Category: 2023

May 5 2023

Ancient vines, new wines.

The first wine bar to open in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, in 2012 seemed destined to fail. In Vino’s location on sleepy Saryan Street did it no favors; it was surrounded by electronics stores. And then there was the drinking culture, a legacy of Soviet times: Modern Armenians were hopelessly hooked on fruit vodka. Worse still, the wine bar’s then-19-year-old cofounder, Mariam Saghatelyan, had “only about 10 drinkable Armenian bottles” to offer.

“People would open the door, walk in, and say, ‘Oh, wine?’ and then leave,” says Saghatelyan. “Even the people whose wine we were selling told us it was never going to work.”

And yet, work it did. In fact, In Vino’s success helped launch a renaissance in Armenian wine.

A decade later, those who arrive early enough to secure a table at the wine bar can choose from more than 250 Armenian bottles. Millennials on date nights throng the twice-weekly wine tastings. And Saryan Street? “It’s a see-and-be-seen kind of place,” Aimee Keushguerian, a winemaker and managing director at the Armenian winery incubator WineWorks, told me as we sat together at In Vino watching Saghatelyan entertain the crowds. “Actually, they call it ‘Wine Street’ now,” she added, since all the electronics stores have been replaced by bottle shops, cafés, and wine-forward restaurants.

Trinity Canyon Vineyards offers a traditional feast at its winery. 

2492 TRAVEL

“It’s only in the last decade that we’ve been making quality wine, but we have incredibly old vines and grapes you won’t find anywhere else on earth,” Keushguerian said.

Armenians like to say that Noah crash-landed his biblical ark at Mount Ararat, the snowcapped volcano looming over Yerevan, before planting the earth’s first vineyards. Whether that’s fact or fable became irrelevant following the 2007 discovery of a 6,100-year-old winery—the world’s oldest—in a cave in Areni, 90 minutes south of the capital. The dig at Areni-1, as the cave is known, yielded clay vessels, a grape press, and bulbous fermentation vats called karases, all hidden within soaring cliffs, predating the first Egyptian pyramids by some 1,500 years.

Excitement over the discovery prompted the government to fund winemaking as a potential economic driver, using the nation’s history and 400-plus native grape varietals as a way to attract fresh talent. Over the past decade, cash and expertise have poured in from Armenia’s vast 7-million-strong diaspora, sowing the seeds for what is today a flourishing industry.

Nowhere is that more apparent than at Decant, a new bottle shop on Saryan Street, where you find innovation at play in bottles like Yacoubian-Hobbs’ Sarpina (crafted from an Armenian red grape, Areni), Krya’s Indigenous Blend (made using native yeasts and rare white varietals like Dolband and Garan Dmak), and Khme’s Karasi Orange (an amber skin-contact wine aged in clay amphorae).

“Armenia may be a very culturally conservative nation, but when it comes to wine, we’re not conservative at all,” said Decant’s owner, Artyom Mkrtchyan. He explained that, unlike neighboring Georgia, which has seamlessly carried its winemaking tradition from antiquity into the 21st century, Armenia begrudgingly pivoted to brandy amid the planned economy of the Soviet era (1920–1991). The decades-long disruption, he believed, may offer a surprising advantage: Armenian winemakers today are now less constrained by convention.

I sampled some of Mkrtchyan’s weekly wine picks and then followed the Wine Map of Armenia he gave me out to the encyclopedic new Wine History Museum of Armenia in the Aragatsotn province. Then, I spent a few days strolling Yerevan’s large, tree-lined boulevards, exploring, one meal at a time, how the rebirth of Armenian wine complemented a similar awakening in the city’s restaurants.

Bottles line the walls at In Vino. 

