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ARMENIANOW.COM on TOURING in ARMENIA

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  • #11
    UNITED WE STAND: A SOCCER CLUB DRUMS UP FAN SUPPORT

    By Suren Musayelyan
    ArmeniaNow Reporter

    A First Division football club is set to break stereotypes in Armenian
    football and show that it can win a large following with showbiz as
    well as soccer skills.

    Yerevan United FC, a newcomer in the country's lower league, is
    continuing its successful performances before a growing number of
    spectators attending their home matches.

    The club's Australian-Armenian founding president Dikran Hovivian says
    they are pioneers in football business in Armenia and adds that he
    sees a great potential for this business locally given the great
    number of football fans in Armenia and the Diaspora.

    The 45-year-old football marketing specialist from Sydney adds: `We
    are taking one step at a time. Now our goal is promotion to the
    Premier League, but most importantly we are trying to play good
    football before our spectators.'

    Yerevan United FC was founded last year and is the only club in
    Armenia that has its mascot - a 220cm-tall Aryuts Mher especially
    loved by kids - and cheerleaders entertaining spectators before and
    after the matches and also during the interval.

    Each goal scored by the home side is the cue for special
    celebration. Food and drinks are available in the stadium and fans can
    buy the club's merchandise.

    According to Hovivian, up to 2,000 people come to the stadium to watch
    Yerevan United play.

    About half of the spectators are teenagers under 16 for whom tickets
    are free. Tickets are available for 400, 600, 1,000 and 2,500 drams
    and there are also 60,000-dram tickets for corporate boxes for 12
    people, with food and drinks included.

    `It is my joy to see people coming to the stadium, sometimes with
    their families, and simply having a good time,' says Hovivian, adding
    that they also have many visitors from abroad, including foreign
    tourists and Diaspora Armenians visiting their homeland.

    At half time Aryuts Mher picks the most fervent supporter and presents
    him with a special award. Also the lion mascot draws a lucky ticket
    number that can win one of the fans a prize like a TV-set.

    `It is the second time I have attended a Yerevan United match,' says
    21-year-old Ashot from Yerevan, who came to the stadium with his three
    friends. `The atmosphere here is great and I will definitely come
    again to support this team.' On the pitch Yerevan United FC were
    meeting the expectations of fans like Ashot by beating the visitors
    from Vanadzor 7-1. After Tuesday's win the team continues to top
    Division One and is well on the road to win promotion this season.

    `We want to make Yerevan United a visiting card not only for Armenia
    but for the whole Diaspora,' says Hovivian. `We have Yerevan in our
    name, and it is already obliging.'

    Hovivian conceived the idea of Yerevan United FC in 2001. During a
    three-week trip in early 2004 he saw an opening in the football
    industry in Armenia and returned to Australia with a dream to
    revolutionize the entire football industry here.

    In October last year, Hovivian returned to Yerevan with a five-year
    plan for the club.

    Here, he says, he was assisted by well-known football commentator and
    expert Rudik Barseghyan and met the current head coach Albert Sargsyan
    and team manager Sevak Makaryan.

    Three months of regular communications with his two employees in
    Yerevan resulted in the recruitment of a team of 21 footballers,
    including two international players - one from Cameroon and the other
    from Nigeria. They launched pre- season training on December 20.

    Dikran returned to live in Armenia in February with his wife Rose-Leah
    and two young children Nune, 4, and Haroutig, 2, and to be
    instrumental in the running and success of the club.

    He is the club's major shareholder and there are 42 others in
    Australia including six Australians (non-Armenians). Today, YUFC
    employs and provides income to over 70 families in Armenia including
    players, coaching staff, entertainers, office administration,
    marketing and PR department, catering and customer service staff. More
    than $120,000 has already been invested in the club mostly by Hovivian
    and according to the club's president more money is being invested
    every day.

    Hovivian says the team consists mostly of young players, though three
    are over 30. The average wages of footballers at YUFC is $200 a month
    (in a range between $80 and $300).

    Yerevan United is the only football club in Armenia whose players have
    their names on the back of their jerseys. They celebrate every goal
    scored with appeals to their fans and also thank their fans after each
    match for coming to the stadium to support them.

    Hovivian believes that just like any great change, Armenian football
    requires faith and patience.

    `As Yerevan United FC is a brand new football club, it is literally
    history in the making,' he says.

    He says their website (www.yerevanunited.com) has more than 2,000
    visitors every week. The club's fans are not only based in Armenia,
    but also in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Australia. An
    online shop with YUFC's merchandise will be available soon.

    Hovivian also believes in developing young players for which he plans
    to invest in infrastructure and a sport base for youth. By 2010, he
    sees a whole complex developing where for a membership fee a YUFC fan
    will be able to come and enjoy the club's services.

    Tickets for Yerevan United's matches are available also in Artbridge,
    a favorite bookstore caf� of foreigners and some locals in central
    Yerevan. Shakeh Havan, the owner of Artbridge, says that they sell up
    to 10 tickets for each game, which, although not many, shows people's
    growing interest in the project.

    `Those who buy tickets are mostly students and young people among whom
    there are also some foreigners and Diaspora Armenians visiting the
    country as tourists,' says Havan. `Dikran is doing a new thing in
    Armenia. No one has done it here before, and I think he is on the
    right way.'


    What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

    Comment


    • #12
      ARMENIANOW.COM on TOURING in ARMENIA
      Administration Address: 26 Parpetsi St., No 9
      Phone: +(374 1) 532422
      Email: [email protected]
      Internet: www.armenianow.com
      Technical Assistance: (For technical assistance please contact to
      Babken Juharyan)
      Email: [email protected]

      ICQ#: 97152052

      WEATHER LOVELY, WISH YOU WERE HERE...

      Welcome to ArmeniaNow's second special edition on tourism in
      Armenia. We hope you enjoyed the first instalment and are ready for
      more summer adventures in the land that claims Noah as its first
      official visitor.

      This week, immerse yourself in places steeped in Armenian culture and
      history, some already popular stops on the tourist trail, others whose
      attractions await discovery and where a warm welcome rewards the
      adventurous.

