News about Artsakh

[Tsov]

Re: News about Artsakh

March 4, 2015 13:17

From year to year Artsakh becomes more attractive to foreign tourists

In recent years, tourism sphere of Artsakh has recorded a significant progress. And the fact that Artsakh is a part of the international tourism, already indicates of the great achievements in the field. STEPANAKERT, MARCH 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Adviser of the Head of the Department of Tourism and Historic Environment Preservation of the NKR Government Artak Grigoryan told the aforementioned in the interview with “Artsakhpress”. "According to statistics, during the period from 2007 to 2013 the number of foreign visitors to Artsakh has grown by an average of 40 percent. These statistical data refer only to the foreign citizens, that visited Artsakh. Data exclude the number of visitors to Armenia," Grigoryan said. If before independence there were 4 hotels in the country, after the declaration of independence high-class hotels with high level of customer service have been built continuously over the years. Currently, 42 hotel facilities with 1187 sleeping places, more than 25 equipped resorts are functioning in the country, the infrastructure has been improving. Tourism is a major source of imported foreign exchange. Thus, according to the observations of the Department of Tourism and Historic Environment Preservation, during 2014 tourists spent an amount nearly equal to 6.4 million US dollars. Additionally, Grigoryan assured that NKR is a very attractive country for investments - the legislative framework is completely formed, there are low interest rates for investments, flexible tax policy is implemented. Close collaboration exists between the government and the private sector in order to promote investment in the tourism sphere. "It should be noted that Artsakh has a great tourism potential. Marketing and infrastructure development complex projects are being organized to make this potential more recognizable and competitive and Artsakh - more attractive to foreign tourists," said the authorized representative of the sphere. During the last 10 years NKR has attended major international tourism exhibitions (Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Milan, Rimini, Madrid). In these exhibitions all the visitors and organizations, who are interested, are provided with the necessary information about the NKR tourism potential, informative literature, CDs of films are handed out as well. Moreover, the tourism potential of the NKR is presented in the Internet, particularly through the website www.karabakh.travel and the official pages in the main social networks. Referring to the recent comments of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Press Service’s Head Khikmet Gadzhiev in the interview to "Trend" news agency, that there is allegedly a security problem for tourists in Artsakh, A. Grigoryan noted that since Karabakh has been a part of the international tourism, the safety of all the tourists visiting the country is guaranteed, and no tourist faces a threat or any kind of danger in Artsakh, so Azerbaijani official’s statements are complete disinformation. "The so-called" black list" created by Azerbaijan is nothing like a violation of human rights of free movement, obtaining and dissemination of information, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Along with the aforesaid, the "black list" contradicts a number of fundamental principles set out in the Global Code of Tourism Ethics, the International Tourism Charter, the Charter of the UN World Tourism Organization and others," Grigoryan concluded.

http://artsakhpress.am/eng/news/13624/tarectari-arcakhn-aveli-gravich-e-darnum-otarerkrya-zbosashrjikneri-hamar-olorti-pataskhanatu.html

[Federate]

Re: News about Artsakh

If you check Yerevan to Stepanakert on Google maps, it already suggests you take the new highway to get to Stepanakert (Vardenis - Martakert). If Google maps is right, Yerevan to Stepanakert using the new highway takes 4 hours and 19 minutes while the old, traditional route takes 4 hours and 55 minutes. Not bad! We're saving almost 40 minutes.

[Tsov]

Re: News about Artsakh

March 9, 2015 12:03

Artsakh’s representative David Hayrapetyan to participate in MuayThai World Championship From March 7 to 18 the World MuayThai (Thai boxing) Championship has been taking place in the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. STEPANAKERT, MARCH 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: According to the Facebook page of the NKR Association of Martial Arts, Davit Hayrapetyan from Artsakh takes part in the tournament under the direction of head coach Garegin Aghabalyan. And Armen Grigoryan represents the Republic of Armenia under the guidance of head coach, the President of Professional MuayThai Federation of Armenia Aram Abrahamyan. As the source transfers, the first fight of our athletes will take place today.

http://artsakhpress.am/eng/news/13895/artsakh%E2%80%99s-representative-david-hayrapetyan-to-participate-in-muaythai-world-championship.html

[Tsov]

Re: News about Artsakh

March 18, 2015 11:50

Restructuring programs of Karabakh’s liberated regions continue by efforts of Diaspora

