 250,000 people leaving the landlocked country of just 3 million since 2008. About 30 percent of Armenians live below the national poverty line and in Lori — the province with the highest rate of migration — it is common to find households temporarily absent of men, who have gone to work in Russia.

Yet despite the lack of available jobs within Armenia, which faces an unemployment rate of about 16 percent, the country has seen a recent growth in its IT sector. And Armenian health and education NGOs such as COAF and the learning initiative the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, are finding they can bring low-income, rural students into the wave of Armenia’s rising tech scene.

The work also has the potential to replicate in other countries facing similar problems of high rates of youth unemployment and migration, and so Armenia’s experiences could have much to teach the rest of the world, according to COAF and Tumo Center.

“The biggest disease this country has is a lack of belief in the future,” explained Tim Straight, the honorary consul of Norway and Finland and the founder of a fair trade handicrafts organization, Homeland Development Initiative. “In the IT sector, these kids are smart, really smart. They are going to do really well in this country, but there is the reality that they could earn five times more elsewhere. And it becomes a choice of, ‘My language, my kitchen, my culture,’ or is it the money that matters?”

COAF and the Tumo Center, both founded by members of the Armenian diaspora — Turkish-born, New York-based businessman Garo Armen and Lebanese born, Dallas-based telecommunications businessman Sam Simonian, respectively — are both quickly scaling up ed tech initiatives throughout the country.

The six-year-old Tumo Center has a flagship, soaring building in Yerevan — originally constructed for $20 million — where it hosts up to 7,000 students aged 12-18 at any time for free, tailored four-week long after-school programs. Students develop their own personal learning plans through a software system that encourages them to take different courses in animation, game development, web development, digital media and other creative fields based on their preferences and performance. Teachers are Armenian experts, and also international field experts who travel for the short courses.

“It [the work of the Tumo Center] is complimentary. We are not substituting, saying we replace the Armenian schools,” explained Marie Lou Papazian, the managing director of Tumo Center, a Lebanese-born Armenian who moved from New York to oversee the center.

“The school has a specific mission. They teach language, math, geometry and we don’t teach those materials. But through tech, through the Internet, you have access to so many possibilities. You can create so many interesting things and when you engage the kids, you see results fast.”

She spoke from her office inside the Tumo Center, a hub of constant activity, late one recent afternoon. Students streamed throughout the glass building to play games and work on mobile computer workstations — individual computer desktop and chair sets, whose power and ethernet cable are connected to the ceiling, allowing the user to move seamlessly across a room. Down the hall, auditions for an advanced music class were underway.

International interest in the Tumo Center’s unique, individualized model, and unanticipated student engagement, has come in tandem, as the center has expanded to other small cities in Armenia, with support of the Central Bank of Armenian and some private sector groups. The public-private partnership model is also at play in Yerevan, where it rents out space to tech companies, including the image software application PicsArt.

Moving beyond Yerevan, Armenia’s largest, capital city, to address “brain drain” across the country is a shared goal of COAF, a partner organization that has opened up six “SMART” ed tech rooms, including the one in Karinj, over the last two years. Students, and also adults in the community, can access these rooms to research — not just play games, as they sometimes do at home — on computers to learn about the environment, health and to also build robots. Some instruction is in English.

Ester Hakobyan engages with students in a SMART room in Lori, Armenia.

“We understood that traditional, every-day approaches were not possible, so we decided to start a SMART initiative to bring best available practices here. We see potential in Lori,” said Hakobyan, a teacher originally from the region. “We needed a creative working space for kids, who are not used to going to a classroom and being comfortable there, but having very strict rules of behaving. You never see a kind of open work space in a classroom unless you go to very fancy schools. Here furniture is movable. There are walls you can write on.”

COAF, which traditionally centers is work in education, health care and infrastructure, will open a SMART Center in early 2018 in Lori — a building now underway whose vision could match the grandeur and scale of the Tumo Center. The glass, one-level structure will flow with the mountains, explained the architect, Paul Kaloustian, of Beirut, giving visiting students an immersive feeling when they come to take free courses in technology, business and civil engagement, arts and music and environmental practices.

