Category: News

Hetq Online | March 03, 2005
This week's Hetq Online includes two more articles from Edik Baghdasarian and Ara Manoogian's long term investigation into trafficking of women and children to Dubai. From what I gather, the articles so far only scratch the surface and next week...

Armenian Digest, March 2005 | March 01, 2005
The March edition of Armenian Digest, a compilation of the previous month's news from various sources is now available for download in PDF format. Armenian Digest is a joint collaboration between the Gomidas Institute (UK), Hetq Online and Oneworld...

Free Mojtaba and Arash Day | February 23, 2005
Today has been declared "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day". Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad are two Iranian bloggers. They have both been arrested for what they wrote on their blogs, and Arash Sigarchi is still in Lakan prison in the...

We are now 5 | February 22, 2005
Our fifth blogger has joined our ranks. His name is Christian Adanalian, and he has been living and working in Armenia off and on from 2002 to the present. In my essays about life in the homeland, I aim to...

News on Armenia - no direct English-language source? | February 22, 2005
I sometimes run a Google-News search on Armenia, and noticed that with exception of Azg, there are no other direct hits on links with news reports from any Armenian media. Moreover, there are plenty of hits on Russian (Tass, Ria-Novosti),...

Some positive news... | February 19, 2005
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's Armenia Service reports that the IMF is satisified with Armenia's fiscal and monetary policy and is negotiating a fresh loan with the Armenian Government. However, the news report also highlights the growing need to...

Welcome Onnik! | February 10, 2005
Onnik has joined us as a contributor. He has frequently commented on posts at Blogrel from the very start, and I am glad to welcome him onboard. Welcome Onnik!...

Carbon Monoxide Accident Claims Georgian PM | February 03, 2005
In a bizarre twist of fate, Georgia's Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania apparently succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning in a friend's apartment in Tbilisi. CO, a poisonous gas which is a byproduct of combustion of carbon-based fuel, is responsible for deaths...

OSCE Fact-Finding Mission in NK-controlled areas of Azerbaijan | February 02, 2005
A reporter from the Armenian daily Azg has been following the OSCE Minsk Group fact-finding mission as it travels from Karabakh to Kelbajar, Lachin, Kubatly, Zangelan, Jebrail, Fizuli, and Aghdam districts that comprise the security zone under the control of...

A change for Blogrel | January 30, 2005
I would like to welcome two new people who will be posting to Blogrel. They will posting under the names Katy and Hovakim. It has been a challenge lately to keep up with posting on Blogrel with my busy schedule,...

Street trading banned | January 17, 2005
Armenia Liberty reports that authorities Authorities in Yerevan began on Friday enforcing a fresh ban on street trade in agricultural produce and other foodstuffs which is seen as failing to meeting basic sanitary standards. "It is impossible to immediately uproot...

Happy New Year! | January 04, 2005
I am back from the holidays and will resume posting shortly. If anyone has good photos of the holidays in Armenia please let me know! Happy New Year!...

Christmas | December 24, 2004
I'm off for the Christmas holidays, so no posting for a few days at least. I want to wish all of you a very happy holiday season. Being an odar myself, I found this page from the website of the...

Shameless self-promotion | December 15, 2004
It's time for a little shameless self-promotion. Well, promotion of the Blogrel shop, where you can purchase the 2005 Armenia Wall Calendar and other goodies such as mugs, t-shirts, and so on. The photos were taken by me in my...

Blogrel makes the news | December 04, 2004
ArmeniaNow.com lead story this week is about Blogrel. And you read it here first......

Moushegh Baghdasaryan | November 25, 2004
Moushegh Baghdasaryan is a 14 year old boy from Armenia who made the film "Intervention" last year. His film has been included in the 2004 Chicago Film Festival. Hakob has forwarded me this link to an article about him in...

Yerevan, Turkey | November 12, 2004
The title of this page is very odd. "British Embassy, Yerevan Turkey" It turns out it's a page on the British Embassy's site about Turkey. But they could have given it a better title....

I .am Google | October 19, 2004
In the middle of moving to a new computer, I found that Google have added Armenian to their list of languages. You can use their Armenian home page, or google.com and set your default language to Armenian. Select Preferences and...

El or Yel? | October 09, 2004
I've had a bit of free time today, courtesy of this super-typhoon bearing down on Tokyo, so I've changed the logo ever-so-slightly. Thanks to Hakob for pointing this out and Katy for seconding him. I have rectified the typo. In...