      Join us in Kapan, a region where monuments guard their secrets and
      ancient fortresses lie hidden in dense forests. Or take a trip to
      Ijevan and discover caves preserving ancient carvings of man and
      nature.

      Meet remarkable people such as the man who has devoted decades to
      carving caves out of the rock under his home, and the woman whose
      fascination with Japan is establishing ties of friendship between two
      ancient cultures.

      Feeling sporty? Then don't miss our guide to entertaining
      activities. And if you have an eye for fashions, read about the
      influence of traditional Armenian dress on street styles in Yerevan.

      We asked some of the many tourists already in Armenia to share their
      impressions. We hope you find plenty of reasons in this week's edition
      to join them.

      The Editors


      What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

      Comment


      • #13
        NATURE'S FORTRESS: THE DARK BEAUTY OF THE FORESTS OF SHIKAHOGH

        By Vahan Ishkhanyan
        ArmeniaNow Reporter

        The road leading to the village of Tsav, the Shikahogh reserve, the
        Sycamore grove, and Mtnadzor passes through the forest of Krnas 40
        kilometers to the south of Kapan.

        Eighty years ago, Axel Bakunts wrote a story that he entitled
        `Mtnadzor', which begins: `The only path leading to Mtnadzor is closed
        after the first snowfall and no one can pass through the forests until
        spring. However, even today there are dense forests in Mtnadzor where
        the foot of man has never trod.Trees fall and rot, a new tree grows
        instead of the fallen one, bears dance whistling like shepherds,
        wolves howl with their muzzles turned to the moon, wild boars dig
        black soil with their tusks picking up last autumn's rotten acorns.'

        Little has changed since then, only the fauna has become
        scarcer. Villagers tell that during the years of the Karabakh war
        freedom-fighters would hunt with submachine-guns and open fire on wild
        boars, killing several at a time. Now the Shikahogh reserve, which
        also includes the Mtnadzor forest, is under stricter control and its
        director Ruben Mkrtchyan says that seven poachers were caught in
        recent months.

        The Red Book of protected species in the reserve includes Caucasian
        gray bears, wolves, foxes, porcupines, wild boars, deer, forest cats,
        and 27 species of birds. Nevertheless, the decoration of Shikahogh is
        considered to be the Middle Eastern leopard. Photographs and other
        studies show that there are a couple of leopards which have given
        birth to two cubs.

        Many people know the `Mtnadzor' story from school textbooks and
        remember how a bear skinned hunter Avi's skull: `He felt a heavy blow
        on his back, a fleecy paw had clawed a hold of the skin on the back of
        his head.' In the next passage Bakunts writes: `Avi is still
        alive. One can see him with horror when hiding from the passers-by in
        a corner, he makes moccasins for one or another. Avi wears a chukha
        (robe), moccasins, has an ordinary body and healthy hands, which very
        skillfully pierce hide, make knots from leather threads. And on an
        ordinary body instead of a head here is a human skull, totally
        skinned, without hair, without skin.'

        Avi was Shikahogh villager Gabriel Dayi (Uncle Gabriel), who died in
        1944. Even now, the villagers remember him: `He lived with a sack on
        his head and made moccasins,' says Mkrtchyan, who lives in
        Shikahogh. `He was a very strong person. An ox had fallen into a
        tonir, several people could not get it out, but Gabriel came and
        dragged it out by the horns.'

        The forest got the name of Mtnadzor because it practically sees no
        daylight. Bakunts writes: `The hills of Mtnadzor are high - it is
        because of them that during long summer days the sun gives light to
        the Mtnadzor forest only for several hours. And when the sun still
        turns to the west in the remote plain, the shadows in Mtnadzor become
        dense, it is pitch dark under the foliage, bears go hunting, wild
        boars come down to drink water, a wolf howls shrilly in front of its
        lair, the howl echoes across Mtnadzor in thousands of voices.'

        Mtnadzor, which is located on a 40-degree hillside, is also today a
        dense forest, undevoured by the energy crisis of the early 1990s in
        Armenia. `Mtnadzor differs from other forests by the fact that man
        visits it very rarely, there are impassable places,' says forest-guard
        Andranik Abelyan from the village of Tsav.

        The government had approved a plan to build a 17-kilometer-long and
        30-meter-wide highway over Mtnadzor towards Meghri. The project
        required the felling of 145,000 trees and could cause the
        disappearance of several species of birds nesting in Mtnadzor. People
        in Kapan were sure that the goal of building the road was to get the
        timber, especially oak, which is one of the most expensive types of
        wood. If they cut the forest, the oak would mostly go for export,
        while some would be taken by local wineries to make brandy barrels.

        The reserve's director Mkrtchyan opposed the project, saying: `I will
        do everything to scuttle plans for the road construction.' He says
        that recentlu he had shown a number of ministers Mtnadzor from a
        helicopter to try to convince them that the project will be too
        destructive.

        Thanks to the campaign launched by environment-protection groups and
        Syunik authorities against the government plan, the rout of the road
        was changed.

        Numerous monuments of nature and history are hidden in
        Shikahogh. Mkrtchyan guides tourists to them with great enthusiasm.

        Sycamore grove, which is protected, begins from Mtnadzor. It is unique
        in the South Caucasus, since very few sycamores have been preserved in
        their natural condition. The trees of the 60-hectare grove stretching
        along the ravine are 800- 1,000 years old, and are matched by similar
        trees on territory seized from Azerbaijan.

        It is not known how the grove emerged, though the scientific
        explanation is that it is the residual remains of a much larger
        sycamore forest. The popular version of its history relates that
        caravans from Persia took a rest on the bank of the river and people
        planted sticks here, from which the forest grew (a sycamore takes root
        very easily and a tree may grow after a branch is planted into
        soil). A sycamore has a light-colored trunk and in these territories
        leaders of mule caravans planted sycamores near mountainous and forest
        springs so that they could see water sources from a distance. Probably
        this formed the basis of the popular version of the origin of the
        grove.

