Tag: 2017

The majority of Armenia’s passenger and cargo transportation travels through the strategic Georgian land road of Lars, which is prone to natural disasters and often crippled because of congestion.

After his many years working in Brussels and trying to counter the effects of Azerbaijan’s Caviar Diplomacy, Bedo Demirdjian writes about his anger and frustration at how many European politicians received money from Azerbaijani authorities in a scheme being dubbed the Azerbaijani Laundromat.

Political analyst Armen Grigoryan writes that negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict have hit a wall and resulted in escalations on the frontline bolstering Azerbaijan's inclination towards a military solution to the conflict.

Shushan Doydoyan is the head of the Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice in Armenia. In this piece for EVN Report, she writes about the need to protect children's personal data, the law and media's responsibility.

How we treat the most vulnerable in our society is a reflection of ourselves. December 10 is Human Rights Day – the day the UN General Assembly, in 1948, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this essay, Maria Titizian writes about dignity and how certain politicians view the condition of Armenia's poverty-stricken.

Since joining the Council of Europe and ratifying the European Convention on Human Rights, Armenia’s government has been obligated to pay over 900,000 Euros as compensation to Armenian nationals.

Fish farms that showed up in the Ararat Valley in the early 2000s, as part of a development and poverty reduction program, have devastated the valley and Armenia’s second largest water basin. Now the state is trying to salvage the main hub of Armenia's agriculture and the strategically important water basin from desertification; trying to refill a bottomless well drop by drop.

Today, the demand for increased agricultural productivity to ensure food security, the use of genetically engineered crops and powerful conglomerates that control most of the world’s seed industry like Monsanto are threatening the lives and livelihoods of small farmers all over the world. This contentious global debate has now found its way to Armenia. EVN Report investigates.

There are protests on the streets of Yerevan again. This time it is a student protest against a controversial bill on mandatory military service. One of the most powerful student protest movements in Armenia was in 2004 and ironically, some participants of these earlier protests are today themselves pushing for the abolishment of draft deferment for university students from ARP ranks.

Women are entering the technology sector in Armenia in growing numbers. Most argue that entry barriers are almost non-existent and today there are equal opportunities for men and women to make their mark in the fast-paced and fast-growing industry. EVN Report profiles the women of PicsArt, who are helping the company expand its reach in leadership positions.

On October 30, 2017 the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway better known as the Akhalkalak-Kars Railway, became operational. The Akhalkalak Terminal, is only 30 kilometers from Armenia’s border. What does this mean for Armenia and for the Armenians of Javakhk? Vahram Ter Matevosyan takes a closer look at the implications and prospects for Armenia.

What is the art of anti-corruption? A year-long campaign sought to raise awareness on the effects of corruption on Armenian society. The “Art of (anti) Corruption” organized by Impact Hub Yerevan and supported by the EU Delegation to Armenia is a poster art exhibition and EVN Report is featuring a selection of the works on display.

Last week, Gyumri was in the national spotlight because of strikes and student demonstrations. At the heart of the matter was the Shirak State University, the rector and the merging of politics and education.

While contemporary Armenian writers are searching for a new language of expression, Arevik Ashkharoyan, a literary agent, has taken on the task of bringing their voices to a global audience. In this first essay for EVN Report, Ashkharoyan writes about the challenges of representing a book that many believe is about the army but in fact is a metaphor for a repressed society.

Choir in the Dark is the first chapter of photographer Davit Nersisyan’s ongoing, larger body of work about the visually impaired in Armenia. A visual exploration of the persistence of a choir where most members are visually impaired.

Will Serzh Sargsyan become prime minister after the end of his second term as president of Armenia? Will he be ready to relinquish power? Political analyst Mikayel Zolyan offers some compelling analysis.

In a July 16 interview, President Serzh Sargsyan spoke about issues of national security, including the state of the economy. The president also remarked on some of his statements in the past that had stirred controversy in the country. Armen Grigoryan compares numbers to President Sargsyan's statements.

The Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) is slowly trying to climb its way out of isolation and one of the ways it hopes to achieve this is to produce and export ‘black gold' to the world. EVN Report visited the sprawling caviar production facility nestled in a quiet valley in this unrecognized state often referred to simply as a ‘conflict zone.’

In this new essay for EVN Report, Varak Ketsemanian argues that one of the reasons Armenians have failed to come up with a palatable “national brand” lies in the absence of common political premises (beyond the Genocide and Artsakh) upon which collaborative platforms may be created in the Diaspora, but more importantly, in the Republic of Armenia.

At the height of the Erebuni siege last year by the Daredevils of Sassoun, a group of journalists were allowed into the compound. "Misplaced Fear" is a journalistic and a photographic essay by Roubina Margossian, who was working for CivilNet at the time and provides an inside view of the events that day and also reflects on developments of the past year.

An armed police station takeover, three human loses, hundreds detained and many hospitalized... an overview of the main development of last July's Daredevils of Sassoun stand-off and photos by Eric Grigorian.

The Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan released a video on June 21 of a man they allege is a captured Armenian soldier. They claimed that the man was apprehended after an attempt by the Armenian military to infiltrate into Azerbaijani territory.

The engine to a developed economy is the competitiveness of local businesses, because they are the building blocks of the economy and the country’s development. It is time for Armenia’s economy to advance to the next level of efficiency and each company has a unique role to play in this regard, writes Sona Grigoryan.

Awarded on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, co-founders of the initiative Ruben Vardanyan and Noubar Afeyan announced the nominees for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity 2017 in Yerevan on April 24.

On April 16, 2017, Turkish citizens voted in a referendum that would give sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. With almost 99 percent of the ballots counted, Erdogan has claimed victory. What will this mean for Turkey's democracy in the coming years? Vahram Ter-Matevosyan explains.

The 2017 "Nations in Transit: The False Promise of Populism" a project of Freedom House was released yesterday. Among the 29 former communist countries included in this report, Armenia is ranked 21st and considered to be Semi-Consolidated Authoritarian Regime.

In this post-Election essay, Paul Chaderjian reflects on how a group of his peers, men and women from all walks of life, made a collective effort on April 2 to serve as citizen observers in the homeland.

Security expert Samvel Martirosyan writes that Armenia and Azerbaijan are not only waging war on the battlefield but in the media, through social networks, on academic platforms - all platforms where it is possible to disseminate information and propaganda.

Following the parliamentary election on April 2, the Republic of Armenia is set to transition from a presidential to a parliamentary system of governance. There has been much public discourse about the differences and implications of each

In this moving piece, Paul Chaderjian writes about belonging and identity, of hovering in a ‘Go Between’ space, suspended between two worlds and how unexpected encounters make connecting to the concept of home a reality.

Arto Vaun writes about the passing of Artur Sargsyan, the man who broke through heavy police barricades to deliver food to the Sasna Dzrer and in doing so, became something of a legend.