Calling local bloggers | September 30, 2004
I'm constantly surprised that nobody makes disparaging comments about an odar writing about Armenia. Now I would like to "grow" Blogrel and find some local Armenian bloggers to contribute posts. The idea is to get a variety of perspectives and...

Tatev | September 17, 2004
Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been in rural France the past few days. For the next week I will be in Yerevan then Tatev so again, posting will be sparse. The Armenian vs. Armenian post has certainly...

Posts | August 15, 2004
Sorry about the lack of posts in the last week. I am recuperating from a muscle injury and hope to resume posting in the next few days....

Bomb blasts Armenian church in Iraq | August 02, 2004
BBC News reports that several churches have been attacked in Iraq, including an Armenian church in the Baghdad district of Karada. At least 10 people have been killed and 38 injured in a coordinated attack that hit 5 churches across...

Add to My Yahoo! | July 26, 2004
There is an easy, quick way to keep up to date on new posts at Blogrel. Use the RSS feed and My Yahoo! If you have any account at Yahoo! (from using their email, for example), you can now make...

Armenian wines make their debut | July 08, 2004
Well, this is not strictly true, but the Winston-Salem Journal reports that local entrepreneur Edgar Vardanian is importing Armenian wines in North Carolina. Most of his imports are wines made from native Armenian grapes rarely seen in this country. His...

The Orchards of Dalma | July 02, 2004
The Greens Union of Armenia are appealing for help to preserve the "Orchards of Dalma", situated in Yerevan. They claim that the government has illegally changed the use of the land so that it can built upon. The US embassy...

Armenia Tree Project Celebrates its 10th Anniversary | June 30, 2004
The Armenia Tree Project is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with a open air concert at Garni Temple. Luminaries such as President Kocharyan and US Ambassador Ordway have been invited....

Opening borders | June 05, 2004
Here is a voice in favour of opening the borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Of course this isn't Armenia's choice at the moment. I've heard arguments against opening the borders however. The argument is that once the borders open Armenia...

The BBC gets criticised from both sides | May 31, 2004
The BBC has been criticised from by both Armenian media and the Azeri government on its coverage of Karabagh on its Russian website. Newspaper Golos Armenii: The web site does not contain any Armenian view on the Karabakh conflict, excerpt...

A view of Armenia's future | May 28, 2004
The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) has released the results of two surveys they carried out. Entitled "My View of Armenia's Future" and "Armenia's Foreign Policy, Orientation, and Attitude toward Power Centers of the World," they embraced...

Armenian Newspapers Online | May 21, 2004
I found this online newspaper service today: http://www.armeniannewspapers.com/ They offer online version of three Armenian newspapers (Aravot, Azg, and Golos Armenii) in PDF (Acrobat) format, priced at $10 per month. I haven't tried it out, but it looks well set...

Another Genocide Remembered | May 21, 2004
The Pontic Greeks, those who lived along the southern coast of the Black Sea, were also massacred at the hands of the Turks. ArmenPress has this story about the recent commemoration at Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan. Of the 700,000 Greeks living...

American killed in Yerevan | May 18, 2004
An American citizen was killed yesterday and his body discovered on Sayat Nova street. Via Ara Manoogian's Martuni or Bust. So who was he and what was he doing? His name was Joshua Haglund (also being reported as Joshua Heglantz),...

Karabagh Special | May 16, 2004
ArmeniaNow.com has a special edition this week on Karabagh. I always enjoy reading ArmeniaNow.com, and this collection of articles gives some more insight into the Karabagh issue. Here is a list of articles: Ruben Mangasaryan remembers victory. And boxes ....

Photo Stories | May 13, 2004
HETQ online (Association of Investigative Journalists of Armenia) has a "photostory" site with photos submitted by photo-journalists on social and other issues. Onnik Krikorian has a series of photos on life in Lachin, 12 years after its capture by Armenian...

End to Ajarian crisis good news for Armenia | May 10, 2004
Aslan Abashidze's recent departure from Ajaria, an autonomous region of Georgia, is good news for Armenia, as it will hopefully bring to and end to the an interruption of freight traffic coming through the port of Batumi. Armenian officials had...

On the road again | April 26, 2004
I will be travelling down to Tatev over the next few days to deal with my Zangezur Ashkhar project, and therefore there will be few posts here. I'm hoping there won't be much to report on while I am away!...

April 24 | April 26, 2004
ArmeniaNow.com has some pictures of the events to remember the genocide at Tsitsernakaberd....

Anti-Smoking Drive? | April 20, 2004
ArmenPress reports that Armenia will join an international anti-smoking convention. They give these incredible figures: According to official statistics, 67 percent of men and 3.1 percent of women smoke in Armenia. Specialists say cigarettes cause 30 percent of cancer and...

