Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

The Indian visa policy is a critical aspect of managing international relations and promoting cross-cultural exchanges. In this essay, we will specifically explore the Indian visa requirements for citizens of Armenia, focusing on the application process, types of visas available, and the potential significance of this policy for enhancing bilateral ties between the two nations. Understanding the nuances of the Indian visa system for Armenian citizens is essential for fostering educational, professional, and cultural exchanges, ultimately contributing to a more globally interconnected world.

Armenia and India share a long history of diplomatic relations that deepened over the years. The establishment of an Embassy of India in Yerevan in 1999 and the reciprocal opening of the Embassy of Armenia in New Delhi in 2009 further solidified this relationship. The visa policy plays a pivotal role in encouraging closer interactions between the citizens of these two nations.

To embark on a journey Indian visa for Cambodian citizens must first obtain an appropriate visa. The Indian visa application can be completed through the Embassy of India in Yerevan or via the online e-Visa facility, adding ease and accessibility to the overall process. This digital platform ensures timely visa processing and convenience for Armenian applicants.

Armenian citizens can apply for various types of Indian visas based on their specific purpose of visit. The most common visa categories are tourist visas, business visas, student visas, employment visas, and research visas. Each visa type carries specific eligibility criteria and documentary requirements that cater to the unique needs and circumstances of Armenian travelers.

The Indian visa policy holds immense importance for facilitating educational and cultural exchanges between the two nations. Armenian students pursuing higher education in India have access to a diverse range of academic programs, scholarships, and research opportunities. Simultaneously, Indian students benefit from the cultural and historical richness of Armenia through exchange programs, fostering mutual understanding and learning.

The Indian visa policy also enables Armenian professionals to explore career prospects in India. By granting employment visas, India welcomes skilled individuals from Armenia, allowing them to contribute their expertise to various sectors, including IT, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. Such collaborations foster economic growth while enhancing bilateral ties.

India’s diverse landscapes, vibrant culture, and historical heritage make it an appealing destination for travelers worldwide – including Armenian citizens. By enabling a streamlined tourist visa application process, India efficiently facilitates Armenian tourists’ visits, contributing to cross-cultural exchange, economic growth, and a strengthened global network.

While the Indian visa policy for Armenian citizens undoubtedly brings about numerous benefits, challenges persist. Continuous efforts should be made to simplify the visa application process, enhance consular services, and shorten visa processing times, ensuring a more visitor-friendly experience. Additionally, exploring opportunities for visa-free travel or visa-on-arrival provisions can further bolster bilateral relations

The Indian Visa for Armenia Citizens demonstrates the commitment of both nations towards fostering deep-rooted people-to-people connections. It aims to promote educational, cultural, and professional exchanges by offering a range of visa options to accommodate diverse purposes of travel. By continually evolving the visa system, both countries can unleash the true potential of their relationship, leading to greater collaboration, understanding, and growth on the global stage.

For La Crescenta resident Sarineh Ghazarian, decorating a float in the upcoming 2024 Rose Parade is a family affair.

Ghazarian, her nephew and two children spent some of their winter break volunteering to decorate the American Armenian Rose Float Association’s sixth parade float. It was the first year to decorate for the children, who are of Armenian descent, and a special memory Ghazarian will always cherish.

The 55-foot-long “Armenian Melodies” float — decorated with pomegranates, drums, and birds playing musical instruments — features aspects of Armenian culture, symbolism, history, current events and more. It’s the sixth year the association has participated in the annual Rose Parade.

The 2024 float is among a line-up of new and returning entries, special guests and performances that aim to reflect diversity represented in the parade’s theme: “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language.”

At the center of “Armenian Melodies” is a mother, dressed in vibrant, traditional garb, holding her child. The figures are surrounded by important symbols of Armenian heritage, such as cranes. Cranes are known as “krunk,” which are long-depicted symbols in Armenian art and folklore, organizers said.

Armenian birds play a major role on the float — such as the crane, chukar and the little ringed plover; a bird indigenous to the Armenian Highlands — surrounding the mother and child.

The mother’s dress, called a Taraz, is designed with red Christmas mums, whole pomegranates, dried apricots, cranberry seeds and green Ti leaves. The crane and other birds are decorated with orange lentil, blue and purple statice, red cranberry, lima beans, kidney beans and yellow strawflower. Drums seen on the front and back of the float are made of flax seed, blue and pink statice, black onions, ground rice and other materials.