The liberated territories of Karabakh, having strategic significance for the Armenians, need reconstruction and development. STEPANAKERT, MARCH 18, ARTSAKHPRESS: Taking into account those and the other essential factors, an increase of care of those areas by the individual initiatives has been noticed in recent years. “Armenpress” had a conversation with the founder of “Patriot” organization American-Armenian Stepan Sargsyan, who has a rich experience in such projects in the areas of Karvachar and Kashatagh of Artsakh. - Why exactly the villages of Kashatagh region? I also know that You have examined the needs of the residents of the liberated territories. What are the upcoming priorities of Your organization? - The choice of Karvachar and Kashatagh is due to their strategic importance and extreme great needs. Those regions connect the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to the Republic of Armenia, but their liberation allows reducing the length of the front and focusing efforts on the eastern front of Artsakh. It should be added that the high mountains of Karvachar provide a substantial advantage of positions over the rival, which is the most important factor to establish military balance against the enemy with exceeding number of soldiers and arms. Also let's not forget, that Karvachar and Kashatagh have a significant economic potential, starting from the water resources, minerals and energy potential and ending with the great agricultural opportunities. Especially the plains and the climate of Kashatagh’s southern wing can make it our second Ararat plain. Eventually, in addition to all of the strategic arguments, this is our historic homeland, where after a cease of 200-year, the Armenian language is heard. The settlers have greater needs, than other regions. I must say the simplest thing: If in the our other areas people live in their ancestral homes and cultivate the ancestral gardens, which is passed by generations, people are forced to build home and garden from zero in these areas. The settlers have lived in homes by thatched floors, destroyed walls and etc. Let’s not discuss the infrastructure. There are many needs, the resettlement is very important and the necessary support and work are incomparable less. Whereas these regions have essential significance for the strengthening Armenian statehood. That's why we chose liberated region as our medium-term target of work.

http://artsakhpress.am/eng/news/14584/restructuring-programs-of-karabakh%E2%80%99s-liberated-regions-continue-by-efforts-of-diaspora.html

[Haykakan]

Re: News about Artsakh

March 18, 2015 11:50

Restructuring programs of Karabakh’s liberated regions continue by efforts of Diaspora

The liberated territories of Karabakh, having strategic significance for the Armenians, need reconstruction and development. STEPANAKERT, MARCH 18, ARTSAKHPRESS: Taking into account those and the other essential factors, an increase of care of those areas by the individual initiatives has been noticed in recent years. “Armenpress” had a conversation with the founder of “Patriot” organization American-Armenian Stepan Sargsyan, who has a rich experience in such projects in the areas of Karvachar and Kashatagh of Artsakh. - Why exactly the villages of Kashatagh region? I also know that You have examined the needs of the residents of the liberated territories. What are the upcoming priorities of Your organization? - The choice of Karvachar and Kashatagh is due to their strategic importance and extreme great needs. Those regions connect the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to the Republic of Armenia, but their liberation allows reducing the length of the front and focusing efforts on the eastern front of Artsakh. It should be added that the high mountains of Karvachar provide a substantial advantage of positions over the rival, which is the most important factor to establish military balance against the enemy with exceeding number of soldiers and arms. Also let's not forget, that Karvachar and Kashatagh have a significant economic potential, starting from the water resources, minerals and energy potential and ending with the great agricultural opportunities. Especially the plains and the climate of Kashatagh’s southern wing can make it our second Ararat plain. Eventually, in addition to all of the strategic arguments, this is our historic homeland, where after a cease of 200-year, the Armenian language is heard. The settlers have greater needs, than other regions. I must say the simplest thing: If in the our other areas people live in their ancestral homes and cultivate the ancestral gardens, which is passed by generations, people are forced to build home and garden from zero in these areas. The settlers have lived in homes by thatched floors, destroyed walls and etc. Let’s not discuss the infrastructure. There are many needs, the resettlement is very important and the necessary support and work are incomparable less. Whereas these regions have essential significance for the strengthening Armenian statehood. That's why we chose liberated region as our medium-term target of work.

http://artsakhpress.am/eng/news/1458...-diaspora.html

A good read Tsov. Thank you for posting it. Infrastructure is what needs to be built in these regions. If you have infrastructure then people will follow. Things like roads, hospitals, schools...are imperative.

[Eddo211]

Re: News about Artsakh

If you have the money roads passing through villages and the city in Artsakh would be the best thing you can do. You pay for permission to built from the cut throats and it makes no money, just connects strategic points keeping the line of contact in mind. the road must be made of strongest asphalt and concrete (this is where you can screwed by contractors) and be able to handle military heavy equipment.
You would have no income from it but that is OK. Seeing cities grow and population increasing is payoff enough.