Kars - Gyumri Railway Line | April 19, 2004
Armenian Communication and Transport Minister Andranik Manukyan has said that "reconstruction" is being carried out on the Kars-Gyumri line. (via A1 Plus) Now if Turkey does the same on the other side of the border, and lifts the blockade... I...

TARC Winds Up | April 19, 2004
Apparently TARC (the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission) is being wound up. Asbarez has a page of information about TARC. "We feel that advances in civil society contacts are now permanent and will only grow in time. We also feel that beyond...

On The Road | April 16, 2004
I'm heading for New York so no posts for a short while. Going to the Armenian Film Festival on Sunday. Will post something about the films and the buzz....

Will They - Won't They? | April 16, 2004
There has been a lot lately about the possible opening of the Turkish border with Armenia. Azerbaijan has been asking the Turks to "stand firm". Now one Azeri MP is predicting the border will be opened. (via Groong)...

Aliyev's Grave | April 13, 2004
Chloe Arnold, freelance journalist and sometime reporter for the BBC, reports from Baku on Aliyev's grave, and the desecrated Armenian cemetery on the other side of town. From the Moscow Times....

Caucasus Blogs | April 13, 2004
The Argus, a blog about Central Asia and the Caucasus, has a post about the protests in Yerevan. I particularly like the website logo which changes if you reload the page. There is another interesting blog, LivingWithCaucasians, based in Tbilisi....

Genocide 90th Anniversary | April 13, 2004
Novosti has this report from the Armenian Government's Press Department that a variety of events to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Genocide are planned. These events will be scheduled from May 2004 until April 2005....

Genocide Events | April 10, 2004
OK, I was planning on doing a round-up of events for April 24th, but there's no point after seeing this site. genocideevents.com has an exhaustive list by location. Only thing is I can't find any events in the UK, and...

April 24 | April 06, 2004
The online encyclopedia WikiPedia has this entry for April 24. The Genocide appears about halfway down the page. There is a detailed page on the Genocide. WikiPedia is actually an online-only encyclopedia, written by its users. There is an interesting...

Armenia reiterates demand for Abkhaz railway opening | April 06, 2004
The Yerevan-Moscow railway has been out of service ever since the Abkhaz conflict began. An article in the April 5th edition of the The Georgian Messenger talks about Armenian efforts to reopen it. The article is in PDF format....

Key European Parliament panel revises report on South Caucasus | April 05, 2004
The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy has put out this press release. This in reference to Turkey's long standing application to join the EU. It also called on Turkey to reopen its borders with Armenia and promote good...

Armenia, Iran to sign gas pipeline agt early April | March 31, 2004
From Itar-Tass: Armenia, Iran to sign gas pipeline agt early April By Tigran Liloyan YEREVAN The negotiations with Iran regarding the construction of a gas pipeline to Armenia reached the final stage, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsesyan said on Tuesday....

Rights activist beaten in Armenia | March 31, 2004
From Associated Press: A representative of a leading human rights organization was beaten by assailants on Tuesday and blamed the Armenian authorities for the attack, which left him hospitalized in serious condition. Mikael Danielyan, the chairman of the Armenian Helsinki...

Armenia's Software Advantage | March 31, 2004
The McKinsey Quarterly (free registration required) has a good piece about Armenia's software industry. Something quite in vogue, I believe there was an article in The Economist not too long ago... Geopolitical problems and macroeconomic reforms are currently preoccupying Armenia,...

Armenian President's Resignation Inevitable - Opposition Leader | March 31, 2004
More on Kocharyan's troubles, from Mediamax news agency: "The overthrow of the regime of Armenia's illegitimate president Robert Kocharyan is inevitable," Albert Bazeyan, the chairman of the Republic Party and leader of the radical opposition, said in Yerevan today. Addressing...

Aza-Hye.com joins the fray | March 29, 2004
Azad-Hye.com was launched recently. It focuses on Armenian news from the UAE. There is a email list as well, which has the usual news....

Japan sends financial aid to promote stability of South Caucasus | March 25, 2004
This from Pravda The Armenian agriculture minister, David Lozhan, and an adviser to the economic section of the Japanese embassy in Russia, Masataka Esidzave, on Monday signed an agreement for the transfer to Armenia of a Japanese grant worth USD...

Online! | March 23, 2004
Blogrel is born. A new blog about Armenia: Business, politics, the future and good lavash! I will use this space to talk about the latest Armenian news, issues that affect Armenia and the Diaspora. It will be a mix of...