        In pagan times, the sycamore was a sacred tree. The rustle and
        movement of sycamore foliage was used in fortune- telling. The trees
        near the Opera House in Yerevan and along the streets and in orchards
        of Kapan were planted with saplings from the sycamore grove.

        Derenik Hovhannisyan from the village of Hand has established sycamore
        arboretums. Saplings are sold at a higher price than fruit-bearing
        seedlings - 1,200 drams (more than $2.50) each - and in five years
        Derenik has sold 2,500. Sycamore is one of the most suitable trees for
        planting green areas because it has a large green mass, long life and
        does not break.

        Today, Sycamore grove is facing the threat of disappearance, as the
        natural reproduction of the forest has slowed down. Derenik says that
        10-12 trees collapse every year. There were 2,500 trees in the grove
        in the 1960s, now only some 1,800 remain.

        `If it continues like this, in 30 years' time the grove will
        disappear,' says Derenik. `I am trying to find partners to enlarge the
        grove by 20 hectares, and we will plant new trees in place of the
        fallen ones.'

        The river Tsav (Basuta) passes through the grove and Bakunts wrote it
        in his `Cyclamen' story, saying: `The river Basuta makes noise only in
        the ravine, scrapes the banks and polishes the blue quartz of the
        riverbed. The river Basuta rolls in its narrow riverbed, it seems that
        thousands of hounds are howling under its white foam gnawing stone
        chains.'

        The village of Shikahogh, first recorded in the 13th Century, is
        surrounded with numerous medieval monuments and cemeteries.

        East of Kapan's Halidzor district, there is the Halidzor monastery and
        fortress on a steep hill. Although visible from Kapan, a closer look
        at the structures reveals that the forest has already started to
        conquer them.

        Taxi reaches by an earth road the foot of Halidzor, from where there
        is a path of about 100 feet to the buildings. The monastery was built
        in the 17th Century and in the 18th Century it became the main
        stronghold of David Bek's liberation struggle. In 1725, the battle of
        Halidzor took place here during which Armenians were besieged in the
        fortress for seven days, before breaking out and routing the Turkish
        army.

        The building has numerous secrets, such as underground passes to the
        water spring. Halidzor's closest resident, Serzhik Alexanyan, has been
        linked with it since the day of his birth.

        `A hundred meters up from the spring there is a tunnel , now it is
        covered,' says Alexanyan. `We were little kids, picking up khazaz (a
        garlic-like plant), and we saw the pit, walked a few meters, then were
        frightened and ran away. It was in the `60s, once we were coming down
        on donkeys and a donkey's foot stuck and we saw an underground
        path. It seems to me that the path was used for coming from the
        fortress and taking water. It runs for 500 meters, but now it is
        ruined in places.'

        He says that when he was kept guard on the territory, he cleaned up
        the surroundings and put a door on the monastery so that cattle would
        not go inside. There is no door now and cows find shelter inside the
        monastery.

        Several kilometers to the west from Halidzor is Baghaberd. The ruins
        of Baghaberd's walls come to the edge of the road in places and in
        others reach the top of the mountain. At some points, the walls yield
        to natural barriers of rock. Built in the 4th Century, it is one of
        the oldest buildings of the territory and one of the largest defensive
        constructions in Armenia. The walls stand 6-8 meters in height.

        Behind these walls, Syunik's prince Andovk Syuni defeated the army of
        the Persian King Shapuh. In 1170, the Seljuks conquered the fortress,
        massacred the residents and burned 10,000 manuscripts. The destruction
        of Baghaberd put an end to the Syunik Kingdom.

        Between Baghaberd and Halidzor there is Vahanavank monastery, in a
        forest under a vertical mountain. It was built in 911 by the son of
        the Syunik prince Vahan. The main church of the monastery now lies in
        ruins. During Soviet years there were plans to rebuild the church, but
        the effort was left half finished. The two-storied crypt-church built
        by the Syunik Queen Shahandukht remains standing. There is a similar
        building in another place in Syunik - Tatev.

        In the center of all these monuments and ravines is Kapan, which
        stretches along the gorge of the river Voghjy and lets through itself
        rivulets descending from the mountains. Tourists can find four hotels
        (with rooms from $5 to $70) and several restaurants. Last year, a
        tourism development center opened at the town's municipality with
        USAID funding. The head of the center Armen Movsisyan can organize
        tent trips around Kapan.

        For further information about Kapan contact the Tourism and Business
        Centre of the Municipality of Kapan at (+374 91) 33 22 83, (+374 285)
        226 66, [email protected]



        What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

        Comment


        • #14
          INSIDE IJEVAN: VILLAGERS OFFER VISITORS A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

          By Suren Deheryan
          ArmeniaNow Reporter

          The sport watch on Ashot Levonyan's wrist indicated 1495, the height
          above sea level of the hill near the village of Yenokavan where the
          tour guide was making final preparations with a group of tourists for
          a long hiking trip through a forest-covered gorge.

          The path leading to the gorge begins from this high hill called Gomer
          or Isharats by Yenokavan's villagers. There were Soviet-era communal
          cattle-sheds here even before the notion of a tourism industry
          penetrated these parts.

          But it is already a year that this territory has been a tourist magnet
          as a result of investments by the Moscow-based doctor Artak
          Chibukhchyan, a native of the village. The cattle-sheds have been
          turned into stables and surrounded by wooden chalets, tents, a
          bathhouse and toilets. Tourists are offered several sight-seeing tours
          on horseback or on foot.

          Chibukhchyan, who set up the Apaga Tour Company, decided to turn his
          birthplace into a recreational area for those who prefer a healthy and
          active holiday. Nature in these parts has generously created all of
          the preconditions.

          Yenokavan is situated in the north-east of Armenia, 10 kilometers from
          the town of Ijevan. It is located at a height of 1,000-1,300 meters,
          surrounded by hills, and close to a forest-covered gorge about 100
          meters deep that ranges for about five kilometers.

          The route of the expedition is through this gorge. Members of the
          party are supplied with handmade sticks by the stable watchman Habek
          Gabrielyan, walk in close file along the path and disappear into the
          forest one after another.

