Demolition of cafés in the park around the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yerevan. (Armine Avetisyan/OC Media)
Authorities in Yerevan have begun to demolish cafés in the park around the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, leading to protests from staff and owners. [Read more…]
The village of Munjuglu, near the Armenian–Azerbaijani border. (Seymur Kazimov / OC Media)
Along the Armenian–Azerbaijani border, ceasefire violations occur frequently from both sides. In the villages of Gazakh and Tovuz districts of Azerbaijan closest to the frontline, some report the shooting has become less frequent, but the violence can still mean a loss of livelihood or even a loss of life. [Read more…]
Samson Martirosyan is a freelance reporter based in Armenia. He writes on social justice, regional and domestic politics, and human rights, follow him on Twitter @mrtrsyns.
Pashinyan and his revolutionary team have begun their second march — this time as a government parading towards economic revolution. Despite their ambitious goal to shake up Armenia’s economy, which for years has been impaired by systematic corruption, feudal-like oligarchs and shady deals behind closed doors, their proposed ‘economic revolution’ should do more to address the needs and expectations of the people who made the Velvet Revolution possible. [Read more…]
(Nikol Pashinyan / Facebook)
On 8 February, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan introduced the government’s ‘revolutionary economic programme’. The programme promised to create ‘radical economic growth’, but critics say it lacks substance, putting too much emphasis on the actions of the public.
(Photolure.am)
The majority of Armenian prisons date back to the Soviet period or even earlier and though cosmetic changes have been made, many still operate within a Soviet-era system. For prisoners with disabilities, this means a lack of adapted living spaces, a lack of healthcare, as well as exclusion from prison life. [Read more…]
Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu met his Armenian counterpart, Davit Tonoyan, in Moscow on 8 February. (Defence Ministry of Armenia)
Armenia has sent an 83-person team of deminers, medics, and an accompanying security detail to the Syrian city of Aleppo․ [Read more…]
A homeless man sleeps on a bench in the centre of Yerevan. There are currently around 400 homeless people in Yerevan, with three-quarters of them living on the streets. (Armine Avetisyan/OC Media)
Yerevan’s homeless population comes from all over Armenia and beyond, but they all have ended up in the same place. There is one shelter in the city, with a capacity of 100, but it is not enough to house the hundreds living on Yerevan’s streets. [Read more…]
Salvard (Armine Avetisyan /OC Media)
The village of Salvard, 220 km from Yerevan in Armenia’s southernmost province, Syunik, lies near the border with Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. With no gas connection and just a dirt road leading to the village, for years the young have migrated away; the local residents who have remained behind say the village is dying.
Thomas de Waal is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, a London-based think tank.
Thomas de Waal, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and a prolific writer on the South Caucasus recently sat down with OC Media. He discussed democracy in Abkhazia and the international community’s role there, and the recent thaw in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Javid Agha is an Ankara-based writer and social media observer focusing on Armenia and Azerbaijan, whose writing has been featured across the web including on the BBC. He is editor of Azerbaijani art and culture platform, VarYox.
In Azerbaijan, as in Armenia, remembrance of the victims of past atrocities often takes on a one-sided nature. Despite attempts to twist and politicise such events to serve nationalist causes, a more compassionate approach is needed to move forward, and a remembrance that above all, innocent victims are always sacred.
