Category: 2018

Cryptocurrency Boom: Armenia Set to Be Home to 50 MW Mining Farm

Paul Hambardsumian
Sputnik, Russia
Feb 7 2018
© Sputnik/ Vladimir Astapkovich
                               

Cryptocurrency fever seems to have spread to the former Soviet republics with Armenia, the land of Mount Ararat, being one of them.

Armenia will soon boast a mining farm, involving a data center technically equipped for mining bitcoins as well as other digital currencies. It is first projected to have 50 MW capacity, potentially reaching 200 MW, which is to be supplied by the Razdanskaya thermal power plant, according to a report by ECOS-M, the mining equipment distributor.

The report further reveals that the mining center is now under construction and is due to be launched in April.

Earlier, Armenian Blockchain Forum reported that Armenia was planning to come up with a free economic zone to host a top-notch technology center – the republic’s "Silicon Valley". ABF remarked that the newly created cluster would aim to set up and regulate the infrastructure  for Armenia to develop block-chain-, and  AI-based hi-tech projects as well as those connected with computer-assisted learning.

© AFP 2018/ JACK GUEZ
Don't Rush to Lay Bitcoin to Rest: Analyst Explains the Benefit of Its Fall

According to the company, the first half of 2018 will see the construction of an international accelerator which will serve as a platform for the launch and development of innovative international projects, based on blockchain technology.

The estimates by ABF suggest the prospective ecosystem will create 250-300 well-paid jobs and attract as much as 120 million dollars of investment.

Igor Khalatian: We wish to help those who decide to stay in Armenia

Maral Chavushian
MediaMax, Armenia
Feb 7 2018
 
 
Igor Khalatian: We wish to help those who decide to stay in Armenia
 
 
 
On February 5 Science and Technology Angels Network (STAN), created by the initiative of the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), started its operation in Armenia. This initiative unites 18 investors and entrepreneurs of Armenian descent from Armenia and other countries.
 
Among Co-chairs of STAN is Vice-President of Oracle and founder of a number of startups Igor Khalatian, who climbed Mount Everest in 2002.
 
Mediamax talked to Igor Khalatian on STAN and prospects of IT development in Armenia.
 
Why did you decide to join STAN and what issues you hope to tackle with the help of this network?
 
I’ve been in this sphere for a long time now, and I observed that there is a lot of talent in Armenian IT.
 
Whenever I come to Armenia, many people approach saying: “We have this idea, how can we take it to the next level?” And I understand that some people have really great ideas, they are very good software developers, but they are lacking some components for really being successful: different aspects in patent law, sells, marketing, etc.
Taking into consideration all the mentioned, we decided to supplement our knowledge to Armenian startups and fund projects which we believe have future. Our goal is to become “a pipeline to success”, find the best ideas and develop them further so that Armenia becomes a known destination for IT and science.

I believe that Armenians have a great talent in this area. For example, why Armenians play chess so well? It’s hard to explain but there is something in the brain, which makes them best chess players.

Similarly, Armenians definitely have a talent in tech area. I see great potential here. That’s why it makes sense to create this structure and support them.
 
You were a startup founder too some time ago. How easy was it to find investors?

Yes, I started my own company in New York. I also went for different funds, which existed in U.S. They liked and funded the idea.

In U.S. there are many, many choices, but it is never easy, you have to convince them that your idea is the best.

KfW to provide Armenia with 5 million euro grant for pilot agriculture insurance project

Emil Lazarian
ARKA, Armenia
Feb 7 2018

YEREVAN, February 7. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan received today a delegation led by German Ambassador to Armenia Bernhard Matthias Kiesler, the government said. It said the delegation consisted of representatives of German Development Bank (KfW), MF Strategy, MicroInsurance Centre and AgroConsulting, and Re and Agroinsurance International (Switzerland) reinsurance organization.

Following the tender announced by the KfW Bank, a consortium consisting of the aforementioned 3 companies was selected to prepare a pilot agricultural insurance program in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Armenia.

Thanking the German government for assistance with the initiative, Karen Karapetyan expressed readiness to expand cooperation in other related spheres as well. Presenting the reforms underway in this field, the Prime Minister noted that his government’s goal is to have an efficacious and smart farming sector, with insurance being one of its key components. The Premier said in order to reduce the risks, a pilot project for introduction of anti-hail missile systems is being implemented in Armenia.