DAVID DANIELYAN

At Mayrig, I found the beloved western Armenian specialty manti, tiny lamb dumplings that were latticed together almost like the textiles strung across the walls. At trendy Lavash, I found the labor-intensive dish ghapama, a whole stuffed pumpkin sweet with dried fruits, nuts, and rice, all cooked in a tandoor-like tonir oven. And everywhere I went, including the innovative yet cozy Tsaghkunk Restaurant, hidden behind stone walls in the countryside near Lake Sevan, I couldn’t help but order yet another round of tolma, stuffed grape leaves.

Each dish spoke to Yerevan’s 2,800-year history as a hub on ancient trade routes between Asia and Europe. Paired with Armenian wines, they showcased the growing appeal of Armenia’s capital, a city bubbling with innovation, yet grounded in a deep-rooted identity.

“Wine is not just a drink for us,” says Narine Ghazaryan, co-owner of Momik Wines. “It’s part of our history, so we have a duty to protect it and show it to the world.” At her tasting room, which lies within sight of the Areni-1 cave in the Vayots Dzor province (a two-hour drive south of the capital), Ghazaryan does just that, exhibiting the town’s namesake Areni grape in both plummy reds and cherry-hinted rosés. Nearby Trinity Canyon Vineyards offers tastings of its natural and karas-aged bottles (including Voskehat Ancestors, an amber wine with hints of apricot) alongside traditional khorovats, feasts of grilled meats and vegetables, flatbreads, and more. Armenian travel company 2492 runs an immersive Wild Food Adventure high on a grassy clifftop overlooking the 13th-century Noravank Monastery. Three-course meals, served alfresco, include regional specialties such as horats panir, a nutty goat cheese aged underground in clay pots. Paired wines come from adjacent vineyards.

Visitors from the U.S. can fly to Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport through European hubs like Paris or Frankfurt via airlines including Air France and Lufthansa, or through Middle Eastern hubs such as Doha or Dubai with Qatar Airways and Emirates. Visit armenia.travel and visityerevan.am for more information and resources for planning your trip.

Named for Armenia’s beloved flatbread, which bakes in a tonir oven, Lavash offers a tour de force of regional gastronomy, serving delicacies like ghapama (pumpkin stuffed with rice and dried fruits).

Mayrig prepares dishes like manti (lamb dumplings), which originated in areas of present-day Turkey. Walls lined with intricate carpets and vibrant ceramics give the place an unmistakably local character.

Theatrical degustation-menu restaurants have recently popped up in Yerevan, including this newcomer from chef Karen Khachatryan, who plates dishes evoking a journey through the Armenian landscape.

Celebrated chef Arev Martirosyan decamped from the city to the nearby countryside to run this destination restaurant, a haven for progressive heritage cuisine located in a former canteen for Soviet farmers.

Hidden on an unassuming alleyway near English Park, this “library” holds the largest photographic collection in the Caucasus. It’s also an art gallery, coworking space, and bohemian cocktail lounge.

There’s a perennial waitlist for the seven intimate tables at this cocktail bar decorated in bold murals from painter Minas Avetisyan.

The flagship cocktail bar of brandy giant Ararat is home to career bartenders who possess the flair of a circus act.

Yerevan’s first true international luxury hotel, opened in 2019, has an unrivaled contemporary polish with gold and silver accents, Armenian cross-stone designs, and geometric decor. Rooms from $350, marriott.com

This property has the opulence to match its 100-year-old facade yet is wholly modern with contemporary art, an interior patio, and a rooftop pool. Rooms from $110, grandhotelyerevan.com

Pairing high design with low prices, the hotel offers a gastronomic journey through Armenian cuisine in its restaurant, Anoush. Rooms from $132, republicahotel.am

https://www.foodandwine.com/armenia-wine-culture-new-culinary-scene-7486925

May 5 2023

Young European Ambassadors

The Young European Ambassadors (YEAs) initiative is a non-political, voluntary, vibrant communication network connecting young people from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and the EU Member States and the United Kingdom. The aim of the network is to raise awareness about the EU’s cooperation with its Eastern partner countries, showcase the tangible results of this cooperation, and contribute to policy dialogue on various topics.

