Armenia: Twelve Years After Independence

by Haykaz Baghian and Narine Khachatrian, Special from ArmeniaNow.com Whether Armenians prosper or suffer may in many ways be linked to their ability to utilize and exploit the resources put at their disposal. Principle among those are natural resources, a legacy of craftsmanship, and intellectual resources. As old as the very soil of Armenia and as new as exploration and development of cyberspace, here is a look at how some of those resources play a part in the well-being of present-day Armenia. Cuts and carats and the shining craft of diamond polishing . . .

by Tony Halpin and John Hughes, Editors ArmeniaNow.com, Special to AGBU News Visitors to Armenia might steel themselves for initial evidence of economic hardship as they leave Zvartnots Airport for Yerevan. Instead, the first scene encountered is a garish strip of neon-lit casinos that light the night sky like a poor man's Las Vegas.

by Haykaz Baghian and Narine Khachatrian, Special from ArmeniaNow.com The harvest season began as another disappointment for the parents of Heriknaz Arakelyan. Hopes that their red-cheeked daughter would find a husband disappeared in the dust of Heriknaz's true significant other, her new T-20 tractor. That she is a single woman in her mid-20s, and a farmer, is enough to make her exceptional. But gender aside, Heriknaz still stands apart.

by Viorica Vladica, Special from ArmeniaNow.com In 1997, the mayor of Gyumri told a journalist that by 2000, his city would "look like Disneyland". Nearly 15 years since it was crushed, however, the capital of disaster is far from anything that resembles Disney's "happiest place on Earth". Even the most patriotic or optimistic Armenian would recognize the oppressive air of what was once the third city in the Caucasus, but became the lost glory of Armenia.

by Vahan Ishkhanyan, Special from ArmeniaNow.com It has been said that there are two Armenias —Yerevan, and then everything else. Never is the sentiment more realized than when going outside the capital to regions where settlements from a forgotten era are sustained as they have been for centuries, far from the influence and even farther from the image of Yerevan. Life there is as rugged as the landscape into which it is carved and endured by a people just as tough as their circumstances, for whom surviving is thriving.

by Marianna Grigoryan, Special from ArmeniaNow.com Yerevan resident Nune Shahnazaryan has an unscientific but perhaps accurate gauge for measuring social conditions and their effect on Armenia.

by Haykaz Baghian and Narine Khachatrian Special from ArmeniaNow.com After seven decades of reliance on the Soviet Union, economic development in Armenia has had only one decade in which to overcome the legacy of that system and the effects of its collapse. War, natural disaster, and blockade politics have made the legacy even harder to survive. Difficulties are plain to any visiting observer:

by Louise Manoogian Simone Can you imagine an anonymous private developer receiving a permit to build a neon-lit café adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC or twenty feet from the wall of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City? Can you imagine the façade of the Smithsonian Institute or Metropolitan Museum hidden by two-story high billboards advertising cigarettes, alcohol, wearing apparel and candy? Can you imagine the green space of Central Park in New York City suddenly overrun with a hundred cafes of indiscriminate design and size?

by Julia Hakobyan, Special from ArmeniaNow.com When Armenia gained independence 12 years ago, mass media took a special role in forming public opinion about social, economic and political events in the country. Today, however, few analysts, observers, or even professional journalists believe the media in Armenia kept its mission to be a link between the citizenry and its government.

by Viorica Vladica, Special from ArmeniaNow.com It upsets Tyoma Sarksyan when somebody says to her: "Let's go to the city". Each time she replies: "I am living in a city." As a native and resident of Kapan (in the southern part of Armenia), she gets mad when people from Yerevan disregard her city's status and lower it to the rank of a village.