          Awaiting them ahead are caves, springs, inimitable sights and
          waterfalls. The local forest is rich in wild fruit-trees and bushes,
          among which are pear-trees, plum-trees, cornelian cherry, raspberry
          and wild strawberry. Local villagers use them to make jams, juices and
          vodka.

          When Levonyan's watch indicated a height of 1,430 meters, the
          expedition stopped for a moment. The guide informed them that this was
          one of the impassable parts of the gorge called Ishadzor or Eshi dzor
          (Donkey's Gorge), as one donkey carrying a heavy load once fell down
          from here.

          After a long descent the line of backpackers passes by springs, trees
          that have collapsed and cracked from old age, multicolored flowers,
          and through narrow boulder turns until they reach a cave called
          Lastiver or Anapa. Its splendid views make the hikers forget their
          hard journey for a moment.

          The gorge of Yenokavan has several caves - from 10 to 30 meters long
          and about 15 meters wide. According to Levonyan, people hid in these
          caves from marauding Tartar-Mongol hordes during the 9th to 11th
          Centuries.

          The seal of mankind is put here on the walls of the cave - through
          dozens of beautiful carvings that depict man and beast side by side as
          well as images of large and small crosses. It is due to these crosses
          that some people visit Lastiver today as a place of pilgrimage.

          `People need such trips,' says Levonyan. `They may seem tiring and
          hard, but such immediate contact with nature cleans the negative
          emotions from the body. In other words, just as a church is a place
          for spiritual purity, nature is also very medicinal. When you walk
          here, you establish mental contact with nature.'

          Smoke slowly rises from a fire down by the cave. This is from a camp
          which was not here even a month ago. It was set up by Vahagn and Tatul
          Tananyans, young brothers from Ijevan who also aim to develop hiking
          tourism here.

          In spring they founded a tourist company with the symbolic name of
          `Peace to the World' and rented a space from Hayantar (Armenian Forest
          Department) State CJS Company near the territory of the caves. They
          built a camp near the river and now await their first visitors.

          `We used to come to these forests for 10 years and it was our hobby,
          we would bring our friends with us. Now we have decided to turn it
          into a business, as many do not know about these places,' says
          27-year-old Vahagn.

          `We haven't yet seen the result of our efforts. We have agreements
          with tourist companies to send tourists to us. Now we are waiting for
          them. We are prepared to receive about 15 people.'

          The camp is located near the river Khachaghbyur. It is a paradise for
          those keen on wildlife. The whole camp consists of tables made of
          pieces of dried trees, chairs, wooden wardrobes and tents. On the one
          side there is a field kitchen, and on the other end, a little away, a
          toilet. In the middle is the fire with a kettle of water boiling on
          it.

          Arman Gabrielyan, 21, a groom at the Chibukhchyan stables, also
          accompanied the expedition. The young Yenokavan villager climbs back
          up with Tarzan-like strides, while the tourists strain to keep up.

          `I love these places,' says Arman. `I come here all year round guiding
          our visitors. Sometimes I serve as an example for tourists not to
          avoid the difficult parts. For example, some Americans came once but
          avoided bathing in the waterfall. I did, and only after that, making
          sure that there was no danger, they also submerged themselves in the
          water.'

          The tour ends where it started - in Gomer where watchman Habek has
          prepared a hot-water bath. Habek has kept a guestbook for a year
          already and, before saying good-bye to his visitors, he asks them to
          make an entry.

          Among the memories is this from student Norayr Avanesyan: `I give my
          thanks to nature that created such places where I can fly in my
          thoughts, where my muse visits me. Here my thoughts come together and
          create a song. Feeling freedom and the fragrance of nature here, you
          don't want to go back.'

          Levonyan advises prospective visitors that a tour of several days is
          needed to get acquainted with all the historical and cultural
          monuments in the area (fortresses, churches, khachkars) and to see the
          sights properly.

          [Deleted reference to Travel Agency. Siamanto]

          Last edited by Siamanto; 06-27-2005, 06:33 PM.
          What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

          Comment


          • #15
            ROCK AND SOUL: MAN WITH A MISSION CREATES AN UNDERGROUND MONUMENT

            By Gayane Abrahamyan ArmeniaNow Reporter

            If you wish to escape from the noisy routine of life, you need only
            visit the village of Arinj, not far from Yerevan, and ask for Lyova
            Arakelyan's house.

            Every single man here old or young will willingly accompany you to
            this handmade unique cave of the 21st Century that has attracted
            already the attentions of 40,000 visitors, not only from Armenia, but
            also from the US, Poland, Germany, Iran, Japan, Israel and many other
            countries.

            Wonders lie on the other side of the gates to Arakelyan's simple and
            nondescript house. The gentle 64-year-old cave- maker with smiling
            eyes opens the heavy iron handled door of his `temple' and leads you
            into an underground world of his own creation.

            Stairs carved in the grey basalt lead down from our surface life to a
            depth of 21 meters (equal to a 7-story building) and an underground
            world. After 80 stairs you find yourself in a round hall with
            decorated alcoves, then on to another room with columns, before
            entering a hall that calls to mind the interior of a church.

            Further and further into the cave the labyrinth of stairs carries you,
            into six halls of this rocky engraved museum, each with its own unique
            carvings.

            Arakelyan, a construction worker by trade, never intended to dig under
            his own house to create a cave church. He had been building homes for
            25 years, when one day 20 years ago while in Russia, he says a phantom
            came to him and said: `You have an important job to do, you will live
            96 years and images will appear in your eyes during those years that
            you need to repeat exactly.'

            Then, in 1985, Arakelyan went down to the basement of his house to dig
            a store for potatoes, as his wife Tosya Gharibyan had asked. It was a
            request that radically changed their lives.

            >From that moment, he became a zealous digger as if on some mission in
            search of the Holy Grail. His fight is with rock that neighbors say is
            impenetrable.

            Arakelyan had dug just half a meter when he met the hard basalt on
            which the whole village rests. Neighbors who reached it stopped
            digging, but Arakelyan took the sound of the spade on stone as a call
            to arms.

            He took his sharpest cutter and a five kilogram hammer and, for
            reasons perhaps unknown even to him, lunged at the rock. His aim was
            to carve an underground museum.

            `The stone was so hard that each time I hit it sparks lit my eyes,' he
            says. `Even working 17 hours a day I would hardly dig a hole more than
            20cm in diameter and 7cm deep. But while working I got unnatural
            strength, I do not know where from.'

            Arakelyan dug for 10 years until he reached a layer of tufa that
            obeyed his hammer more readily.

            A spade, a cutter...a unique passion and the lonely zeal of a human. A
            place for potatoes turned into a tourist attraction. This is Lyova
            Arakelyan's world.

            `The most interesting thing is that Arakelyan works without any
            electric instrument and he does it alone,' says Ziggi Hanor, a BBC
            reporter.

            Arakelyan insists he doesn't work alone, that a spirit helps him. He
            says: `Almighty God helps me, I couldn't do all this alone, I am just
            realizing His work.'

            As well as digging and cutting, he also craves on stone and makes
            sculptures. Now the 21 meter deep and 300 square meter rocky pit has 6
            rooms connected to each other by narrow stairs. In the small alcoves
            at the sides of the stairs are lamps and sculptures by Arakelyan, one
            like a Greek column, another like an Armenian capital, later a candle
            holder carved in the wall like an open shell.

            `I see everything in my dreams, the images come and I know even in
            centimeters which part to carve, how I should decorate
            everything. Then I go to work in the morning,' says Arakelyan.

            The atmosphere of mysterious silence underground and the coolness of
            the carved stone gives an unusual sense of peace. You feel as if you
            have ascended rather than descended from the surface of the earth.

            Arakelyan hasn't put down his cutter and hammer for 20 years. He says:
            `I do not want to go out from here; this seems to be like my space, my
            spiritual life that is fully separate from the secular world and its
            problems.'

            He has removed 450 trucks of soil and stones from here, used more than
            20 cutters and hammers, and gone through innumerous pairs of shoes and
            clothes that Arakelyan's wife now preserves to show in the museum in
            the future.

            But her husband is not going to finish his work, insisting that he
            will continue for 30 more years and dig 74 more rooms complete with
            decoration.

            `That is the order,' he says simply.

            Arakelyan has been granted the title of `Honored Cave Explorer' by the
            Center for Cave Studies for his work. Its president Samvel Shahinyan
            says with admiration: `I have studied more than a thousand caves and
            seen rocky structures in Europe, Africa and Asia.

            `I am still shocked by the one created by Arakelyan. It is a miracle.'



            What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

            Comment


            • #16
              HISTORY EXPOSED: ANCIENT MONUMENTS LACK PROTECTION, SAY EXPERTS

              By Aris Ghazinyan
              ArmeniaNow Reporter

              Modern Armenia is one of the rare countries of the world in which no
              more than 15 percent of the nation's cultural monuments are on its
              territory. The overwhelming majority of ruins of ancient and medieval
              Armenian sanctuaries, temples, fortresses and cities, which number
              several tens of thousands, are under the jurisdiction of Turkey today,
              in the lands of historical Armenia.

              Like Biblical Ararat, former capital cities of Armenia - Van, Ani,
              Kars, Tigranakert, lie beyond the Turkish-Armenian border. It is
              obvious that in order to get a true and comprehensive view of Armenia
              one must visit the neighboring state as well.

              The synthesis of past and the present against a background of amazing
              nature gives Armenia its special character as an open-air
              museum. Although the state is small, Armenia has many remarkable
              features that remain undiscovered by foreign tourists and even many
              citizens.

              It is clear that `rediscovering Armenia' should be a priority and that
              this could be accompanied by a revival of Armenian legends and
              traditions that were widely known in medieval Europe.

              `What `rediscovery of Armenia' can we talk about if well-known
              monuments of the Armenian people are being destroyed today, about
              which many generations of outstanding scholars wrote with admiration,'
              says Ara Demirkhanyan, director of the historical-archeological museum
              in Avan.

              `The only city of the epoch of the most powerful Armenian monarch
              Tigran II in the territory of the Armenian capital has already been
              damaged. This is the way we mark today the 2,100th anniversary of the
              ascent of the great king to the Armenian throne. A 200-meter fence,
              which even a few years ago protected this unique monument now fences
              the police precinct of Avan. It is an outrage, but, alas, there are
              many such facts in modern Armenia.'

              A few years ago Demirkhanyan drafted and sent to Yerevan's
              municipality a proposal to transform Avan into an
              historical-archeological reserve, since most of the city's ancient
              monuments are concentrated in this district: besides the ancient city,
              one could see also here a medieval necropolis with 150 vertical
              khachkars, monumental stelae from the 5th Century, a first-ever
              Christian cross-dome construction - the 6th Century Avan cathedral),
              some chapels and examples of the old city's construction. The
              scholar's project was rejected.

              `Now, the city of Tigran II's era is lost under personal
              kitchen-gardens, one of the steles is destroyed, the chapel of
              Karmravor has collapsed, and the necropolis is being intensively
              destroyed,' he says. `What state attention can we talk about if
              representatives of law-enforcement bodies have `privatized' the fence
              around the monument?'

              The head of the Erebuni archeological party Felix Ter-Martirosov
              expresses a similar view, saying: `The fortress built of raw bricks is
              collapsing before people's eyes. For more than 20 years the monument
              has been neglected by the state and nothing has been done to protect
              it.

              `Erebuni's protection cannot be effective if the fortress has no
              fence, and that's why it is full of outsiders and not only at
              night. Visits to the museum should be regulated by civilized forms of
              management and strictly supervised.

              `Today, this locality is like a chaotic square where groups of
              strangers march about, ride bicycles, play football. Given that the
              construction is collapsing, the presence of people with little idea of
              cultural and national values on the territory of Erebuni day and night
              is a disaster.'

              The fortress of Erebuni on the Arin-Berd hill is still awaiting
              full-scale study. The foundation was laid as far back as 782 BC by the
              mighty king of the Van Empire Argishti I. Later, Erebuni became the
              capital of the satrapy of Ahemenid Iran, and it is this layer of its
              history that is visible on the surface today. Ter-Martirosov's
              investigation found a Van (Urartu) layer under the Iranian foundation,
              a sensational discovery which failed to arouse official interest.

              `Our expedition works on enthusiasm alone and is not financed by the
              state,' says the archeologist. `Our excavations become the `property'
              of local residents who sneak in at night to find hidden
              treasures. With competent management, Erebuni should be a Caucasian
              Mecca for tourists, demonstrating the continuity of cultures and
              traditions.'

              So careless were municipal authorities towards the monument that last
              year they even proposed to stage a concert on the site to mark the
              2,786th anniversary of the foundation of Yerevan, despite warnings of
              the damage that would be caused by the hundreds of guests. Only
              widespread criticism of the plan in the media caused them to cancel
              the event.

              Attention was drawn to the condition of the Avan-Arinj settlement at
              the 24th session of the General Assembly of the BSEC (the
              Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
              organization) in Antalia, Turkey, in November 2004.

              A report at the session stated: `(Due to) the absence of political
              will and connivance of the authorities, earth- moving works, looting,
              planting of gardens in the territory...has reduced the monument to a
              sad condition.'

              According to the Mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan, the fate of some
              18,000 pieces of land occupied by squatters will be decided soon. Some
              have a direct link with historical monuments, such as the new cemetery
              of Karmir Blur which extends onto the slopes of the hill on which King
              Rusa II the city of Teishebaini in the 7th Century BC. Today's tourist
              is unable to distinguish between ancient stone and a nearby grave of
              the second half of the 20th Century.

              As for Erebuni, Yerevan's vice-mayor Arman Sahakyan admits `the
              situation on the hill is depressing.'

              `We are thinking of setting up a fund for the restoration of the
              `Erebuni' museum and will try to include the monument into the
              programs that receive international funding. Meanwhile, a professional
              approach should be shown in order to continue archeological
              excavations,' he says.

              Ter-Martirosov thinks the main problem is not the lack of funds, but
              of understanding. He says: `About 70 million drams were spent on the
              celebrations of Erebuni-Yerevan last year. It is obvious that some of
              this money could have been spent more sensibly.'


              What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

              Comment


              • #17
                DRESS CODES: TRADITIONAL COSTUMES GAIN APPRECIATION AND A MODERN TWIST

                By Gayane Mkrtchyan
                ArmeniaNow Reporter

                A group of Diaspora Armenians gathered in Vernisage, Yerevan's
                open-air flea market, was enthusiastically checking vests, hats and
                bags made from carpet textile. Gohar from the United States donned an
                Armenian embroidered skullcap and took in her hand a matching bag.

                `Our traditional Armenian colors are a miracle, they lift your spirits
                at once. All this seems to come from my soul,' she says, paying folk
                master Lilik Melkonyan for her goods.

                Lilik says that national costume has been more appreciated lately and
                is bought more often, but she also complains that Armenians suffer
                more from complexes than other nations.

                `Uzbeks very calmly wear their national skullcaps and never feel bad
                about that. They love theirs and we like foreign ones more - Chinese,
                Turkish. Thank God, now they begin to appreciate what they have,
                especially the young people,' she says.

                Items with traditional Armenian embroidery go from Vernisage to the
                United States, Canada, Australia, Iran, and the streets of
                Yerevan. Those wearing national dress are given a different look in
                the street. Those who dress confidently do not notice, but more
                hesitant souls feel uncomfortable and some throw their garments to the
                far corner of their wardrobes the very next day.

                The painter Lusik Aguletsi has worn national dresses for 38 years. She
                says at first people just assumed she was an artist, and when she
                began to wear silver decorations together with the national dresses,
                they thought perhaps she was a fan of `metal' music.

                But now everybody recognizes her and say simply: it is Lusik.

                `I do nothing new, I do what has been done for 3,000 years. It doesn't
                depend on boldness, but on mentality, how one can fashion one's
                looks. Nothing should prevent us from preserving our national
                traditions,' she says.

                The painter's dressing table is full of multicolored skullcaps and
                silver ornaments. Traditional Armenian dresses and bags are hanging on
                the peg. When receiving guests during public holidays, members of
                Lusik's family put on traditional dresses. She says it is not her
                influence, simply that they feel more beautiful.

                Armine Stepanyan, an ethnographer at the Institute of Archaeology and
                Ethnography, says that the traditional dress can be reborn as modern
                fashion with freedom of imagination.

                `We do not call for tying Armenian aprons around one's waist, but the
                embroidery and color of the apron can be used in part of the dress,'
                she says.

                `We have amazing outdoor dresses (short coats) instead of coats seen
                in the Ararat, Syunik, and Artsakh national dresses. They can receive
                modern styling, only the creative approach should be preserved.'

                Generally, Armenian traditional taraz is divided into two groups -
                Western Armenian, in which were included Vaspurakan, Bardzr Hayk,
                Cilicia, Pokr Hayk, and Eastern Armenian including Syunik, Artsakh,
                Ayrarat, Shirak, Javakhk, Lori, and Gugark.

                `The traditional Armenian dress is the same in basic structure,
                however each area had its own color and form peculiarities. The main
                decoration of taraz was the scarf or headdress, which was also
                regarded as an indicator of age. The kerchief, as well as other
                elements of the head ornament spoke about a woman's social position,'
                Stepanyan explains.

                The head ornaments included adornments of the forehead and
                temple. Silver and gold coins were especially important here and in
                chest ornaments. Today, many women continue to wear silver coins as
                neck ornaments.

                Aguletsi says that different provinces had different
                headdresses. Women from Mush wore ones with patterns symbolizing
                eternity, for example. Headdresses retain their appeal for many women
                today - Melkonyan says that she recently received an order from a
                group of school children who had decided to wear national costumes at
                their prom.

                Another ethnographer at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography,
                Svetlana Poghosyan, says that people were made to abandon headdresses
                and forehead ornaments when the Soviet regime was established.

                Armenian women faced serious problems. Activists began to put
                headscarves the other way round, to cut their hair and shorten the
                hems of their dresses.

                `It was viewed in the Armenian environment as immoral, those wearing
                short skirts were told that their hem was `wrong' (i.e. they were
                immoral). And headscarves were regarded as a woman's honor, like a hat
                for a man,' Poghosyan explains.

                Violet, different tints of red, and green were the colors mainly used
                in traditional Armenian taraz. White featured relatively
                little. Traditional wedding dresses were red and decorated with works
                of the needlework schools of Marash, Ayntap, and Urha, as well as
                batique.

                The painter-designers of the `Zatik' studio continue to boldly do all
                this today. One of them, Gohar Ayvazyan, says that if you are Armenian
                then you must continue the national culture.

                The studio's latest spring-autumn collection of 50 dresses is designed
                with patterns of the `Urha' school of needlework. Painter-designer
                Tatevik Ghamaryan shows the collection and explains the handiwork in
                detail.

                `This is a stamping, this is batique. This cannot be repeated for a
                second time, it will certainly differ from the first one. We also use
                decorations from Armenian miniature and carpet embroideries. We
                synthesize the old with the new and create the `New Urha' style,' she
                says.

                The studio will open a store in Yerevan on July 17 selling `Zatik'
                clothes bearing different symbolic ornaments of Armenian traditional
                dress. Ornaments had different meanings - perfection, eternity,
                continuity - and often bore a defensive message too, especially if
                placed on the rear of the dress or on the chest.

                Stepanyan says: `The same pattern was transferred from wood onto
                fabric, from fabric onto carpet, subjecting it to certain changes
                because technique was adjusted to the material. They used vegetable
                and geometric ornaments, which were more multifunctional and contained
                lots of information about those wearing them.'

                `The main idea of our national dress is that it was to cover all of
                the woman's charms. The eye-catching parts of the body should be
                decorated with ornaments. A man was to see not a woman's body but her
                handwork, taste, and also guess which part of Armenia she was from,'
                Aguletsi says.

                `Once I was walking down a street in Paris, fully dressed in Armenian
                traditional dresses and shining in red. A black woman came towards me
                and stared.

                `She stopped me to ask where I was from and I said I was an
                Armenian. You know how surprised she was? She said `Do Armenians have
                such a beautiful national dresses?'

                `National dresses are our culture, our national wealth, our real
                image. It is so rich - with bright colors and ornaments that there is
                nothing superfluous there.'



                What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

                Comment


                • #18
                  ARMENIA AND JAPAN: ASYA LINKS TWO CULTURES IN BONDS OF DISCOVERY AND
                  DELIGHT

                  By Marianna Grigoryan
                  ArmeniaNow Reporter

                  Every time Asya Harutyunyan makes a business trip to Japan she never
                  forgets to take grape leaves with her.

                  In the land of the rising sun, a Japanese woman, Mika Ohira, takes the
                  sun-kissed grape leaves and turns them into the famous Armenian dolma.

                  Japan may be thousands of kilometers from Armenia and even further
                  away in terms of culture and philosophy. But Asya jokes that Mika
                  makes dolma more often than Armenians do.

                  "Many meals in our cuisine are made of boiled vegetables and meat, and
                  maybe that is the reason I loved the Armenian grape leave-wrapped
                  dolma," says Mika.

                  Ohira learnt to make dolma from Asya when she visited Armenia as a
                  tourist. Harutyunyan, 30, is president of the "Asya Ararat" tourism
                  agency, which specializes in introducing these two ancient cultures to
                  each other.

                  An expert in Japan and the Japanese language, Harutyunyan is a
                  translator by profession and says she opened a tourism agency only by
                  accident in 2002.

                  "For three and half years I studied in the university of the former
                  capital and one of the oldest towns of Japan, Kyoto. I was always an
                  admirer of Japan, the Japanese language and music even before I went
                  there," says Asya, whose room is filled with the sounds of Japanese
                  music and the walls are decorated with artifacts reflecting Japanese
                  culture.

                  Asya says that after completing her studies and returning to Armenia
                  she continues to keep links with her friends in Japan, who remain
                  close to her heart. Once when they visited Armenia as tourists, they
                  asked her to take them sightseeing; Asya showed them Garni and Geghard
                  and told them the history of these Armenian monuments.

                  "I then learnt that the next day they went to the same places with
                  their tour group as set out in their program but the guide gave such
                  poor information that my friends told the other Japanese the things
                  that I had told them the day before," says Asya. "After that my
                  friends advised me to open my own agency and promised to become my
                  first clients."

                  Harutyunyan says that, although she lacked financial means, she took
                  her friends' advice and registered her tourism agency soon after with
                  a focus on connections between Japan and Armenia.

                  "Before that people from Japan visited Armenia only on an
                  inter-governmental level. Armenia wasn't seen by Japanese as a country
                  for tourism," says Asya.

                  The specialist of Japan says her friends and acquaintances are
                  beginning to give her customers, paying attention to her knowledge and
                  understanding of the culture of communicating with the Japanese.

                  "Our cultures and manners are very different," says Asya. "If a
                  Japanese person suddenly sneezes, which is considered impolite for
                  them, the Armenian "Bless you!" is doubly inappropriate and
                  impolite. Such important details I learnt while in Japan. Being aware
                  of Japanese manners, I try here to present Armenia to them with all
                  its look and charm."

                  Mika Ohira says she heard about Armenia for the first time in 1975 at
                  high school as part of lessons about the Soviet Union. She became
                  acquainted with Asya through the internet, where she learned about her
                  tourist activities, and decided to fulfill a long-held dream to visit
                  the Caucasus region and Armenia.

                  "I am confident today Armenia is more interesting in terms of tourism
                  than Russia for instance. I think Armenia is the country with the best
                  reputation among the CIS countries, besides it is also safe and
                  everything is quite cheap which is no less important," says Mika.

                  Ohira says Armenians have impressed her with their
                  friendliness. Another tourist from Japan, Hiraoka Hirako, heard about
                  Armenia for the first time while traveling in Iran.

