OC Media

OC Media

A year after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh’s frontline village of Talish

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IDPs from Talish in the village of Alashan (Armine Avetisyan/OC Media)

On 2 April 2016, the Four-Day War began, and Azer­bai­jani troops moved into the village of Talish in Nagorno-Karabakh. One year on, only a couple of dozen men remain in Talish — their wives and children waiting to return and rebuild their lives.

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Gold mining produces golden pollution

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A truck carrying ore from the open pit to the pro­cess­ing factory. Kazreti, Georgia (Tsira Gvasalia/Golden Dust)

Geo­Pro­Min­ing is an inter­na­tion­al precious metals mining company. It was founded by Russian busi­ness­man Siman Povarenkin, with a local partner in Georgia, Koba Nakopia. The company has damaged envi­ron­ments in Georgia, Armenia, and Russia while mining gold and other precious metals.

Thanks to close contacts in local gov­ern­ments, the gold mining enter­prise and its sub­sidiaries have never been seriously penalised. Local gov­ern­ments either don’t inves­ti­gate major envi­ron­men­tal pollution incidents or they don’t publish the inves­ti­ga­tion results.

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Yerevan street vendors protest forced removal from Ferdowsi Market

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Pavilions adjacent to houses on Ferdowsi Street (David Stepanyan/OC Media)

On 6 June, the Yerevan City Hall informed the vendors of the clothing market on Ferdowsi Street that con­struc­tion work would begin there on 15 June. The vendors were asked to move their impro­vised pavilions to other spots. They remain dis­sat­is­fied with the decision and have asked for six months to relocate. The nego­ti­a­tions have so far been fruitless.

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[Voice from Armenia] Living with a disability

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Vardine Grigoryan (Emma Grigoryan)

Daphne is a project from Armenia about women who have overcome hardships and chal­lenges. Women who despite the blows of fate, despite depri­va­tion and despair, were able to withstand their dif­fi­cul­ties and move forward. Below is Vardine Grigoryan’s story.

At the age of ten, after losing her mother, Vardine was forced to fight alone for her rights and convince society that she had the right to live like anyone else. Looking back at her childhood, Vardine realises that she came out a winner, admitting that she has fulfilled the most  ambitious dreams of her childhood, reaching greater heights. [Read more…]

Living on the the Armenian–Azerbaijani border: alone and under fire

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Life in Kokhanabi (/OC Media)

Ceasefire vio­la­tions are a regular occur­rence on both sides of the border between Armenia and Azer­bai­jan, and the village of Kokhanabi, 300 metres from the front, is no exception. While life is made almost impos­si­ble by a constant hail of gunfire from across the border, the gov­ern­ment has left villagers to fend for them­selves. [Read more…]

Armenia’s Jehovah’s Witnesses: ‘enemies of the state’

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Rima Grigoryan (Armine Avetisyan/OC Media)

Armenian identity is so tightly inter­wo­ven with religion that it can often be heard that the only true Armenian is a follower of the Armenian Church. Contempt, dis­crim­i­na­tion, and outright hatred towards religious minori­ties have led to a wor­ry­ing­ly wide­spread per­cep­tion of them as outsiders — a threat to Armenian statehood. [Read more…]

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