Through participation in the network, YEAs learn important new skills, improving their competences in the fields of teamwork, problem-solving, leadership, and communication – essential soft skills for future careers! There are currently more than 900 active YEAs representing over 34 different nationalities, including 130 in Armenia (click here to meet them). The network is open to young people aged between 16 and 26, interested in public diplomacy and outreach activities. Applications take place every year, usually in the autumn.

Erasmus+ Youth Exchanges

In recent years, thousands of young people and youth workers from Armenia have participated in joint Erasmus+ Youth projects (exchanges, trainings, policy debate, volunteering). Youth exchanges allow groups of young people from different countries to meet, live together and work on shared projects for short periods. On a youth exchange, you can expect to participate in activities such as workshops, exercises, debates, role-plays, outdoor activities and more.

Erasmus+ youth exchanges are open to anyone between the ages of 13 and 30, and last between 5 and 21 days. These exchanges take place through youth organisations and you cannot apply directly as an individual. To find out more, contact the Erasmus+ Youth Info Centre in Armenia by visiting their website or their Facebook page, calling +374 94 525254, or email [email protected].

European Solidarity Corps

One way to gain experience abroad is by volunteering through the European Solidarity Corps. This is a unique way to experience different cultures and make new friends, while also helping others and learning new skills. You need to be between 17 and 30 and be willing to spend between two weeks and 12 months abroad. Volunteer projects could be anywhere in the EU or its partner countries, and in fields as varied as culture, youth, sports, children, cultural heritage, arts, animal welfare or the environment. Find out how to apply and check out hundreds of opportunities on the European Solidarity Corps portal.

Civil Society Fellowships

The EU supports young civil society leaders and activists in Armenia and across the Eastern Partnership through its EaP Civil Society Fellowships programme. Every year, the programme helps 20 civil society activists in their efforts to achieve positive social change in their communities, offering tailored training, grants of €5,000 and access to networking opportunities. Details about the Fellows selected since the programme began 2017 and their areas of interest can be found here. Applications usually take place every year. Check here for updates.

EaP Civil Society Facility – e-learning

The EU’s EaP Civil Society Facility offers civil society representatives targeted online courses and materials adapted to their needs and the situations they face in their daily work. On the project’s e-Learning Hub, you will find a number of online courses, webinars and video-lectures that will provide you with the tools and skills in areas as diverse as policy analysis and monitoring, project management, digital competences and web-design for CSOs. The project also offers a number of blended courses that combined online elements with face-to-face trainings to have an enhanced impact. Find out more.

Eastern Partnership European School

The Eastern Partnership European School in Tbilisi offers a two-year International Baccalaureate programme for pupils from all six Eastern Partnership countries, including Armenia, with full scholarships paid by the European Union, including fees, boarding and travel home for holidays. But the number of places is limited – only 35 per year – so you have to meet certain conditions and pass through competitive process in order to apply. Since the launch of the programme in 2018, 145 students have received scholarships for the school, graduating with the IB diploma and going on to study at top universities across the world. The next cohort of students will be recruited to join for the 2024-2026 IB programme.

May 2 2023

Every day since December 12, 25-year-old Davit Gabrielyan has been fighting for his business. 

Gabrielyan, a marketing specialist and small business owner, is from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). 

His family-owned business, Nakhshun Tea, prepares and sells teas made from herbs native to the region. Gabrielyan says. "There was only one such company in Artsakh, and it is focused mostly on exports. We decided to create our herbal teas, started branding, and today we have a popular brand." 

Davit and his younger brother make tea from locally grown herbs.

The businesses were thriving until December 12, 2022, when the only road connecting Karabakh to Armenia was blocked by a group of Azerbaijani environmental activists who are generally seen as supported by the Azerbaijan government. 

Karabakh is a contested territory that Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over, most recently in 2020. The blockade, which official Baku denies causing, effectively cut residents off from Armenia, which is Karabakha’s main source of trade and goods. The closure has been widely condemned by the international community–on February 22, the UN International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to “ensure unimpeded movement” through the area. But no progress has been made on the ground.