One challenge is to draw in adults from surrounding communities. They might struggle to either physically reach the center, or feel like they have nothing to gain from it. There is a sharp divide between Armenia’s younger and older generations, explained Straight, who spoke of Armenia’s “lost generation” of older women in particular, who learned few skills — beyond sewing, cooking and farming during the Soviet times — that they are now able to translate into work.

Shahane Halajyan, COAF’s SMART Initiative manager, says that Armenia has no option but to ensure that communities can be engaged with ed tech.  

“We know that for each individual resident, the condition of the schools is very important and we try to enhance community involvement. But to try to enhance community involvement is not easy to do,” she said. “What we struggle with is, when you are in schools, things go easier. When you move into the community you have to go into effective implementation. With SMART, we have no option but to be successful. We have to make sure it works, because of the investment. There is great potential here we need to access.”

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Education: Trainings for IT beginners are underway in Gyumri

Dabaghian Diana
Public Radio of Armenia

Aug 16 2017
15:56, 16 Aug 2017
Armradio

Trainings for IT beginners are held in Gyumri since April, Panorama reports. The trainings are organized by the “D-Link International”, “Instigate Design” and “Develandoo” companies.

The programs of “Instigate Training Center” are at the basis of the course. The classes take place at the research center of “D-Link International” in Gyumri. The staff of “Instigate Design” and “D-Link International” companies performs as teachers.

According to the public communications service of UITE, 22 students were chosen from 57 applicants.

The trainings are aimed at providing IT beginners with necessary working capacities, introducing the production process of contemporary IT companies to them, preparation of young specialists for Gyumri IT companies.

Arman Poghosyan, the Head of the “Instigate Design” company mentioned that the trainings are successful, as it is already agreed that 17 young specialists will start working in the abovementioned companies after the training completion.

Education: Startup Institute is taking its curriculum to Belgium and Armenia

Karakhanian Suren
ARKA, Armenia

Aug 16 2017

YEREVAN, August 16, /ARKA/. Startup Institute, a Boston-based training center, closed its Chicago location a year ago and is taking its curriculum to Belgium and Armenia, bostonglobe.com, said.

It quoted Startup Institute CEO DiTieri as saying that this will be the first of many such corporate partnerships through a licensing deal instead. He said Microsoft will pay for the rights to use the institute’s training program for the tech giant’s Innovation Centers in those two countries. 

 “If we want to expand and grow beyond Boston and New York and help people get access into the tech ecosystem in the digital economy, this is probably the most efficient way for us to do it,” DiTieri said. “This kind of model allows us to go to all those places and start training those folks just like we do here in Boston, without having to raise millions of dollars.”

One of DiTieri’s main goals is to develop a sustainable business model for the institute, a for-profit venture backed by Silicon Valley Bank, the local VC firm Accomplice, and angel investor Walt Winshall.

Also this year, his team launched a program for part-time students and ushered in a new system in which employers pay tuition for certain workers. The participants include Gillette, John Hancock, and Harvard University. -0-

11:31 16.08.2017

Entertainment: Khloe Kardashian Shows Off Super Thoughtful (& Expensive) Gift From Tristan Thompson

Karakhanian Suren
Hollywood Life

Aug 16 2017
Lauren Cox
Senior Editor

Khloe Kardashian, 33, isn’t afraid to show off how her boyfriend, Tristan Thompson, 26, takes good care of her. The couple are constantly gushing over each other on social media, especially Khloe’s Snapchat, but now she’s taking things to another level. In a Snap story posted on Tuesday night, August 15, Khloe showed off a stunning gold necklace that she says Tristan had made for her! The gold necklace carried a thick gold pendant that was covered in diamonds, and Khloe told her Snap viewers that it was Armenian. That is so sweet!

Once Khloe (with a little help from her younger sister, Kylie Jenner) was done showing off video of the necklace, she posted a picture of herself wearing the necklace. The high quality picture revealed just how beautiful the necklace and pendant truly are. Plus, Khloe was rocking her gorgeous gift along with another Tristan necklace: a gold chain that read “Double T”. If you’re not sure how that relates to Tristan, take a look at the first initials of both his first and last name — Tristan Thompson. Double T. Get it? Good!

http://hollywoodlife.com/2017/08/16/khloe-kardashian-armenian-necklace-tristan-thompson-gift/