April is designated as Men’s Health Protection Month in Armenia, during which men will be encouraged to have prostate gland examinations. Free sonogram examinations will be offered at the Armenia Medical Center in Yerevan.

It is the first time such examinations have been given free in Armenia.

“We want to pay much more attention to men’s health and render quality medical treatment to them,” says director of Urology at the Center, Armen Muradyan.

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After this weekend when the Christian world will celebrate Easter, the greatest Christian holiday, our friends and my family will mark the end of Lent by indulging in a feast.

Though gluttony is considered a sin in the Christian religion, this is what we promised ourselves if we manage to survive the 48 days of fasting.

We arranged the menu of our feast on February 23, when the fasting started. The menu included barbeque and vodka for men, chocolate cake and wine for women, and a lot of white salty cheese-the loved and divine ingredient of a traditional Armenian meal.

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In all of her 54 years, Russian language teacher Silva Martirosyan has never known rural living. She lives in the town of Tchambarak and for most of her life “farming” was a matter of going to the market.

But a lot of lives continue to change as Armenia moves from what it was to whatever it will be.

Sometimes city girls learn country living. Sometimes teachers become milkmaids.


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After leaving Armenia and vowing to never return, veteran conductor Ohan Duryan has returned to lend his name to the movement of political opposition afoot in Yerevan.

Two years ago Duryan left in anger, when Ministry of Culture officials revoked his “life time” contract as chief conductor and musical director of the State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

The 80-year old conductor who has performed world wide has since signed a five year contract with the Moscow Symphonic Orchestra. Rosiyskaya Gazeta newspaper in Moscow called him “one of the world’s greatest conductors”.

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This week theater fans of Yerevan were given an exceptional opportunity to enjoy the leading actors of Russia’s Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre.

During a three-day tour actors from the popular theater performed “Ode to Eve”, by French playwright Eric Schmidt, staged by Sergey Yashin. The tour was organized by Stage Crossroad cultural center.

“The last time I came to a theater was 10 years ago, but the desire to see the play of these actors was so great that I gave half of my monthly pension to buy a ticket and came here from Ashtarak,” says Ruzanna Karapetyan, 65.

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Wrestling (European Championships)

Six wrestlers representing Armenia will participate in the 51 st European Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships in Haparanda, Sweden this weekend.

Ashot Khachatryan (55 kg weight category), Vahan Juharyan (66 kg) and Vahe Karapetyan (84 kg) from Gyumri, Movses Karapetyan (74 kg) from Yerevan and wrestlers from Echmiatsin Zhora Vardanyan (66 kg) and Haykaz Galstyan (120 kg) will be competing for prize medals with wrestlers from about 36 European countries.

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