Float designer Johnny Kanounji, one of the founders of the American Armenian Float Association, said that cranes are often seen as a symbol of hope. He said the float’s design pays respect to both Armenian culture and current events in Armenia. All the float details, down to which fruits are represented on the float, are connected to Armenian lore.

Apricots, one of the fruits, are so often associated with Armenia that Kanounji said they are sometimes called “Armenian apples.” Pomegranates, known as “noor” in Armenian, symbolize good fortune and prosperity, especially in fertility, Kanounji said. Armenian culture is “very matriarchal.”

“The mother symbolizes everything to the Armenian community. She is the root of all that holds the family together,” said Kanounji. “Mothers show daughters what Armenian culture, music, and everything is; passing the torch from mother to daughter.”

Kanounji, a Pasadena resident, said that each year’s parade entry aims to highlight different aspects of Armenian culture, lifestyle, and even Los Angeles County — home to over 200,000 Armenians.

This year’s float called for “nearly $350,000” of fundraising, a feat Kanounji said “wasn’t easy.” But with the amount of money used towards the project, Kanounji said he wants to make sure to design thoughtful floats each year.

Past parade entries from the American Armenian Float Association have also won awards — including the President’s trophy — in 2015, 2017 and 2018, respectfully.

“We like to give back to the community,” Kanounji said. “We want to engage our people. So this has become its own community… it’s a happy occasion, not a sad occasion… we’re saying ‘Hey, we’re here.’”

Lana Ghazarian, Sarineh’s daughter, said the float’s continued presence is “a big deal because of what’s happening right now in Armenia.”

The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh — known as Artsakh to Armenians — is in the middle of a decades-long feud between the ethnic Armenians who live and have organized there, and Azerbaijan, according to Reuters. Though Nagorno-Karabakh is geographically recognized as part of Azerbaijan, tensions in the area have risen over the past year, after reports of increasing military presence and road blockades cutting off access to goods. In September, Azerbaijan forces conducted a deadly attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, causing almost all Armenian people to flee.

“It shows how us Armenians care and that we’re strong,” Lana Ghazarian, 12, said. “We’re such a small country, and representing ourselves shows who we really are. It makes me feel really proud because (of) our community coming and helping; (it) shows how we care about the people that are struggling right now.”

Her brother Alex Ghazarian, 13, said that the mother depicted on the float, holding her child, shows “how strong the Armenian women are during the war right now, and how they took care of family members.”

The “Armenian Melodies” float pays homage to the “tapestry” of the Armenian spirit, volunteers say, while staying in the Rose Parade’s overall musical theme.

Traditional woodwind instruments are heavily featured — such as the duduk, shvi, blul and parkapzuk — some of which are native to the Armenian Highlands. The blul is deeply rooted in pastoral traditions, according to Kanounji. The crane, seen at the front of the float, plays a duduk, similar to a flute.

The dhol and nagara, both percussion instruments, round out the float’s “floral orchestra,” organizers said.

The float’s most prominent colors are red, blue and orange, representing the Armenian flag. Organizers said the purposeful use of forget-me-not flowers serves as a reminder of the Armenian genocide of 1915. Many local Armenians fear another Armenian genocide could happen in Artsakh.

“What’s happening in Armenia is not very good,” volunteer Haig Nahapetian, 14, reflected. “There’s a lot of Armenians living in this area, especially Glendale… so representing Armenia on television is always great.”

https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2023/12/29/rose-parade-2024-armenian-melodies-float-pays-tribute-to-heritage-motherhood-and-struggle/ fbclid=IwAR1JEqfPuCDpF28s0TNYC_9WCYmM4YnF-EpqeCnFiuil2-NfEdQaFTlnNeo

In a recent joint press conference, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov contradicted the views of his Armenian counterpart on the topic of troop withdrawal from the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. This response came following a statement by the Armenian Foreign Minister, in which he expressed hope for continued discussions on troop withdrawal, suggesting that it could prevent potential escalations.