[Tsov]

Re: News about Artsakh

A New Kindergarden being build for Ivanyan Community in Askeran

[londontsi]

Re: News about Artsakh

[Tsov]

Re: News about Artsakh

Caviar will be produced in Artsakh
Monday, 06 April 2015 19:01

The preparatory works are developing in accordance with the schedule A few months ago, many in Artsakh took the prospect of producing caviar here with skepticism and distrust, but today, everybody is looking forward to the results of the started program. The program is implemented according to a fixed timetable. The investors are the Swiss, and the area of impementation is the border-adjacent village of Madaghis. Black caviar will be produced in Artsakh. “The first building is already built. A social-purposes building near it is to be completed. It is a two-storey building. The first floor will serve for social needs, and the second floor will comprise dwelling rooms”, said head of the 'Himnakar' company implementing the construction works Serj Poghosian. It means the fulfillment of the first stage of the works. In the nearby area, the preparatory works are completed. The whole area will be concreted. Soon they will start construction of ponds here. «The ponds will have covers. We took it into account while conducting the preparatory works», said my interlocutor. Along with the construction works, installation works are underway. If necessary, experts are invited from abroad. Part of the required equipment is already delivered to Artsakh. Soon, conceived caviar will be also imported. Fish will be incubated on the spot. It is already known when the first batch of caviar will be produced in Artsakh. “In 2019, we'll have the first batch of caviar. And before that, beginning from 2018, sturgeon meat production will start”, said Adviser to the NKR Prime Minister Aram Mkhoyan. On completing the program, 50-60 new jobs will be created in the border-adjacent village of Madaghis. Head of the Madaghis community Zaven Avanesian is looking forward to it the most. “It is important that women will have the chance to work there. Men have no problem with job. There are organizations operating in and around our village, providing jobs for the men of our village. We have no jobs for women. We hope to resolve this issue with the construction of the fishpond” said the head of the community. For the implementation of the program in Madaghis, about 30 million euro will be invested in the nearest 5 or 6 years. Norayr HOVSEPIAN

http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1751:-caviar-will-be-produced-in-artsakh&catid=6:economy&Itemid=18

[Tsov]

