Raw & Unfiltered

In this first analytical piece for EVN Report, Yerevan-based psychiatrist Aram Hovsepyan writes about the struggles of people with mental health issues and their caregivers based on field research from his recent visit to the border communities in the Tavush region of Armenia.

The Araratian Baccalaureate, a public-private partnership between the Armenian Government and Ayb Education Foundation launched under the previous administration, came under the spotlight when Education Minister Arayik Harutyunyan questioned the need for “elite” schools and the financial efficacy of the program.

It was in her sophomore year at university that Lilit Makunts realized that fighting for justice wasn’t simply a slogan. From her first involvement in a civic initiative to her foray into politics, Makunts has been ‘present’ all along, although perhaps slightly under the public radar. That is, until she was appointed as Armenia’s Minister of Culture on May 12.

Revelations of corruption at the highest levels in recent weeks have shaken many people in Armenia, including the youth who were active during the Velvet Revolution. In this first essay for EVN Report, Nune Harutyunyan writes about her feelings after investigators discovered stolen boxes of supplies meant for soldiers on the frontlines and more.

The essay attempts to offer several historical and pedagogical responses to the genocide of the Armenian people by suggesting a program on the study of the Middle Ages of Turkey, one that would entail the study of the three mediaeval epic tales that were forged during the Middle Ages on Anatolian soil.

The Amulsar gold mine, owned and operated by Lydian Armenia, is one of the most controversial projects in recent years in Armenia. Over the past weekend, activists from Yerevan and elsewhere traveled to the province of Vayots Dzor to raise awareness about the potential danger the mine poses to the environment.

A series of extraordinary events in early spring of 2018 that came to be known as the Velvet Revolution fundamentally changed Armenia’s political landscape. EVN Report’s Maria Titizian reflects on some of her personal experiences during those heady days.

Arpine Haroyan looks back at how an avant-garde art movement called Futurism impacted the work of a number of young Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople, Tbilisi and Yerevan at the turn of the 20th century.

In his first piece for EVN Report. Alen Amirkhanian writes about the current state of the mining industry in Armenia. He argues that mining governance, from decision-making process on granting mining licenses, monitoring performance to ensuring compliance with laws and standards, is defective and in need of determined reform.

After centuries of being stateless, Armenia declared independence on May 28, 1918. Institutions needed to be built from the ground up including the creation of the symbols of statehood. Here are the stories behind those national symbols as remembered by the First Republic's last Prime Minister Simon Vratsian.