Bayramov highlighted the complexity of the issue, arguing that selectively presenting elements discussed in negotiations can lead to misunderstanding. He pointed out that the Azerbaijan-Armenia border has not been delimited, which further complicates matters. The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister asserted that without a comprehensive agreement, troop withdrawal could risk positions being retaken.

Bayramov further stated that a proposal for troop withdrawal was unacceptable to Azerbaijan, underscoring that the Azerbaijani Army is tasked with protecting the country’s borders. He emphasized that this was not a position arrived at through goodwill or invitation, but a duty reclaimed after 30 years of sacrifice. Bayramov stressed that the protection of Azerbaijan’s borders lies solely with its own soldiers and cannot be entrusted to a third party.

Bayramov urged Armenia to consider Azerbaijan’s constructive proposals for positive developments. The press conference also covered a variety of other topics, including additional flight delays from Baku to Nakhchivan, political developments in Russia, incidents in other regions, and weather conditions.

In other related news, a prisoner exchange was successfully executed, as announced by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Facebook. The exchange involved 32 servicemen captured by Azerbaijan since 2020 who are now back in Armenia. Initial Azerbaijani reports indicated the exchange would take place along the Ijevan-Kazakh stretch of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, involving two captured Azerbaijani prisoners. This release forms part of a deal announced last week in a rare joint statement between the two countries, which included Armenia dropping its veto of Azerbaijan hosting next year’s COP29 UN Climate Change Conference.

• December 12, 2023

 

• 0 Comments

 

• BY Nikola Mikovic

“If you want peace, prepare for war”, says the ancient adage. Although Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to normalize relations, and possibly even sign a peace deal by the end of the year, the two South Caucasus countries continue strengthening their military capabilities.

Over the years, Azerbaijan has been purchasing weapons from its ally Turkey, as well as from Israel. Even though Armenia is Russia’s nominal ally in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in 2009-2011 Moscow sold $5 billion worth of tanks, artillery systems and anti-tank missile systems to Baku. Rumors are flying that the energy-rich Caspian nation now plans to buy 48 self-propelled Nora-B52 howitzers from Serbia – a country that actively armed both Azerbaijan and Armenia prior to the Second Karabakh War in 2020.

Yerevan, for its part, recently started buying weapons from India, as well as from NATO member France. More importantly, the landlocked former Soviet republic, despite being a CSTO member, seeks to develop close military cooperation with the United States and Great Britain.

On the other hand, both Armenia and Azerbaijan are showing signs that they might be ready to bury the hatchet and open a new chapter in their relations. On December 7, the two archenemies made a surprising move by issuing a joint statement, claiming that they agreed to seize “a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region”, hoping to sign a peace treaty before the end of the year.

They have also made a “goodwill gesture”, and exchanged war prisoners. Azerbaijan released 32 detained Armenian military servicemen for two Azerbaijani soldiers. Still, according to the California-based Center for Truth and Justice, during the 44-day war in 2020, as well as the Azerbaijani September 2023 offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, some 200 Armenian civilians and military personnel were captured, which means that the POW issue between the two countries is yet to be fully resolved.

But in spite of that, all major global and regional actors – Russia, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, and the United States – welcomed the progress Baku and Yerevan have made towards peace. Since Azerbaijan reportedly refuses to negotiate with Armenia on Western platforms, and neither side seems to see Russia as a potential guarantor of peace, it is entirely possible that a peace deal will be signed in neighboring Georgia, or somewhere at the border between the two countries.

Such a move would undoubtedly allow both nations to freely claim that the normalization of their relations did not come as a result of foreign powers’ pressure. In reality, however, Russia and the West, as well as other actors, will continue to struggle for influence in the strategically important region.

But what would a peace treaty mean for Armenia and Azerbaijan?

According to most recent polls, 78 percent of Azerbaijanis support a peace deal with Armenia, while in June 2022, 89 percent of Armenians opposed any deal with Baku that would mean the end of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. It remains unclear if a new geopolitical reality – where Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty over Artsakh (which is the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh) – had an impact on the Armenian population’s attitude regarding a peace deal with Baku, although the authorities in Yerevan seem determined to normalize relations with Azerbaijan at any cost.

“We simply wasted 30 years and spent our time and resources on a problem that was intractable from the beginning”, said Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, talking about Nagorno-Karabakh – a region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, that was under Armenian control for almost three decades.