In the meantime, the estimated 100,000 people trapped in Karabakh and businesses like Nakhshun Tea, are suffering. 

Gabrielyan says the business lost most of its contracts and clients nearly overnight. 

"We have temporarily stopped cooperation with about 80 percent of our customers in Artsakh, until we understand what will happen in the future. percent includes our clients in Artsakh who continue to make purchases."

Orders to clients abroad have been put on hold indefinitely. “Currently we have an order from the US for 200 boxes of tea but we can't proceed with delivery because of the situation,” he says.

While the Karabakh authorities have provided some aid for people who lost their jobs or livelihoods due to the blockade, not all businesses have received support.

To fill the gap, organizations like the Artsakh Social Development Program Fund are trying to support small businesses and entrepreneurs who have been affected. Sofya Hovsepyan, director of the fund, notes some of the businesses were just getting started with the blockade hit. 

"There is mushroom production, for which we bought bags that were supposed to be brought from Armenia to Artsakh on December 15, but we could not bring them. The other is the chocolate business, for which there is a problem of raw materials. There is also the problem of bringing some printing materials from Armenia. We had a serious problem with rabbit farming, because the feed ran out and the animals had health problems," she says.

"We cooperate with the Buy Armenian platform, through which products produced in Artsakh had been entering the international market. But those products, which are people's small businesses, can no longer be sold on the online market, and may depend now on local consumption—or may not [have any clients any more].”

The fund, which is based in Armenia, is also trying to help families and children affected by the blockade. 

The biggest issue, however, according to Gabrielyan, is what happens next. He and his family are surviving off of the vegetables they grow on their own land, and he is still working remotely as the head of marketing for a company based in the Armenian capital and has other businesses that he is trying to maintain. But uncertainty and the difficult conditions are taking a toll. 

"Now there is only one question in the mind of every Artsakh resident: what will happen next?" You don't know what will happen tomorrow if you take a risk. You cannot run away from the situation. There are queues everywhere, a tense situation, people who stand in line for basic bread, eggs, sour cream in the middle of winter in order to have food everyday,” he says.

“The electricity is only on for a few hours a day, the natural gas comes and goes. We live in an incomprehensible situation. It seems we have returned to the dark and cold years."

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*This report was prepared before Azerbaijan’s April 28 claim that the blockade is over. Armenia has denied reports that traffic has resumed on the contested pass.

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This feature story was prepared with support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) South Caucasus Regional Office. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of FES.

 

Armenia – May 5 2023

Turkey – May 5 2023

Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop has met with the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan on May 4 who has been visiting Türkiye for the 30th Anniversary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Summit and the 61st PABSEC Plenary Meeting.

Pointing out that there are obstacles to be overcome in terms of normalizing relations, Simonyan said a ceremony of the erection of a monument in the Armenian capital which irked Ankara was not represented by the Armenian government, but by opposition figures.

“No deputy representing the government was present at that ceremony. Those deputies represent the opposition and criticize us for taking steps in this process. We anticipate that there will be many obstacles and difficulties on this path, but we have to go through them to yield results,” Simonyan stated.

Noting that Türkiye desires full normalization and the establishment of good neighborly relations in its region, Şentop said, “Our goal in our normalization process with Armenia is to realize this desire.”

He recalled that there are some steps taken regarding the normalization of relations with Armenia and said, “Therefore, I think that steps that will harm the normalization process should be avoided.”

Şentop reiterated Türkiye’s unease over the opening of the “Nemesis Monument” in Yerevan on April 25.

“The Nemesis Monument, which was opened with the participation of the Deputy Mayor of Yerevan and some officials with a ceremony held on April 25, is an unacceptable development that openly glorifies terrorism and makes terrorists heroic,” he said.

