Raw & Unfiltered

A young doctor’s death from advanced gastric cancer reflects a troubling shift in Armenia, where cancers are increasingly diagnosed late and at younger ages. As cases rise, limited screening, delayed detection and unequal access to modern treatments are straining patients, families and the healthcare system.

In Armenia, where motherhood is revered and sacrifice expected, raising an autistic child exposes the gap between cultural ideals and lived reality. In this deeply personal essay, Ani Poghosyan explores identity, fear, resilience, and the invisible labor of mothers navigating autism in an unprepared system.

Challenging the notion that mothers on maternity leave or outside formal employment are “economically inactive”, Hasmik Soghomonyan examines Armenia’s invisible care economy, and argues that unpaid caregiving and early childhood development are vital investments sustaining families, society and long-term economic growth.

Nearly half a century later, Ararat-73 still looms large in Armenia’s collective memory. More than a football triumph, the team embodied national pride under “apricot socialism,” blending Soviet structure with Armenian identity and leaving behind a legacy that continues to shape nostalgia, culture and belonging.

A portrait of Noratus fishermen on Lake Sevan reveals nights of cold, risk and fragile livelihoods, following Armen and Vardan as they navigate storms, shrinking catches and limited choices, capturing a community bound to the lake for survival and dignity.

A social enterprise in Kapan is giving former inmates a second chance through steady work in a community print shop, challenging stigma, rebuilding skills and social ties, and offering a rare model for reintegration in a system long shaped by punishment rather than rehabilitation.

Aging in Armenia is not just a matter of years but of dignity and belonging. Ani Jilozian examines the lived experiences of older women and reveals how health programs, social neglect and cultural expectations shape wellbeing, belonging and ultimately, the right to be seen in later life.

This in-depth Q&A with Dr. Bedross Der Matossian examines the past and present of Jerusalem’s Armenian community, one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited Armenian centers, exploring its history, struggles under shifting regimes, rising pressures from settlers, and the existential threat posed by the Cow’s Garden land dispute.

Residents of Shirak’s border villages view the possible reopening of the Armenia–Turkey border and the Kars–Gyumri railway with a mix of hope, skepticism and deep historical unease. Catherine Odom’s report from Shirak.

The lack of fear and love for the land in defiance of the Azerbaijani presence nearby is what many Armenians say keeps them in their border villages. Sandra Sadek spent several days in Armenia’s Syunik region this past summer. This is her dispatch.