According to the German Ambassador, the agricultural insurance program is innovative and promising, and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is ready to continue assisting the Armenian government in all areas of mutual interest. KfW representative Monica Guntner welcomed the Government’s commitment to implement sustainable long-term development projects in the agricultural sector, noting that the German Development Bank is keen to build close ties of cooperation with Armenia and implement prospective initiatives.

The interlocutors exchanged views on the relevant action plan and the agenda of the forthcoming discussions between the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture, the Central Bank, insurance market representatives and international experts.

KfW will provide a 5 million euro grant for the pilot project, which will be co-financed to the same extent from the State budget of the Republic of Armenia. The proceeds will be used to subsidize insurance payments. -0-

 

17:16 07.02.2018

Hamdan Azhar: What I saw in Armenia I had never seen anywhere else

Anna Tamamian
iTel.am, Armenia
Feb 7 2018
Hamdan Azhar: What I saw in Armenia I had never seen anywhere else


Hamdan Azhar, former Lead Data Scientist at Facebook and current Chief Scientist at Zap.org, was in the international delegation of bitcoin experts, which arrived in Armenia at the end of January this year. Within the frames of this visit, Hamdan Azhar gave an exclusive interview to Itel.am.

People often stay away from buying bitcoin, since it’s quite expensive. In your view, is it a right approach?

That is the biggest misconception about bitcoins. People think 1 bitcoin is the smallest possible value, but you can buy up to one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. It’s called one satoshi.

Where can we spend cryptocurrency? How can one use it in daily life?   

People didn’t know what bitcoin was 4 years ago. Now there are many platforms, which accept payments in bitcoin. You can even get discounted present cards available in online resources with bitcoin.

Using bitcoin is an educational exercise. You need to teach people about bitcoin. I often pay for taxi in bitcoin. For example, our driver in a London taxi didn’t know about bitcoin. We told him what it was and he was so excited that he asked to get payed in bitcoin.

What are your further plans relating to Armenia?

We want to do a lot of things in Armenia, including supporting the Armenian economy and making this country the world center of cryptocurrency. Why not? People are smart here, they speak several languages, and the government is forward looking. We think Armenia should be tech, innovation and cryptocurrency hub.

We have been to many countries so far and I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere. The past doesn’t always define the future, so future can often be better than the past. Armenia was a place for worship as long as thousands of years ago. Now this should become a cryptocurrency research hub.

We need the help of the Armenian people in this issue, and we are committed to cooperating with those interested in bringing this goal into reality.
 
Within the frames of your meetings in Armenia, have you already found out how many people are involved in mining and how many of them have already got cryptocurrency?

We don’t know the exact number of people working in the field here, but I guess many people in Armenia are involved in mining, as electricity is cheaper here than in many places in the world.

Every event we attended was crowded with people interested in the sector.

We met with the motivated and excited youngsters at Tumo. Another 200 people attended our event at American University of Armenia (AUA). We went to Armenian National Assembly, and there were lines of MPs, eager to talk to us.

There are a number of cryptocurrencies around the world. Are those in competition?

Not at all. Over 3000 cryptocurrencies aren’t competing with each other. Founders of the cryptocurrencies are acquaintances; they go to conferences and hold discussions together. We are all involved in the same race, and we work together to make the world decentralized.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Hamdan Azhar


First Armenian organization registered in REX system for exporters

Jane Topchian
ARKA, Armenia
Feb 7 2018

YEREVAN, February 7. /ARKA/. An Armenian company has become the first organization to get registration in Registered Exporter System – REX, operating as part of the European Union’s GSP+ trade preference scheme, and has received an appropriate certificate, the press office of the Armenian economic development and investments ministry reported on Tuesday.   

REX electronic system was introduced in Armenia in January 2018. 

Registration in the system allows exporting goods to the European Union under GSP+ scheme without a certificate on country of origin. 

Along with application of REX system, the certificate on country of origin may be provided within 12 months of transition to those exporters who have not registered in the system yet.  

The registration is carried out by the Armenian economic development and investments ministry for free. 
Armenia enjoys GSP+ preferences scheme from January 1, 2014. 

Formal membership of a country in 27 international conventions is almost enough to grant it GSP+ preferences.

Art: Meet the Armenian artist turning food into fashion illustrations

Rose Khoyetsian
SBS, Australia
Feb 6 2018
 
 
Meet the Armenian artist turning food into fashion illustrations
If you’ve ever wondered what wearing orange peel would look like, Edgar Artis' Instagram account for you.
 
By  Lucy Rennick
Orange peel, browned apple slices, lychee skin: to most people, these things are compost items, or even worse, rubbish. To Paris-based Armenian artist Edgar Artis, however, they’re much more than that.