Şentop recalled that “Operation Nemesis,” as the “terrorist activities” including assassinations targeting Ottoman and Azerbaijani statesmen at that time, have inspired terrorist organizations such as ASALA (Secret Armenian Army for the Liberation of Armenia), Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos (JCAG) and Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA), which martyred 31 Turkish diplomats and their family members.

“The opening of this monument has created serious discomfort in Türkiye. We regard this issue as a very sensitive issue, will not accept the glorification of terrorism in any way, and such incidents will adversely affect good neighborly relations,” he stated.

Türkiye and Armenia are running a process for normalizing the relationship after more than a 30-year-long incommunicado and the two sides launched talks after the Armenia-Azerbaijan war in 2020 which ended with the victory of the Azeri troops.

The two countries are at odds over various issues, primarily the 1915 mass killings of Armenians during the First World War, as Yerevan says the killings constitute genocide.

https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-parliament-speaker-meets-with-armenian-counterpart-182900

May 4 2023

Los Angeles has long been home to a thriving community of Armenian artists whose work is infused with passionate visages of people, landscapes and cuisine from the other side of the world. Local creatives like Glendale painter Shahin Mastian and Pasadena musician and sculptor Tigran Martikyan seek to share meaningful stories through their work, which will be showcased in a group exhibit at Napulitanamente Magazine Los Angeles’ Mediterranean Cocktail of Art event on Thursday, May 4.

Born in Iran to an Armenian family, Mastian’s childhood curiosity led him toward the fields of engineering and mathematics, though he always felt a strong connection to the arts. He would often paint watercolor landscapes, using his brush to decode the world around him. 

After moving to the United States when he was 22 and settling into his new home, where he now works as a software development consultant, Mastian started to take his passion for painting more seriously. He was inspired by masters like Vincent van Gogh, George Seurat, Paul Signac and Claude Monet, but wanted to find his own “Mastian” style.

“One day, I was looking at a painting … and I’m asking myself, ‘Why is this good?’” he said. “Then it came to me that I felt good about it because the image was not a perfect image. The image gives an abstract, general view of what it should be. It allows the viewer to complete the rest. 

“When you look at any painting or you look at the world, you see yourself; you build what you want to see in reality, so what I create is basically the trigger of where to start from for the viewers. … I went back into my own paintings and repainted in a different way.”

Mastian described himself as an impressionistic pointillist who especially loves painting rainy night scenes, where lights and colors dance in mirror-like puddles or waterways.

In the Mediterranean Cocktail of Art exhibition, he will be displaying seven paintings that depict Mount Ararat with the lights of Armenian capital Yerevan in the distance, Rome’s coliseum at night, the canals of Venice, New York City in the rain, Paris’ Champs-Élysées, and two images of flamenco dancers in a nightclub.

“When I want to paint something, the painting is already created in my mind, in my soul, in my emotions, in my view … and so the rest is externalizing, bringing it to the world,” Mastian said. “I love life and happiness. I want to project a happy image in my paintings.”

For Armenian-born Martikyan, whose award-winning career as a pianist and composer has brought him to esteemed venues like Carnegie Hall, his journey into sculpture began when he became a caretaker for his mother.

“I was isolated from the people that I know, friends and relatives,” Martikyan described. “My focus was my mother and I wanted to do something creative. I wanted to make something, and I chose sculpture because the 3D form of sculpture was appealing. 

“I wanted to see a piece of art … that I can feel like I’m with people. I wanted to create a face (that) will kind of give me a company so that I’m not alone.”

Martikyan began to explore and study different forms to try to breathe as much life into his sculptures as possible. He had always been interested in the human figure and wanted to give his artworks a “soul” of their own. 

He will be presenting four of his sculptures in the Mediterranean Cocktail of Art exhibition. They depict an Armenian grandmother with a cross hanging around her neck, a composer musing over his metallic piano, a tooth whose roots form arms that clean itself with a brush and toothpaste, and a little girl in a ballerina-like dress standing against a wall with her hands opened and a smile on her face.

