Recap: Anthony Bourdain's 'Parts Unknown' Visits Armenia

Bridget Hallinan

 

Every Sunday, we live vicariously through Anthony Bourdain's globe-hopping, face-stuffing adventures on CNN's Parts Unknown. This week, he takes us to Armenia: a true "part unknown" for the TV host, as it's his first time in the country. With the accompaniment of Serj Tankian—lead singer of System of a Down, and an Armenian-American—Bourdain dives deep into Armenia's history. There are painful discussions (the Armenian genocide in 1915, when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman government; the diaspora; the earthquake in 1988), as well as optimistic glimpses into the country's future, bolstered by a booming IT industry and impressive after school programs. “Armenia remains a dream, a subject of stories; it is still, against all odds, a place,” Bourdain said during the show.

He Was a Protester. Now, Nikol Pashinyan Is Armenia’s Prime Minister

Neil MacFarquhar

 

Nikol Pashinyan, who led the nonviolent protest movement that improbably toppled the government of Armenia, had just ended a brief interview and headed into another room when he whirled around.

“Would you like to eat?” he asked, beckoning to a table scattered with plastic cartons holding takeout pork kebabs wrapped in paperlike bread, as well as tomato and cucumber salad. “This kind of lunch is the usual for us for the past month; we have not gotten back to civilized ways.”

If whirlwind events of the past month are any guide, Armenia might never get back to its old ways, civilized or not. On Tuesday, Mr. Pashinyan became Armenia’s interim prime minister, when a Parliament dominated by his political foes elected him by a 59-to-42 vote.

After vowing to remake the country’s political and economic systems, Mr. Pashinyan told a cheering throng in the central Republic Square in Yerevan, the capital, that, “Your victory is not that I was elected as prime minister of Armenia; your victory is that you decided who should be prime minister of Armenia.”

Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution': A masterclass in socialism

Arto Vaun

 

Post-Soviet countries are rough and tumble places, full of intense paradox, humour, microaggression, and beauty. There are fifteen former Soviet states, each with its own cultural and socioeconomic components and struggles. They have all been grappling with the ghost of the Soviet Union in different ways, but the one thing they've all agreed on is this: "Capitalism good, Socialism bad". One of the first things to go during the collapse of the Soviet Union were all the statues of Lenin and Marx. It was a collective sigh of relief, a venting of all the misery which that authoritarian system had inflicted on so many lives for most of the 20th century.

Problem was, those statues, and the oppression they represented, were quickly replaced by new figures of oppression - oligarchs with their hyper-capitalism, buoyed (however indirectly) by the neoliberal ideas that have been dragging the West down since the 1970s.

That has been Armenia since its independence in 1991. But a few weeks ago, a different Armenia woke up, as if from a 27-year coma. And the euphoria and empowerment of that awakening have been intense and palpable, from Yerevan to the remotest villages.

Armenia crisis: Opposition leader suspends nationwide protests

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan has suspended nationwide protests after the governing Republican Party indicated it would support his bid to be interim prime minister.

The demonstrations brought much of Armenia to a standstill on Wednesday.

Mr Pashinyan told supporters that the party's position needed clarifying but protests would be suspended for a day.

Republicans blocked Mr Pashinyan's bid to become prime minister in a parliamentary vote on Tuesday.

In a statement on Wednesday, the party did not mention Mr Pashinyan by name but said they would back a candidate nominated by a third of MPs at next week's vote in parliament. It said it would not put forward its own candidate, leaving Mr Pashinyan as the only nominee.

The Real Tragedy is What Hasn’t Happened After the Earthquake

 Ara Khatchatourian

Once again we are commemorating the anniversary of the tragic earthquake that hit Armenia on December 7, 1988. As we honor the victims of that tragedy, we must tell ourselves that we, as a nation, have failed to rebuild the earthquake zone, which almost 30 years later is still labeled the “disaster zone.”

Some 550 families are still homeless victims of the earthquake, living in makeshift metal containers scattered around Gyumri, Spitak, Akhourian and other rural areas that were devastated by the earthquake. Yet some 47 miles from Spitak, the epicenter of the earthquake, cranes dot the skyline of Yerevan, with new residential and commercial building mushrooming in a city that has become a virtual construction zone.