Artis creates takes everyday items and food scraps and uses them to augment distinct, pencil-drawn fashion illustrations, blurring the lines between art, fashion and food. 

“I would describe my work as a way of showing the beauty of the simplest things around us that we may not notice,” Artis tells SBS. The 23-year-old is a self-taught artist, studying a Bachelor of Fashion Design and Technology at IFA Paris.

He explains his Instagram account is both a site for experimentation and something that he hopes will inspire others to make art.

And, really, who wouldn’t be inspired by pancake fashion?

Or banana fashion?

Artis uses food to tell stories, and to show his followers how beautiful life can be. “It is quite fun to work with foods that give shape to my 2D drawings,” he says, “But my favourite material is flowers, because they are very soft and fragile. It’s pure beauty. Nature is innocent. I love the innocence.” His work includes finely crafted prawn ball gowns, skirts made out of hot chips and croissant tutus, but his favourite work is War of A Thousand Feelings, made out of metal nut, bolts and screws.
“Sometimes we get bullied, criticised and people want to see us down, and we have to dress the amor to protect ourselves and go through it,” the caption reads. “She is dancing and she is in a war with her feelings, but she keeps on fighting cause she craves to win and find the piece inside.”

For Artis, the next step is to take his skills off Instagram and into the real world of fashion. “I want to start creating real clothing,” he says. “I’m studying everything about [it] at IFA Paris, so I hope soon you will see more interesting objects. I also want to collaborate with other artists and photographers. I have some crazy ideas which I hope will turn into reality.”

 Look out, Karl Lagerfeld.

 Follow Edgar Artis on Instagram.

See more of the Instagram photos at https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2018/02/07/meet-armenian-artist-turning-food-fashion-illustrations


Art: Exhibition of artwork by Armenian sculptor to take place at Tretyakov Gallery

Rose Khoyetsian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 7 2018

Russia's Tretyakov Gallery announced today a solo exhibition of the sculptor Nikolai Nikogossian for the first time, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of his birth.

"This ambitious demonstration will allow museum patrons to appraise N.B. Nikogossian's excellence not only as a sculptor but also as a painter, as the latter persona has been virtually unknown to the general public so far," the Gallery said in a release. 

According to the source, the exhibition will include portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, and still-lifes – in all, 60 canvases from the master's family collection.

In addition, 10 graphic sheets will be put on display, as well as 63 sculptured works from the family collection and the Tretyakov Gallery funds.

To note, works of Nikolai Nikogossian – painter, graphic artist, teacher, People's Artist of Armenia (1977) People's Artist of the USSR (1982), winner of USSR State Prize (1977) – have entered the "golden fund" of the Soviet art. They are in the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia the State Art gallery of Armenia, in the art museums of former Soviet Union
During his long life, Nikolai Nikogossian created more than 200 busts (in bronze, wood and marble), 600 oil paintings and 3000 charcoal drawings.

Among these works – well-known sculptural portraits of Gorky, G.V.Sviridov, Shostakovich, Komitas, images of Shirakatsi, the composition "Maya Plisetskaya," "toilers of the Ararat Valley" as well as number of outstanding works of monumental sculpture: the monuments of Avetik Isahakyan in Gyumri, Yeghishe Charents in Yerevan, etc.

Sports: FIFA World Cup trophy is in Armenia

Adrine Hakobian
News.am, Armenia
Feb 7 2018

By Lusine Shahbazyan

YEREVAN. – FIFA World Cup trophy is in Armenia for the first time in history.

The Cup was presented by the 1998 FIFA World Cup champion, former French squad footballer Christian Karembeu.

Speaking during a presentation Karambeu said 20 years ago he also won this trophy with his teammates from the French national team. He also added that there were two players of the Armenian origin in that team Youri Djorkaeff and Alain Boghossian.

“I hope one day Mkhitaryan and Ghazaryan will be bring the World Cup to Armenia,” he said.

Since 2006, FIFA has been organizing a tour ahead of the World Cup. This year the Cup will be presented in 50 countries, among which Armenia is the 24th.

The World Cup Cup tour in Yerevan will start with a press conference, with a unique opportunity to see the cup and ask the organizers questions about the tour. The press conference will be followed by a public showcase of the Cup, which will take place at 4-5 p.m. Wednesday in Liberty Square and will be open to visitors.

Only world champions and heads of states have the right to touch the Cup. During a closed event organized in Yerevan, Armenian President will receive the trophy from Christian Karembeu. 