Re: News about Artsakh

A TREE GROWS IN KARABAKH
BY JOHN ARTERBURY

The Karabakh highlands rise between Azerbaijan and Armenia, an open wound between the two countries. Once home to a patchwork of Armenians, Azeris, and nomadic Kurds, a vicious, ethnically driven war in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse left Azerbaijan technically in control of the area. But in practice, the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, headed by Armenians and recognized by no other country, now rules over this remote corner of the world, withered by isolation and under-development. Yet perched atop a barren cliff, overlooking the wide expanse of the fertile Karkar River Valley, stands an incongruous phalanx of budding Mediterranean olive trees, flanked by row upon row of sprouting greens. A nearby greenhouse faithfully replicates the blossoming spring of the Syrian agricultural center of Latakia, the balmy humidity inside a jarring contrast to the bracing cold of a Karabakh winter. Packed inside are pots of lemons, apricots, kumquats, and flowering gardenias, all uprooted directly from coastal Syria and transplanted to this contested corner of the world by an enterprising immigrant family bent on recreating a patch of Syria abroad. The rolling Karabakh highlands are highly contested. Populated almost exclusively by ethnic Armenians, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is technically still a part of Azerbaijan under international law. Photo: John Arterbury The Asmaryans, one of only a few Armenian refugee families from Syria to now call the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic home, have spent more than a year sculpting this untidy patch of land in a bid to bring some Levantine sensibility to a post-Soviet landscape. “It’s hard. It’s difficult,” Hovig Asmaryan explains, lacing cup after cup of lemon balm tea with gobs of honey freshly culled from his own hives. “In Aleppo we were businessmen.” Starting a farm wasn’t a natural choice for Hovig, but once in Karabakh he realized that a cadre of businesses knit together by the war dominated the local economy. Rather than going against these powerful groups to continue in sales, the Asmaryan brothers decided to look to their parents, long-time farmers who passed away a few years before the Syrian war, for inspiration. Once a businessman more at home in the city, Hoving Asmaryan is taking the commercial risk of a lifetime: starting a farm in a new land. Photo: John Arterbury Hovig could have hardly imagined his new life just a few years ago. In pre-war Aleppo, the Asmaryan clan enjoyed a vibrant lifestyle, mingling freely with their Arab neighbors, proud to be members of Syria’s ornate social fabric. But in 2011, long-simmering social ills gave way to protests, eventually rending that once rich social tapestry apart. The family decided to leave in late 2012, hiring an old business associate with opposition ties to negotiate their passage through a mosaic of government and rebel checkpoints to get to the Turkish border. They eventually found refuge in the Armenian capital of Yerevan—an unwelcoming place for refugees, as the family tells it—and promptly set out for war-scarred Karabakh, where, strangely, they felt a sense of belonging. “People here also passed through war and they understand the meaning of being a refugee, so they are looking more to understand you, your situation, which you cannot find in Yerevan,” Hovig says. The choice to leave proved sound. The Asmaryan family warehouse in Aleppo, he says, was first looted during fighting and then appropriated by militants from Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syria franchise, for use as a sharia court. Unlike the majority of the nearly four million Syrians that the UN refugee agency estimates have fled since 2011, the Asmaryans are sufficiently well off, thanks to their former commercial ties, to try to start over. The Asmaryan family farm is an improvised affair. From a handful of retrofitted supply sheds, the brothers tend to the meandering 15-hectare estate. Photo by: John Arterbury Every plant on the grounds was taken from Syria in its infancy, their transport facilitated by a series of brokers every step of the way, in some ways mirroring the Asmaryan’s own exodus. It was a costly endeavor. The young plants were first shipped from coastal Latakia to the Turkish coast. From there, the hundreds of pots were sent to Georgia, circuitously winding their way south into Armenia and along the sole highway leading into Karabakh. Customs officials on each border also took healthy financial bites, but the plants—dirt-filled pots and all—made it unscathed. Now, they stock the greenhouse or line the rows of farmland, which span nearly 40 acres in all. The farm is clearly a work in progress. A couple of tattered wooden boxes serve as beehives, and sheds that were on the property when the brothers purchased the land double as overnight quarters should the need arise. An old Belarusian tractor sits idly in a field. A John Deere tractor would be nice, Hovig laments, but the lack of spare parts in Karabakh makes that an expensive proposition. A woman prepares zhingalov khats, Karabakh’s most emblematic dish. Sprinkled inside are more than a dozen wild herbs and greens. Photo: John Arterbury Together with his brother, Vrej, Hovig works the farm assiduously, day in and day out. While in the summer a small battery of hired hands help tend the field, the winter and spring belong to them alone, an improvised dance of pruning, watering, makeshift beekeeping, and other tasks unfamiliar to men who made their fortune in city trading. Bundles of fresh stevia plants—“for the diabetics”—line the trunk of his car, ready to be sown into the soil. The greenhouse is the farm’s crowning achievement. Built by the brothers themselves, it wouldn’t be out of place in a US home and garden center. Beyond it stretch muddy fields, the crops just beginning to sprout. Despite its drabness, the farm is noticeably better cared for than the more unkempt and overgrown neighboring plots. The brothers have a near obsessive devotion to detail, ensuring that every last weed is extirpated, that every row is perfectly straight. Hovig Asmaryan surveys a collection of young plants inside his greenhouse. Photo: John Arterbury Hovig suggests that eventually the farm’s verdant orchards will greet visitors landing at the republic’s sole international airport, but