Armenia Today

Knarik O. Meneshian

Two things should fill a person’s soul with wonder and reverence—a starry sky above and morality in one’s heart.
—Karekin Nejdeh*

After 13 years, my husband and I finally returned to Armenia at the end of April 2016 for a two-month visit – this time not as volunteer teachers, but as tourists.

Our first impression of the capital was that of amazement and delight. Zvartnots Airport was modern and efficient and the uniformed staff was professional and welcoming. Yerevan appeared new, fresh, and vibrant. New buildings stood tall and gleaming; flowers adorned select areas of the city, where before there were none.

There was an array of new hotels, restaurants, cafes, eateries, stores, and other businesses, all with neatly groomed and uniformed staff. There were new traffic lights, and both pedestrians and motorists alike obeyed them – a remarkable and much welcomed change from years past.

There were more public restrooms, even in the outlying regions. A standard fee of 100 drams or 21 cents was charged, which helped pay the women who collected the fees and maintained the restrooms–again, a remarkable and much welcomed change from years past.

The Tigran Honents Church of Ani Becomes "Georgian Chalcedonian"

The National Park-Museum of Sculpture of Gyumri expressed concern over the Tigran Honents Church of Ani and stated that the policy of Turkey about the falsification of historical facts and incomplete reconstruction of the mentioned church thrusts a wedge into the culture and friendship of neighboring countries. In order to combat the distortion of history, a petition was started at the website change.org.

The Gyumri Killings: Beyond the Legal Arguments

Houry Mayissian

 

More than a week since the Gyumri killings, the city and Armenia at large are still struggling to come to terms with the heinous crime that wiped out an entire family. As the massacre’s youngest victim, six-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan succumbed to his injuries on Monday, many questions remain unanswered; chief among them – what happens to the culprit?

Reducing the Risk of 1988

Serouj Aprahamian

 

Twenty five years ago, on December 7, 1988, a catastrophic earthquake ripped through Armenia, decimating the town of Spitak and surrounding areas. The quake left more than 25,000 people dead, 15,000 injured, 517,000 homeless, and $14.2 billion in economic damage.

But the horror of that day was just as much a result of human negligence as it was natural causes. International experts concluded that poor building construction, a lack of emergency planning, and inadequate medical care were the main factors behind the earthquake’s devastation.

Unwelcome Guest, Undesired Host: A Street Perspective of Putin’s Armenia Visit

Samson Martirosyan

 

On Dec. 2, 1920, Armenian Prime Minister Alexandre Khatisian signed the Alexandropol Treaty between the First Republic of Armenia and Turkey. Pro-Soviet forces took control of Armenia’s government, and the country was declared a Soviet state. Exactly 93 years later, on Dec. 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Armenia to welcome President Serge Sarkisian’s decision to join the Russian-led Custom’s Union, which many argue is an incarnation of the Russian imperialistic appetite and an attempt to create a Soviet Union 2.0.

Business Ethics: MBA Students in Armenia and the US

Mihran Aroian

 

You just entered a coffee shop where the smell of freshly baked muffins is wafting from the oven. You step up to the counter and order a large to-go cup of freshly brewed coffee along with a banana-nut muffin. You give the young clerk $10 and are rewarded with a steaming hot cup of coffee and a freshly baked muffin. As you walk out the door, you count your change and notice that the clerk gave you change for a $20 bill. What would you do?

You have three choices: go back to the clerk and return the money, leave the store and commit to yourself to pay back the money next time you return, or enjoy the coffee, muffin, and the extra $10!

Having done this little experiment for many years with thousands of college students in Texas, the results in the US are 60% keep the free money, 15% promise to return the money next time they visit the store, and 25% return the excess money to the clerk.

Un viaje a las raices armenias

Cristian Sirouyán

 

La impronta cosmopolita de Buenos Aires recibirá un nuevo aporte, a través de una milenaria cultura que lleva más de un siglo de arraigo en las dos orillas del Río de la Plata: el conjunto Kohar llegará desde Armenia, para presentarse en el Luna Park desde el 27 hasta el 29 de octubre. Serán tres conciertos con repertorios diferentes, en los cuales el escenario porteño se poblará con las melodías, danzas tradicionales y canciones interpretados por 170 artistas.