Now that the Karabakh issue is resolved in Azerbaijani favor, Pashinyan seems to have more room to make deals with Baku. But the problem for Armenia, as a defeated party, is that it will almost certainly have to make more concessions to Azerbaijan.

The energy-rich nation will undoubtedly pressure Yerevan to make “goodwill gestures” regarding a border delimitation, which means that up to 200 square kilometers of Armenian territory could belong to Azerbaijan. Moreover, Baku is unlikely to easily give up on its aspirations to have a direct land link between mainland Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan through southern Armenian province of Syunik, bordering Iran.

Quite aware of that, Armenia’s decision to purchase weapons from France and India could be interpreted not only as Yerevan’s attempt to distance itself from Russia, but also as preparation for a potential conflict with Azerbaijan over Syunik. Alternatively, the authorities in Armenia could use the arms import as a camouflage, aiming to create an illusion at home that they are not willing to give up on their border with Iran, while in reality they might allow Azerbaijan to have a corridor to Nakhchivan, and further to Turkey.

One thing is for sure: Baku and Yerevan really have a “historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region”, although it is highly uncertain how long that peace will last.

Armenia shot from relative obscurity to global prominence recently over tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan. But there is another reason to pay attention to this rugged, mountainous country: it’s fast evolving tech sector.

It has emerged as a tech powerhouse with the presence of global players and a vibrant startup ecosystem. And while the country remains politically close to Russia and Iran as a counterbalance to hostile neighbors on the west (Turkey) and the east (Azerbaijan), it’s private sector remains firmly fixed on the West, particularly the United States with its near million-strong Armenian diaspora.

“We consider ourselves a network nation,” said Rem Darbinyan, founder of a startup called Viral Mango, which matches brands to influencers around the world. “We have generations of Armenians living overseas.”

In October, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was in the vibrant capital Yereven to speak at the country’s Silicon Mountains conference and open a new Adobe building. Across town, dozens of startups displayed their innovations at the annual Digitec expo. Already, the small, landlocked country has produced one unicorn (Picsart) with more on the way.

With the snowcapped summit of distant Mount Ararat – the Armenian national symbol that rises across the border in Turkey – visible on clear days, Yerevan is filled with sophisticated restaurants crowded with tables of young tech entrepreneurs drinking apricot brandy and eating platters of stuffed grape leaves as they discuss the latest innovations.

Various indexes show Armenia as the emerging tech powerhouse of the Southern Caucasus region, a legacy of its role as one of the Soviet Union’s top technology centers – the USSR’s first general-purpose computers were developed there in the early 1960s

That history faltered during the breakup of the Union and the subsequent war with Azerbaijan to define Armenia’s national borders – a conflict that continues to reverberate today. But, Armenia recovered and has drawn on the success of its diaspora in the United States to become one of the strongest economies in the region.

People like Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of biotechnology powerhouse Moderna, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and Avie Tevanian, former CTO of Apple and creator of the macOS operating system, have all remained connected to the country.

Following its independence in 1991, Armenia began developing as a behind-the-scenes builder of software for Western companies, many founded by Armenians. But gradually, it has climbed the value chain to produce products of its own.

That trend only accelerated with the outbreak of Russia’s war with Ukraine which drove companies from both countries to relocate to Yerevan. The subsequent influx of capital drove up the Armenian dram against the dollar, hurting the competitiveness of the country’s outsource industry. Meanwhile, a small venture capital industry coalesced to fund tech development and today startups can raise as much as $1 million domestically before turning to VCs abroad.

Consequently, the country’s economy is booming – with projected 7 percent growth this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, making it the fastest growing economy in the region.

Many places in the world have developed technology hubs and startup ecosystems, but for Armenia it’s a matter of survival.

“The future of Armenian economic development in science-based, high-margin products,” the country’s minister of high-tech industry, Robert Khachatryan, told Forbes. He explained that because the country is landlocked, logistics costs mean it cannot export physical goods at competitive prices.

The tech industry is now the country’s the fastest-growing sector, expanding by more than 30 percent in 2023, surpassing resource extraction and agriculture as the primary drivers of the economy. And it is drawing foreign investment. Besides Adobe, many of the world’s most powerful technology firms have set up shop there, including Microsoft, Google, IBM and Cisco.