“This one I wanted to call ‘Peace,’” Martikyan said. “The little girl is … relaxed, and she just wants everybody else to live in peace. That’s the message.”

From abstract paintings to human-like sculptures, Napulitanamente Magazine’s Mediterranean Cocktail of Art will provide a platform for an array of Armenian voices and brushes. Editor Ingrid Pagliarulo described it as a rich combination of cultures and influences.

“There is a strong feeling of being Armenian that they have, and this feeling emits from their artworks,” she said. “Even if (Mastian) paints Italian cities or New York or cities from France, there is always the feeling, like the passion. … That kind of passion, that kind of way to express his feelings, his way to feel a place, to feel a scenery, is like poetry. … (When) you see his paintings, … you see a world. You don’t see just the scene; you can feel the world around it.

“Tigran is like a genius in the piano. He’s able to express it also through his sculptures. He’s very attached to classical shapes … and respect of the shapes, respect of nature and of the nature of shapes. I believe that artists have to be philosophers, and then through their philosophy, their thoughts, there comes the talent to express what they are thinking.”

The multi-art event, produced by Low Pulse Project, will also feature the work of photographers Karine Armen and Flavio Sanguinetti with music by Daniele De Cario and guest soprano Era Kayln. For Pagliarulo, who was born in Naples, Italy, it provides an opportunity to show the similarities between the artworks and cultures of Armenia and South Italy.

“I’ve realized since I came here that we have many things in common with Armenian people,” she said. “There is especially a strong relationship with religion, which is kind of different with the rest of Italy. … Napoli is very attached, very linked to Armenia because in our cathedral, San Gregorio Armeno, we save the skull of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who is the one that brought Christianity to Armenia. 

“(It’s) also the temperament of people because we both have volcanic areas. … Underneath the ground, there is fire. There is always a passion and strong feelings, and it’s different from the rest of the places.”

For the artists, the event is an opportunity to share their work with people across Los Angeles from a variety of backgrounds. Mastian described it as an unprecedented way to connect with others.

“If a collector buys my art, I am extending my wall and my studio to the home or wall of the buyer,” he said. “When a buyer is buying my art, I feel we are sharing feelings; we are sharing our emotions. And the more you share, the more connectedness you create.”

Martikyan added that the exhibit offers an opportunity to inspire people to pursue their passions and express themselves freely. 

“(Art) makes me happy; it’s very spiritual, and very fulfilling,” he said. “The most important message that I want to pass on is the love of art and to inspire people so that if they have a passion to do something creative, … use that creativity to make some art.”

Napulitanamente Magazine Los Angeles’ Mediterranean Cocktail of Art 

WHEN: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 4

WHERE: 11405 Chandler Boulevard, North Hollywood

COST: Free with RSVP

INFO: napulitanamente.com

Turkey – May 4 2023

Armenian Turkish conceptual artist Sarkis Zabunyan's personal exhibition "Endless" ("Sonsuz") awaits Istanbulities in Arter art gallery.

Melih Fereli, the founding director of Arter, stated during the preview that a selection of Sarkis' works from Arter's collections archive will be exhibited.

"'Endless' consists of a selection that starts with works dating back to the 1980s and includes neon and mirrors that Sarkis donated to the Arter Collection, as well as his installation named 'Respiro' that he created for the Turkish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015."

Emre Baykal, who curated the exhibition, stated that Sarkis has always taught him something new. He said: "In every conversation and every exhibition we worked together, Sarkis continues to surprise and fascinate not only me but also all the teams he works with."

Baykal pointed out that Sarkis reinterpreted his works exhibited in the show with memories of different times and places. "Sarkis transforms 'Endless' into a multi-voiced performance by combining elements such as light, color and music that play a leading role in his practice," he added.

Sarkis has exhibited his work in some of the world's most prestigious art events, including the Venice Biennale, Documenta and the Paris Biennale.

He has created large-scale installations for public spaces around the world, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul.