The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

[Kanki]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Zeytuntsi, why do our tourists go to Turkey? Is it because it's cheaper overthere? I know that many people go on vacation to Egypt too....
The Turks advertise their tourist industry big time. I live in US, I see VISIT TURKEY billboards everywhere, they even put them on buses....

Being a landlocked country, Armenia still has plenty to offer, the Armenians must build up their tourist business too.

Your country is suitable for Eco-tourism. . .

[North Pole]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Your country is suitable for Eco-tourism. . .

I am from Russia, Kanki.
I think you are talking about Armenia. Correct? What is Eco-tourism?

[Armenian]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

Zeytuntsi, why do our tourists go to Turkey? Is it because it's cheaper overthere? I know that many people go on vacation to Egypt too....
The Turks advertise their tourist industry big time. I live in US, I see VISIT TURKEY billboards everywhere, they even put them on buses....

Being a landlocked country, Armenia still has plenty to offer, the Armenians must build up their tourist business too.

Dear North Pole, please disregard this "Zeytountsi" character. His sole purpose here is to place a negative light on Russian-Armenian relations and attack the Armenian Republic. And he's after me. Don't take my word for it, just look at his posts. Thus, Zeytuntsi is not interested in a real discussion. In his warped world, he thinks that by posting information about Russians going on vacation in Turkey will SHOCK us Armenians into realizing that Russia is not a friend of Armenia. Posting of the poll results previosuly had a similar intent. The fact of the matter is, Turkey is one of the most developed countries in the worlds with regards to tourism. Ideally located geographically and in charge of Byzantium's immense cultural heritage, Turkey has a multi billion dollar tourism industry and attracts many millions of westerners perennially. What's more, official Ankara is seriously seeking to attract Russian vacation goers. Tiny, impoverished, landlocked Armenia surrounded by enemies in the Caucasus can't even 'think' of competing with what Turkey has to offer to the average vacationer from Russia. However, the tourism industry in Armenia is ~ slowly ~ growing as well. Currently, Armenia attracts Eco tourists from Europe and America as Kanki stated and individuals who are interested in Caucasian/Armenian history and culture. The vast majority of the half-a-million or so tourists in Armenia, however, are diasporan Armenians. Although the Armenian region of Tsaghkatsor attracts some Russians in the winter for skiing, generally speaking Armenia is 'not' a destination a typical vacationer looks to go to - yet. Several weeks ago I caught the report in the New York Times that Zeytountsi posted. The report did not shock me nor did it make me worried about Russian-Armenian relations. Simply put, I envious. While we have Armenians that seek to bad mouth Russians and Russo-Armenian relations, Turks (who were one of the major supporter of the Chechen insurgency in Russia) are sparing no efforts in attracting Russians to their country.

We Armenians may be smart and talented but we are backward politically and emotionally unbalanced.

Free and Flush, Russians Eager to Roam Abroad

A water aerobics class at a hotel in Antalya, Turkey, built for Russian tourists to resemble the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral.

Yelena Kasyanova booked her trip at a local travel agency in about as much time it takes to drop by the market for a few groceries. She was soon lounging here by the Mediterranean, a working-class anybody from an anyplace deep in Russia, a child of the Soviet era who still remembers the humiliating strictures that once made it difficult to obtain a passport, let alone a plane ticket. And all around the beach were so many just like her. One of the most enduring changes in the lives of Russians in recent years has occurred not in Russia itself, but in places like this coastal region of Turkey, where an influx of Russian tourists has given rise to a mini-industry catering to their needs. A people who under Communism were rarely allowed to venture abroad, and then lacked money to do so when the political barriers first fell, are now seeing the world. And relishing it.

There is perhaps no better symbol of the growth in Russian tourism than the very resort where Ms. Kasyanova was staying, the Kremlin Palace Hotel, a kind of Las-Vegas-does-Moscow-by-the-shore extravaganza whose buildings are replicas of major sights at the Kremlin complex and nearby neighborhood. Why go to any old spot when you can frolic by the pool while gazing at the reassuring onion domes of a faux St. Basil’s Cathedral? (No need to bundle up against the cold, either!) Ms. Kasyanova, 51, a health-care aide from the Kaluga region, 125 miles southwest of Moscow, has been to Egypt, Hungary and Turkey in the last few years and has Western Europe in her sights. For her and other Russians interviewed here, foreign travel reflects not just Russia’s economic revival under Vladimir V. Putin, but also how the country has become, in some essential ways, normal.

If you have some time and a little money, you can travel. Just like everyone else in the world. “It is now so easy — buy a package tour for $800, and here we are, in paradise,” said Ms. Kasyanova, who, like many Russians here, was amused by the resort’s trappings but also interested in exploring the mountains and other places nearby. “It speaks of the high standard of life in Russia, of the improvement in life in Russia.” The Russians are coming from all over. At the local airport here, the arrivals screen was like a primer in Russian geography, with charter flights from Moscow, Rostov-on-Don in the south, Kazan in the center, Novosibirsk in Siberia and other cities in between.

The number of Russian tourists visiting countries outside the former Soviet Union grew to 7.1 million in 2006, the last year statistics were available, from 2.6 million in 1995, according to the Russian government. A record 2.5 million Russians visited Turkey in 2007, up 33 percent from 2006, Turkish officials said. Only Germany, that paragon of European wealth, sends more tourists to Turkey. (By contrast, in 1988, a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, all of 22,000 Soviet citizens visited Turkey.) The Russian tourism boom is happening as new low-cost airlines in Europe have spurred a sharp increase in tourism across the Continent. But for the Russians, the chance to travel is especially prized.

A Russian family played cards recently during a vacation at the Kremlin Palace Hotel in Antalya, Turkey. The resort caters to Russians, who are visiting Turkey in growing numbers

For the first time in Russian history, wide swaths of the citizenry are being exposed to life in far-off lands, helping to ease a kind of insularity and parochialism that built up in the Soviet era. Back then, the public was not only prevented from going abroad; it was also inculcated with propaganda that the Soviet Union was unquestionably the world’s best country, so there was no need to leave anyway. People who desired foreign travel in Soviet times typically had to receive official approval, and if it was granted, they were closely chaperoned once they crossed the border. Even before they left, they often were sent to classes to be indoctrinated in how to behave and avoid the perils of foreign influence. Those who were not in good standing with the party had little chance of going.

The controls on travel were particularly onerous given Russia’s long and dark winters. “For us, it’s like a fairy tale to be here,” said Lilia Valeyeva, 46, a clerk from Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains who had never before been abroad when she visited Turkey two years ago. Since then, she has returned twice. “We are seeing other countries with our own eyes, how other people live,” she said. Many Russians interviewed here credited Mr. Putin, the former president and current prime minister, for their ability to travel, saying that he was responsible for Russia’s new prosperity. “It is not like before, when we were afraid of everything,” said Larisa Kazakova, 32, a real estate agent from Yekaterinburg. “We travel, and we live a good life.”

These days, Russians can compare the services they receive abroad with those at home, and can mingle with tourists from everywhere. How these experiences will alter their perspective at home is an intriguing question. The writer and commentator Viktor Yerofeyev said he had noticed that the more Russians traveled, the more they tended to lose some of the coarseness that at times characterized Soviet society. “Through all this travel, we are seeing a change in mentality at home,” Mr. Yerofeyev said. “People are now seeking pleasure, whether it is in the night clubs of Moscow or in restaurants. Travel is a continuation of that pleasure. Just to have pleasant lives, not to suffer, to feel positive. Their life compass changes, from ‘I don’t care about anything’ to ‘I would like to have a better life.’ Travel is a part of this.” “The world is becoming part of their lives,” he said.

The first major wave of Russian tourists after the fall of the Soviet Union did not necessarily do their country proud, sometimes acting like rowdy college freshmen getting a taste of spring break in Florida. There were tales of hotels limiting or even banning some Russian tour groups because of drunken behavior. Hotel executives in Turkey said things had largely settled down, with many Russian families now vacationing here, and relatively few problems. “Nobody believes me when I say this, but the Germans drink even more than the Russians,” said Ali Akgun, a manager at another hotel in the area, the Kemer Holiday Club. “It’s just that the Russians drink a little faster.”

The biggest struggle now for the Turkish hotels is to find enough staff members who speak Russian. Those in the tourism industry who had mastered German and English are returning to language school. “Everybody is studying Russian now,” said Suat Esenli, a worker at the Kremlin Palace Hotel, which has more than 800 rooms and opened in 2003, just as Russian tourism began to soar. Typically, about 60 percent of the hotel’s patrons are from the former Soviet Union, with the rest from elsewhere in Europe. Still, the effort to make Russian guests feel comfortable can go too far. For a time, one of the hotel restaurants served the sort of dishes — borscht, blinis and the like — that should have brought joy to a Russian’s heart. The restaurant had to scrap the menu. It turned out that the last thing that the Russians wanted was the food they could get at home.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/wo...c73&ei=5087%0A

[Kanki]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

I am from Russia, Kanki.
I think you are talking about Armenia. Correct? What is Eco-tourism?

Yes, I mentioned Armenia

Ecotourism is:

"Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." (TIES, 1990)

Ecotourism is about connecting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement and participate in responsible tourism activities should follow the following ecotourism principles:

*
minimize impact
*
build environmental and cultural awareness and respect
*
provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts
*
provide direct financial benefits for conservation
*
provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people
*
raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate

Sustainable and Responsible Tourism:

Sustainable tourism is: "Tourism that meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future."*

"Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Achieving sustainable tourism ... requires constant monitoring of impacts, introducing the necessary preventive and/or corrective measures whenever necessary. Sustainable tourism should ... ensure a meaningful experience to the tourists, raising their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices amongst them." (World Tourism Organization, 2004)

Sustainable development implies "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

Responsible tourism:

- minimises negative economic, environmental and social impacts
- generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well being of host communities
- improves working conditions and access to the industry
- involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances
- makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage embracing diversity
- provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues
- provides access for physically challenged people
- is culturally sensitive, encourages respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence.

(Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, 2002)

*"Typology of Tourism," WorldWatch Institute, Vital Signs 2005, p91

[Siamanto]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

http://www.russiablog.org/2008/06/ri...r_russians.php







Free and Flush, Russians Eager to Roam Abroad
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
The New York Times

Russian-tourists-Turkey-2.jpg

ANTALYA, Turkey — Yelena Kasyanova booked her trip at a local travel agency in about as much time it takes to drop by the market for a few groceries. She was soon lounging here by the Mediterranean, a working-class anybody from an anyplace deep in Russia, a child of the Soviet era who still remembers the humiliating strictures that once made it difficult to obtain a passport, let alone a plane ticket.

And all around the beach were so many just like her.

One of the most enduring changes in the lives of Russians in recent years has occurred not in Russia itself, but in places like this coastal region of Turkey, where an influx of Russian tourists has given rise to a mini-industry catering to their needs. A people who under Communism were rarely allowed to venture abroad, and then lacked money to do so when the political barriers first fell, are now seeing the world. And relishing it.

There is perhaps no better symbol of the growth in Russian tourism than the very resort where Ms. Kasyanova was staying, the Kremlin Palace Hotel, a kind of Las-Vegas-does-Moscow-by-the-shore extravaganza whose buildings are replicas of major sights at the Kremlin complex and nearby neighborhood. Why go to any old spot when you can frolic by the pool while gazing at the reassuring onion domes of a faux St. Basil’s Cathedral? (No need to bundle up against the cold, either!)

Ms. Kasyanova, 51, a health-care aide from the Kaluga region, 125 miles southwest of Moscow, has been to Egypt, Hungary and Turkey in the last few years and has Western Europe in her sights. For her and other Russians interviewed here, foreign travel reflects not just Russia’s economic revival under Vladimir V. Putin, but also how the country has become, in some essential ways, normal.

If you have some time and a little money, you can travel. Just like everyone else in the world.

“It is now so easy — buy a package tour for $800, and here we are, in paradise,” said Ms. Kasyanova, who, like many Russians here, was amused by the resort’s trappings but also interested in exploring the mountains and other places nearby. “It speaks of the high standard of life in Russia, of the improvement in life in Russia.”

The Russians are coming from all over. At the local airport here, the arrivals screen was like a primer in Russian geography, with charter flights from Moscow, Rostov-on-Don in the south, Kazan in the center, Novosibirsk in Siberia and other cities in between.

The number of Russian tourists visiting countries outside the former Soviet Union grew to 7.1 million in 2006, the last year statistics were available, from 2.6 million in 1995, according to the Russian government.

A record 2.5 million Russians visited Turkey in 2007, up 33 percent from 2006, Turkish officials said. Only Germany, that paragon of European wealth, sends more tourists to Turkey. (By contrast, in 1988, a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, all of 22,000 Soviet citizens visited Turkey.)

The Russian tourism boom is happening as new low-cost airlines in Europe have spurred a sharp increase in tourism across the Continent. But for the Russians, the chance to travel is especially prized.

For the first time in Russian history, wide swaths of the citizenry are being exposed to life in far-off lands, helping to ease a kind of insularity and parochialism that built up in the Soviet era. Back then, the public was not only prevented from going abroad; it was also inculcated with propaganda that the Soviet Union was unquestionably the world’s best country, so there was no need to leave anyway.

People who desired foreign travel in Soviet times typically had to receive official approval, and if it was granted, they were closely chaperoned once they crossed the border. Even before they left, they often were sent to classes to be indoctrinated in how to behave and avoid the perils of foreign influence. Those who were not in good standing with the party had little chance of going.

The controls on travel were particularly onerous given Russia’s long and dark winters.

“For us, it’s like a fairy tale to be here,” said Lilia Valeyeva, 46, a clerk from Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains who had never before been abroad when she visited Turkey two years ago. Since then, she has returned twice.

“We are seeing other countries with our own eyes, how other people live,” she said.

Many Russians interviewed here credited Mr. Putin, the former president and current prime minister, for their ability to travel, saying that he was responsible for Russia’s new prosperity.

“It is not like before, when we were afraid of everything,” said Larisa Kazakova, 32, a real estate agent from Yekaterinburg. “We travel, and we live a good life.”

These days, Russians can compare the services they receive abroad with those at home, and can mingle with tourists from everywhere. How these experiences will alter their perspective at home is an intriguing question.

The writer and commentator Viktor Yerofeyev said he had noticed that the more Russians traveled, the more they tended to lose some of the coarseness that at times characterized Soviet society.

“Through all this travel, we are seeing a change in mentality at home,” Mr. Yerofeyev said. “People are now seeking pleasure, whether it is in the night clubs of Moscow or in restaurants. Travel is a continuation of that pleasure. Just to have pleasant lives, not to suffer, to feel positive. Their life compass changes, from ‘I don’t care about anything’ to ‘I would like to have a better life.’ Travel is a part of this.”

“The world is becoming part of their lives,” he said.

The first major wave of Russian tourists after the fall of the Soviet Union did not necessarily do their country proud, sometimes acting like rowdy college freshmen getting a taste of spring break in Florida. There were tales of hotels limiting or even banning some Russian tour groups because of drunken behavior.

Hotel executives in Turkey said things had largely settled down, with many Russian families now vacationing here, and relatively few problems.

“Nobody believes me when I say this, but the Germans drink even more than the Russians,” said Ali Akgun, a manager at another hotel in the area, the Kemer Holiday Club. “It’s just that the Russians drink a little faster.”

The biggest struggle now for the Turkish hotels is to find enough staff members who speak Russian. Those in the tourism industry who had mastered German and English are returning to language school.

“Everybody is studying Russian now,” said Suat Esenli, a worker at the Kremlin Palace Hotel, which has more than 800 rooms and opened in 2003, just as Russian tourism began to soar. Typically, about 60 percent of the hotel’s patrons are from the former Soviet Union, with the rest from elsewhere in Europe.

Still, the effort to make Russian guests feel comfortable can go too far. For a time, one of the hotel restaurants served the sort of dishes — borscht, blinis and the like — that should have brought joy to a Russian’s heart.

The restaurant had to scrap the menu. It turned out that the last thing that the Russians wanted was the food they could get at home.

Thanks!

[Siamanto]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

*lets boost the dynamism of the thread*

1% OF RUSSIANS EYE ARMENIA AS RUSSIA'S FRIEND DURING NEXT 10-15 YEARS

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.09.2007 15:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM)
presented information concerning the countries with which Russia will
have the friendliest relations and with which it will be on the most
inimical terms.

Armenia is absent from the list of Russia's potential enemies,
although only 1% of Russians eye Armenia as Russia's friend during
next 10-15 years.

21% of respondents assume that Russia will be on best terms with
China within the next 10 to 15 years; and only 3% consider that
the relations with this country will be inimical or strained. 12%
of respondents name Belorussia and Germany among the friendliest
states; 2% of respondents provide a negative forecast in regard to
Belorussia, less than 1% think negatively of Germany. Besides Germany,
Russians also distinguish France (+6%, -1%) among the countries that
are members of the European Union. 6% of respondents mention India
as one of the most friendly countries of the next decade, another 6%
mention Kazakhstan in this respect (there are practically no negative
forecasts).

The U.S. mostly evokes negative expectations: although 10% rely on
friendship of this country with Russia, nevertheless, those, who
assume that the relations between these two countries will rather be
hostile or strained, are far more numerous (24%). Georgia occupies
the second place in the negative list: 19% of respondents mention it
as a potential enemy to Russia (whereas only 1% of respondents expect
positive development of relations to take place). Forecasts as far as
the Baltic countries are concerned are also rather negative (+1%, -7%).

The views of Russians on Ukraine were nearly equally divided (+6%,
-7%). Positive forecasts in respect to Russia's relations with Japan
are a little more numerous (+7%, -3%), Great Britain was more likely
to be treated negatively (+3%, -7%).

As a rule, more attention in Russia's different federal districts is
given to their immediate neighbors. Thus, in the Southern district,
hopes that relations between Russia and Ukraine as its immediate
neighbor will become friendlier are more frequently expressed
than it generally is in Russia on average (11% in the district,
6% average in the country). 29% of respondents in the Far-Eastern
district provide positive forecasts in connection with China, cf.:
21% on average in the country. 21% of respondents in the North Western
region identify Germany as a friendly country, whereas 12% on average
in the country do.

On the whole, expectations that Russia's relations with other countries
in 10-15 years will be friendly are more typical than forecasts that
these relations will be hostile.

Among international organizations the most important world role in
the next 5-10 years will be played by the European Union (as 32%
of respondents assume), the "Great Eight" and NATO (28-29%). OPEC,
WTO, United Nations Organization and UNESCO are considered to be the
most influential organizations a little less often (13-17%). The role
of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of the Pacific Forum;
the Commonwealth of the independent states (CIS), the Union of Russia
and Belorussia, and the also International Olympic Committee seem to
respondents to be still less important (5-8%).

The All-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on August 25-26,
2007. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of
46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.

http://www.armtown.com/news/en/pan/20070903/23220/

[Siamanto]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

*boosting the dynamism*

FRANCE - A TRUE FRIEND OF ARMENIA



Over 31 % of A1+�s polling participants consider France Armenia�s true friend and over 30 % of our respondents think that Armenia has no true friend.

Below is the general picture of the answers.

Russian - 14%

Iran - 9%

USA - 4 %

Lebanon - 3 %

Georgia - 1%

China - 1%

None of our respondents regards England and Germany as Armenia�s friend.

Over 612 people participated in the polling.

http://www.a1plus.am/en/?page=issue&id=51132

[North Pole]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

- provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues

I see. Thank you, Kanki.
So what, in your opinion, can Armenia provide?

Dear North Pole, please disregard this "Zeytountsi" character. His sole purpose here is to place a negative light on Russian-Armenian relations and even the Armenian Republic as a matter of fact. Similar to the obsessive Siamanto, this Zeytountsi character stalks me around this board posting nonsense that supposedly (in their little minds) opposes my stance. Thus, he is not interested in a real discussion. In his warped world, he thinks that by posting information about Russians going on vacation in Turkey will SHOCK us Armenians into realizing that Russia is not a friend of Armenia.

Really? I didn't really detect that...
Well, I don't know what his/her goal is, but I didn't read other Zeytountsi's posts.

Zeytountsi, you didn't comment on the article, so what is your point? Did you want to say that Russia can use its "soft power" against Turkey as well?