Artificial intelligence, of course, is the hot technology on offer. Picsart, a photo and video editing platform launched in 2011, has a team of data scientists building the company’s own generative AI foundation model. Krisp, a more recent startup, uses artificial intelligence to change the accents of Filipino and Indian English speakers in real time into plain midwestern U.S. pronunciation – a product it markets to call centers serving North America.

At the DigiTec expo, dozens of startups displayed their AI wares, from Viral Mango with a platform that matches influencers to brands, to Orders.co whose AI software, at the touch of a button, creates interactive menus for restaurants who want to integrate with food delivery services.

Armenia was late getting on the AI bandwagon but is catching up fast. While the country’s university system was strong on math, there were few machine-learning faculty available to guide students in 2016, when machine learning was already sweeping computer-science departments in the west. Hrant Khachatrian, a young researcher, and four friends rented an apartment in the capital and huddled around a single GPU to start exploring on their own.

The community and number GPUs grew into one of Armenia’s first AI labs: YerevaNN. By 2019 YerevaNN was publishing papers in top AI conferences, including Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR).

Universities began catching up, establishing graduate programs in AI. Today, Khachatrian is working with Yerevan State University to fold YerevaNN into a new AI lab being set up by the university, finally giving students there a place to conduct research.

The AI research community in Armenia has grown to over 600 people. However, a lack of compute resources threatens its competitiveness. GPUs are hard to come by and expensive when they are available.

That’s where the private sector comes in. Venture capital and Western connections among the country’s entrepreneurs are helping startups build products despite the hardware constraints.

"We now have venture funds in Armenia,” said Narek Vardanyan, CEO of Prelaunch.com, a validation platform creators can use to gauge market demand for their products before developing them. “Previously, Armenian companies had to go to Silicon Valley, for early-stage funding, we can raise $2 million to $3 million with Armenian funds."

The community is also focused on building human capital with private initiatives such as Armath (a contraction of Armenia and Math), sponsored by the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE), which runs engineering labs across Armenia for students as young as 10.

At a village school in the countryside north of Yerevan, bright-eyed middle-school students gather in a classroom to demonstrate their projects – one, a shoebox-sized ‘smart home,’ with a keypad lock, smoke detector and automated lighting cobbled together with sensors, LED lights and bits of wire. Along a windowsill, a row of potted plants are fed by a student-built automatic irrigation system. The students, meanwhile, work at monitors attached to pocket-sized Rasberry Pi computers.

“In Armath, everything is open source and it’s all project-based learning," explained Arevik Hovhannisyan, a teacher. "The goal is to have the kids understand the basics of engineering, and maybe decide to become an engineer."

Armath works as a public-private partnership – companies sponsor the labs, which are then donated to schools where local government pays for their operation. So far, UATE has established more than 650 labs across Armenia and exported the model to several other countries.

In the far north of the country, sandwiched between steep mountain slopes, students at another program gather in the evening for folk dances and to show off their projects. This is Real School, another UATE initiative, a four-year vocational program for high schoolers, giving them hands on experience building technology solutions.

Back in the capital, kids 12 to 18 can attend TUMO, an extracurricular bootcamp where they learn to program and build software. The interior feels more like a well-funded tech company than a school, with custom-designed workstations on wheels and a carpeted, amphitheater-style meeting place. “We show them that everything can be created by them on their own,” said Zara Budaghyan, a TUMO graduate herself.

Another initiative, AI Generation, hopes to embed machine-learning education in high schools across the country. Initially funded by Moderna cofounder Noubar Afeyan, AI Generation already has hundreds of students enrolled in high schools in 16 cities hoping to develop artificial intelligence researchers and engineers.

“We want to show Armenian tech ecosystem on the map of like world market,” said Sargis Karapetyan, a tech entrepreneur and UATE’s interim CEO, adding that the country needs more outside capital. “Another target are people who are looking to open branches in Armenia, to expand and find good talent.”

Craig S. Smith is a former correspondent and executive at The New York Times. He is host of the podcast Eye on A.I. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/craigsmith/2023/12/08/soviet-mainframes-to-silicon-mountains-armenia-as-a-tech-powerhouse/?sh=7082ce4734aa