                  "We went to an Armenian village in Iran that interested me very
                  much. When I came back from my trip I began collecting information
                  about Armenia on the internet and decided to come," says Hiraoka.

                  Harutyunyan says she can't tell exactly how many tourists have come
                  from Japan. She adds: "Everything depends on the time; at times there
                  are many visitors, at others only a tourist or two. But these trips
                  are really unique."

                  Visits from Armenia to Japan are unique not only for the high prices
                  (7-10 days tripd including the airticket costs nearly between $2,200
                  and $4,000), but also for their originality and sense of interest.

                  "Those leaving for Japan from Armenia are mainly upper class people,
                  who do not care about money. They have traveled across the world and
                  seek new original sensations," says Harutyunyan. "People coming to
                  Armenia from Japan are interested in the ancient treasures of our
                  country, those wonders registered by UNESCO."

                  According to Harutyunyan those wonders are divided into three groups.

                  The first place of visit is Ejmiatsin ` the Ejmiatsin Cathedral and
                  churches of Gayane and Hripsime. The second are Geghard and the Azat
                  gorge. And the third group where all the Japanese tourists wish to
                  visit by all means regardless of age and occupation are the Haghpat
                  and Sanahin monasteries. A visit has been organized also to Karabagh
                  upon the tourist's request.

                  Besides the visits to historical and cultural places, trips are made
                  also to the capital's restaurants, where usually the Japanese who love
                  healthy food consider the offerings to be too salty or greasy, and the
                  smoking and alcohol not very pleasant.

                  "The Japanese do not like Armenian spas (yoghurt soup) for they are
                  not very much used to dairy products," says Harutyunyan. "But they
                  always take with them Armenian brandy, silver jewelry and handmade
                  table cloths that have been kept carefully for a long time."



                  What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

                  Comment


                  • #19
                    ON THE MAP: GUIDEBOOK WINS PRAISE FOR PUTTING ARMENIA AND KARABAKH IN
                    THE HANDS OF TOURISTS

                    By Arpi Harutyunyan ArmeniaNow Reporter

                    The Independent Book Publishers Association in the United States has
                    declared `The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and Karabakh' to be the
                    best travel guide published in 2004.

                    The authors of the book are Matthew Karanian and Robert
                    Kurkjian. Karanian is a member of the law faculty at the American
                    University of Armenia, where Kurkjian is a former faculty member.

                    They worked on the guide for about 12 months, traveling through
                    Armenia and Karabakh and taking photos of the sights.The sponsors were
                    the Cafesjian Foundation and Sargis Hakobyan, who lives in the United
                    States and is very interested in preservation issues in Armenia. A
                    significant part of the costs were also met by the authors.

                    `We worked on this book late at night and at week-ends, collecting all
                    the necessary materials, drawing maps, studying the history and
                    geography of the countries. It wasn't easy, but we had set ourselves
                    an objective to write a real comprehensive guidebook for tourists who
                    want to travel to Armenia and Karabakh. We should assist in developing
                    tourism business in Armenia and Karabakh,' says Karanian.

                    The guide-book offers everything that a tourist needs to know about
                    Armenia and Karabakh: history, geography, climate, population,
                    language, economy, politics, religion, architecture and so on. Useful
                    information is included also in sections such as `Before you go',
                    `Organized tours and travel agencies', `Foreign embassies in Yerevan',
                    `Public transportation', `Hotels', `Restaurants', `Money', and even
                    `Children's activities'. The map section covers all the regions in
                    Armenia and Karabakh.

                    `In the past, most books about Armenia seemed to be gloomy. We had
                    books about the earthquake, about the poor economy, everything seemed
                    so bleak. But that's the wrong picture,' says Karanian.

                    `Armenia is beautiful, and deserves to be visited. We felt that we
                    should encourage tourists, rather than push them away. We've been
                    tracking the results and we know that tourism has been increasing, and
                    that more people now want to visit.'

                    Bedros Safarian, a spokesman for Stone Garden Productions, publisher
                    of the guidebook, says he is thrilled by its success, adding: `As far
                    as I know, this is the first time an Armenia related book has received
                    such an award.'

                    The winning Armenian guide book competed with more than 1,500 entries
                    from the US, Canada and 18 other countries. The competition recognizes
                    independently published books in categories that include Fiction,
                    Non-Fiction, Romance, Poetry, Art, Photography and travel guides.

                    Jim Barnes, managing editor of the Independent Publisher's
                    Association, evaluated `The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and
                    Karabakh' by saying that such books are changing the world, one book
                    at a time.

                    The Armenia book shared its winning finalist status in the travel
                    guide category with `Michelin Must Sees: New Orleans', published by
                    Michelin Travel Publications.

                    The 304-page Armenia guide-book is based on two earlier guidebooks
                    also produced by Karanian and Kurkjian in 1999 and 2002 to introduce
                    Armenia to those living abroad.

                    `After we published our first book, `Out of Stone,' we got lots of
                    inquiries, emails, from people who said they had never known that
                    Armenia was so beautiful. This encouraged us and we realized that we
                    should write a guide book,' said Karanian.

                    The guide, printed in English, is being sold in Armenia and the
                    USA. In Armenia, copies are available in Artbridge caf�, and the
                    Congress and Ani Plaza hotels. Priced at $25, the majority of the
                    5,000 books printed have already been sold.

                    Now `The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and Karabakh' is the
                    best-selling independently published book about Armenia, booksellers
                    say.

                    According to Karanian, there is also one more important point: the
                    development of tourism will make Turkey take greater care of Armenian
                    monuments that are now on their territory and are being ruined, since
                    Turkey will see a chance to earn money when tourists visit Western
                    Armenia.

                    The authors plan to publish updated editions every 2 years. Says
                    Karanian: `We are going to continue to work on this book all our
                    lives. There is constant change here. We will continue to write about
                    the improvements, the progress.

                    `We are told that this is a book that can be trusted, and that's the
                    best thing anyone can say about a book.'




                    What if I find someone else when looking for you? My soul shivers as the idea invades my mind.

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