Free and Flush, Russians Eager to Roam Abroad

A water aerobics class at a hotel in Antalya, Turkey, built for Russian tourists to resemble the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/wo...c73&ei=5087%0A

Wow! This is amazing! I didn't know that.... So Russia's centuries-old dream to get excess to the "warm seas" finally come true.

Hey, thank you Turkey.

[North Pole]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

You forgot Arthur Chilingarov, the deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma and world famous Arctic explorer

Artur Chilingarov

Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma,"Hero of Russia," explorer, oceanographer and engineer Artur Chilingarov posing for picture after his historic mission to the bottom of the North Pole in the Arctic ocean

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday granted "hero" awards to scientists backing Russia's claim to a mountain range under the Arctic Ocean that is believed to contain huge oil and gas reserves. The scientists planted a Russian flag under the North Pole ice in August as part of an Arctic expedition that heated up the controversy over an area that a U.S. study suggests may contain as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Russia is one of several countries that have laid claims to the area. Putin signed a decree awarding three members of the expedition the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. They are Anatoly Salagevich, Yevgeny Chernyayev and lawmaker Artur Chilingarov. A fourth expedition member, lawmaker Vladimir Gruzdev, was granted the Order for Service to the Fatherland, the Kremlin said. Russia's Natural Resources Ministry has said preliminary results on soil core samples gathered by the expedition show that the 1,240-mile Lomonosov Ridge under the Arctic is part of Russia's shelf. It said more geological tests would be conducted, as well. After the Russian expedition, Canada vowed to increase its icebreaker fleet and build two new military facilities in the Arctic, while Denmark sent a team of scientists to seek evidence that the ridge was attached to its territory of Greenland. The U.S. government also sent an icebreaker for a research expedition. The issue has become more urgent with growing evidence that global warming is shrinking polar ice — opening up resource development and new shipping lanes. The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea gives the Arctic countries 10 years after they ratify the treaty to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All but the United States have ratified the treaty. Chilingarov, a renowned polar scientist, was named a Hero of the Soviet Union in the 1980s after leading an expedition aboard a research vessel that was trapped for a time in Antarctic sea ice.

Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...j5nGAD8U3060O0

For some reason I missed that post, Armenian. I was reading Yahoo article about North Pole an hour ago - North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer - http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...freethissummer

..... and then decided to get more info on Chilingarov. So I googled the name, got into Wiki site, of course, and discovered this:

Artur Chilingarov (b. 1939, Leningrad) is a Russian polar explorer and politician of Armenian descent. He is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1986 and the title Hero of the Russian Federation in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Chilingarov

So Artur Chilingarov is Armenian too... AND! He is Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooow.....

Russian hero dares U.S., Canada to claim Arctic

2007-08-08 17:38:53
BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States and Canada have ridiculed the Russian submarine expedition that planted a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole, but the famous polar scientist who led the effort responded with blunt words after returning Tuesday.

"I don't give a damn what all these foreign politicians there are saying about this," Artur Chilingarov told a throng of well-wishers. "If someone doesn't like this, let them go down themselves ... and then try to put something there. Russia must win. Russia has what it takes to win. The Arctic has always been Russian."

Thursday's dive by two small submarines was partly a scientific expedition. But it could prompt a fierce legal battle for control of the seabed among nations that border the Arctic, including Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark, through its territory Greenland.
READ MORE - http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_6495673.htm

Russia plants flag under N Pole

Russian explorers have planted their country's flag on the seabed 4,200m (14,000ft) below the North Pole to further Moscow's claims to the Arctic.
The rust-proof titanium metal flag was brought by explorers travelling in two mini-submarines, in what is believed to be the first expedition of its kind.
READ MORE - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6927395.stm#map

"I don't give a damn what all these foreign politicians there are saying about this," Artur Chilingarov told a throng of well-wishers. "If someone doesn't like this, let them go down themselves ... and then try to put something there. Russia must win. Russia has what it takes to win. The Arctic has always been Russian." - Artur Chilingarov

Source - http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_6495673.htm



God bless Armenia!!!

[Azad]

Re: The Rise of the Russian Empire: Russo-Armenian Relations

We'll leave an enclave around Ankara for Turks to live in.

Only if a cover is build over the contamination ... just like Chernobyl.