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan

Book: Akçam’s New Book ‘Killing Orders’ Destroys Turkish Government’s Armenian Genocide Denial Strategy

Liana Toganian
 Armenian Weekly
Feb 7 2018
 
 
Akçam’s New Book ‘Killing Orders’ Destroys Turkish Government’s Armenian Genocide Denial Strategy
 
By Contributor on February 7, 2018 in Books & Art
 
The cover of Killing Orders (Cover: Palgrave)
 
WORCESTER, Mass.—Turkey has always denied the Armenian Genocide carried out by the Ottoman Government beginning in 1915. While decades of scholarly research has decisively established the systematic annihilation of Armenians, the scarcity of direct evidence has allowed the Turkish government to persist in its denial.
 
In his groundbreaking new book, Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide, which was published on Jan. 23, Clark University historian Taner Akçam destroys the Turkish government’s denial strategy. Akçam includes a recently discovered document, a “smoking gun,” which points to the Ottoman government’s central role in planning the elimination of its Armenian population. Furthermore, he successfully demonstrates that the killing orders signed by Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha, which the Turkish Government has long discredited, are authentic.
 
Akçam, described as “the Sherlock Holmes of Armenian Genocide” in an April 2017 New York Times article, made these landmark discoveries in a private archive. He argues that the documents he has uncovered remove a cornerstone from the denialist edifice, and definitively prove the historicity of the Armenian Genocide.
 
“Successive Turkish governments have gone to great lengths to ensure that evidence of the intent to extinguish the Armenian people could not be located,” said Akçam. “These findings are ‘an earthquake in the field of genocide studies.’ They will make it impossible for the Turkish Government to continue to deny the Armenian Genocide.”
 
Dirk Moses of the University of Sydney, Australia, says the book is “essential reading for all those interested in Genocide and Human Rights Studies.”
 
Taner Akçam (Photo: Rupen Janbazian)
 
Akçam holds the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. An internationally recognized human rights activist, Akçam was one of the first Turkish intellectuals to acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian Genocide. Akcam has lectured widely and published numerous articles and books, translated into many languages.
 
His book, The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire (2012), was co-winner of the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Book Award and one of ForeignAffairs.com’s “Best Books on the Middle East.”
 
Akçam’s many honors include the Hrant Dink Spirit of Freedom and Justice Medal from the Organization of Istanbul Armenians and the Hrant Dink Freedom Award from the Armenian Bar Association (both in 2015); the ‘Heroes of Justice and Truth’ awarded at the Armenian Genocide Centennial commemoration in May 2015. The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) recognized him as a Friend of the Armenians in 2016. In May, he will receive the 2018 Outstanding Upstander Award from organization World Without Genocide.
 
Killing Orders is available for purchase on Amazon.
 

Master Rubik: We are people with art and crafts, but it seems as if we have forgotten that, being busy with eating

Emil Lazarian
  • 19:09 | February 6,2018 | Culture
  • Հայ
  • Рус

Master Rubik has been making duduk, zurna, flute, bagpipe, blul and pku for 54 years. He started from flute.

He made it, learnt by himself and started playing in a self-employed group. Then he was invited to the Ensemble of the House of Trade.

As instrument acquisition was a big problem, he began to make them for musicians.

“By gradually preparing me, I was able to master the musicians’ desires,” says Master Ruby. And when I prepared a shade for Vache Hovsepyan, the radio authorities began to inquire and order the tool. And so did master Rubik. ”

“Gradually, by making the instruments, hearing the musicians wishes and realizing them, I mastered,” says master Rubik. ” And when I prepared a flute for Vache Hovsepyan, the radio authorities started ordering instruments. So, I became master Rubik.”

He has been awarded with silver and gold medals by the Ministries of Culture of Russia and Armenia, and presented 65 instruments at the exhibition organized in France.

 

Master Rubik says that every instrument has the peculiarity and the secret of its preparation. For example, an important condition for making a good duduk is that the apricot tree should grow on dry, unstable soil. The master needs to be energized before working, so that the instrument had a good sound.

“The Armenian instruments should speak Armenian. No matter how much a Frenchman plays the duduk, he does not play like an Armenian. Even the Armenian who has not grown up in Armenia will not be able to play well.”

Master Rubik is concerned about the lack of students.

“This age-old masters slowly pass away, but who knows who will replace them tomorrow?”

Master Rubik does not understand how much TV courses can be spent for cooking. “We are people with art and crafts, but it seems as if we have forgotten that, being busy with eating.”