Ani Kirakosyan is 22. She will not let us take her photograph, because she is afraid. By her accounts of what happened to her during a police crack down on Armenia’s political opposition, her fear is justified.

Ani got a degree in journalism at Yerevan Pedagogic Institute and after graduation was offered a job collecting information for the online magazine of the Republic party.

On the evening of April 13, Ani was in the headquarters of the party. It is oppositional leader Aram Sargsyan’s office, but Ani is not a member of the party and says she is apolitical. For her, the work is a job, not a passion.

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How can you lay carnations at an eternal flame to the memory of your distant dead, knowing you have invoked terror on the very descendents of those you mourn?

It is a question to be pondered this April 24.

Followed by cameras and flanked by escorts appropriately somber for the occasion, the Men of Power in Armenia will make a solemn statement at the Genocide Monument. The President and his ministers will go by entourage under live national media coverage like every year.

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When the snow melts, the village of Geghakar restores its connection with the world.

A nearly impassable road is the only link with the outside, and when nature closes it, Geghakar about 75 miles northeast of Yerevan hibernates until spring.

Until 1989, the village – formerly called Yenikend – was one of the richest cattle breeding areas of the Gegharkunik region. It was an Azeri settlement until then. But its population and its livestock industry and a lot of other things changed when Azeris were no longer welcomed across the nearby border, and vice versa.


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“She is old, but she is as modern as tomorrow, a brand new woman everyday, and as endless as time mathematics, living with her is a labyrinth of ramifications” so said jazz pioneer Duke Ellington of the music that is much alive in Armenia.

From April 7 to 17 jazz fans of Yerevan enjoyed the pleasure of being in the endless labyrinth of jazz technique.

For the third year, April was named as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) in Armenia, in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institute and the US State Department. The aim of the Americans is to make society aware of jazz and its rich heritage.

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There was a day when along the shores of Lake Sevan, roofs made of thatch were the common means of using nature to protect from nature.

Like the picturesque cottages for which Ireland would become famous, Armenian country homes were perhaps less glamorized but no less served by roofs made of earth.

Older residents in villages such as Aghibiuradzor remember that until the 1950s the use of earthen roofs was common. Fifty years later, the distinguishing feature of Armenian culture hasn’t completely disappeared.


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Noted soprano Isabel Bayrakdaryan sang in Armenia for the first time Tuesday night (April 20) and found an overflow audience ready to embrace the New York Metropolitan Opera singer.

Aram Khachaturyan Concert Hall was standing-room-only, and included President Robert Kocharyan and First Lady, Bella Kocharyan.

The 90-minute concert was a collection of tastefully chosen arias from Giochino Rossini’s “Semiramide” and “Barbiere di Sivilla”, Mozart’s “The Shepherd King”, Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” and “Gianni Schichi” and Armen Tigranyan’s “Anush” operas.

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Together with about 130 weightlifters from 32 European countries seven Armenian athletes are competing at the 83rd Men’s and 17th Women’s European Weightlifting Championships taking place in Kiev, Ukraine through April 26.

Armenia is represented in the women’s division by 17-year-old Hripsime Kheurshudyan, who finished her participation at the tournament in 63 kg. weight category. Competing with 14 other athletes in the category she took sixth place with the total result of 200 kilograms (90 kg. in the snatch and 110 kg. in the clean and jerk).

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