such thoughts are tinged with dreamy optimism. The orchards will take time to flourish, and Stepanakert’s airport, shiny and recently refurbished, languishes in disuse because of the delicate political situation. Hovig has sunk a lifetime of income into the farm. It’s a gamble, but it’s beginning to pay off: already a few local businesses are stocking their pantries with the farm’s fruit. Neighbors keep a curious watch over “the Syrians,” the first people in recent memory to start such an ambitious farming project. The last attempt at growing olives in Karabakh was a one-time Soviet effort. Those trees, still standing but uncared for, were abandoned by their caretakers in the empire’s waning days due to lack of interest. A couple of zhingalov khats, Karabakh’s most emblematic dish, cool in a Stepanakert market. Packed inside are more than a dozen wild herbs and greens. Photo by: John Arterbury Local women visit the grounds of the Asmaryan farm regularly, collecting baskets of wild herbs for use in the region’s most emblematic dish, zhingalov khats, a flatbread pastry lined with an array of wild, earthy greens. Hovig hopes that in the near future they’ll want to buy more than just his herbs. By filling an agricultural niche, rather than competing with existing bakeries or grocers, he hopes to foster goodwill with his adopted community. The tiny republic, technically still a part of Azerbaijan, seems an unlikely spot for Syrian refugees to call home. While members of the Armenian diaspora send the nascent state what money they can, many of its residents eke out a hardscrabble existence. A shaky ceasefire with Azerbaijan, which hopes to one day reclaim the territory, remains in place, but has come under repeated tests recently as both sides accuse the other of fatal violations. Tensions reached new heights late last year when Armenia and the republic blamed Azerbaijan for shooting down a helicopter along the disputed line of control. Lethal encounters between Karabakh and Azeri forces remain a near monthly occurrence. Patriotic signs, such as this one, are a solemn reminder that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is never far from war. Photo by: John Arterbury But the prospect of facing another war doesn’t faze Hovig, whose family, like that of his brother, lives in a middle-class suburb of the sleepy capital of Stepanakert. “I don’t care, because I will not run away this time,” Hovig says. “This is my homeland, and if it will be necessary I will fight also.” The Armenian government estimates that 12,000 Armenians from Syria have sought refuge in the country, and by Hovig’s estimate, perhaps as many as forty of those familes have chosen to relocate to the tiny self-declared republic, with most choosing to take government-allotted plots of land for personal use in a more rural area of the country. “For a healthy life, for a safe life, it’s the best place,” says Isabelle Asmaryan, Hovig’s wife. For her, Stepanakert affords unrivalled safety. Their two children can stay out late at night or return home alone from school without the fear of abduction, or worse. In Yerevan, the Asmaryans found themselves constantly reminded of their refugee status; here, Isabelle’s biggest problem is keeping friendly faces away, as nearly every day a neighbor friend drops in to have tea or lend a hand in the kitchen. “If you ask me if you want to go back to Syria if the war ends, yes, absolutely yes,” she says. “But maybe for my children, no.” “The small one already speaks fully in the Karabakh dialect,” Hovig says proudly, underscoring what he sees as the malleability of an Armenian’s nationality. The Asmaryan line itself reflects it: first displaced from modern-day Turkey to Syria a century ago after the Ottoman-perpetrated Armenian genocide, they’re now restarting again, this time under the watchful eyes of fellow Armenians. The greenhouse is filled with living mementos of Syria – cacti, citrus and gardenia are but a few of the varietals the Asmaryans have imported to Karabakh from their war-torn home country. Photo: John Arterbury “For us Armenians, we live in other countries, but we live as Armenians. We keep the culture,” he says. “This is home. Syria is the second home.” Adjustment comes smoothly enough, with only their Syrian license plates and a difference in their Armenian accent betraying their origins. The difficulties for the family lie in the details: figuring out slightly different social norms, or using culinary dexterity to imitate Arabic recipes. “These two years have made me always search on the internet, to see how if we don’t have this [ingredient], what the alternative is,” she says, taking a break from tending a large pot of maqluba, a traditional Syrian stew of eggplant and minced meat with rice. Sometimes there are no alternatives: ingredients like tahini for hummus must be brought on a daylong drive from Yerevan, or not at all. The Asmaryans are eagerly waiting for their crop of Syrian apricots to bear fruit, which they say are plumper and sweeter than their world-renown Armenian counterparts. The family has made new friends, routines, and now, with some luck and hard work, hopes that their farming venture will be their ticket to success in a country kissed by war, where the tension and hate that accompanies such tragedies still hangs thickly in the air. Despite this, Hovig is naturally at ease, and reports of cross-border killings leave him unfazed. The scars of war—visible throughout Karabakh, whether in social attitudes or among the burnt husks of infantry vehicles and abandoned buildings dotting the frontlines—pale in comparison to the destruction wrought on Syrian society. “The glass, or the vase, if it’s broken you can put all the pieces together with glue, but it will not be one piece. It will be a damaged piece,” he says. “It will be a long, long time for people to forget their pains, their losses, from both sides.” The Asmaryans will have to wait at least six more years before the olive trees fully mature, longer than the war ripping Syria has already lasted. It’s not certain whether the olives, if they make it through the several bracing winters to come, will faithfully recreate the taste of their southern cousins. Until that harvest day comes the saplings will continue slowly inching skyward in an unfamiliar home, a remnant from a world erased by violence.

http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2015/a-tree-grows-in-karabakh/