All About Armenia
The Etchmiadzin Cathedral (also spelled “Echmiatsin,” “Echmiadzin,” and “Edjmiadsin”) is located in the city of Etchmiadzin (also referred to as Vagharshapat), Armavir Province in what is now present-day Armenia. It is geographically situated near the fertile valley of the Aras River, and it is not too far away from Mount Ararat, Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, and Khor Virap Monastery. It is the spiritual center of …
The two days I spent in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, were Feb. 25 to 27, 2015. But it didn’t feel that way. Everything I did and everywhere I went seemed suffused with the past; my trip turned, unexpectedly and unintentionally, into a crash course in Armenian history. I ate and made friends and drank beer …
Movses Khorenatsi, a historian in the fifth century, wrote that his native Armenia had been established in 2492 B.C., a date usually regarded as legendary though he claimed to have traveled to Babylon and consulted ancient records. But either he made a lucky guess or he really did gain access to useful data, because a …
In her first show at Pace, an artist driven by curiosity and a penchant for the absurd tries to understand the world. The results are touching and sometimes hilarious. Nina Katchadourian is a sculptor, a printmaker, a photographer, a performance artist, a video artist, a sound artist — but more than any of those things she …
Erebuni was an Urartian fortress and city, located between the Nor Aresh District and the Vardahsen District on the outskirts of present-day Yerevan, Armenia, and situated on top of Arin Berd hill. In Armenian, the fortress and archaeological site is known as “Arin-Berd” or the “Fortress of Blood,” and the name of this fortress city endures in the …
In June 2021, all eyes in Europe were on Azerbaijan as it co-hosted EURO 2020. Some football matches were held in Baku, the capital of the oil and gas rich country. Behind the rich glitzy façade, Azerbaijan is ruled by autocratic president Ilham Aliyev and his family. Aliyev’s regime has been accused of human rights …
Descendants of survivors — Turks and Armenians — share their families’ stories. ‘I Wish I Could Speak for Her’ My grandmother’s name was Pailadzou Tutunjian. She was born in Ada Bazar, Turkey, in 1894. She grew up on a farm and quit school to work. A wealthy Turkish family in Constantinople employed her before she …
About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to …
Mesrop Mashtots (360/370 – c. 440 CE) invented the Armenian alphabet in 405 CE. Besides greatly increasing levels of literacy in the country, the language permitted ordinary people to read the Bible for the first time, thus helping to further spread and entrench Christianity in Armenia, which was the original intention behind the script‘s invention. For these achievements Mashtots (Mastoc) was made a saint …
Explore Armenia through its rich tapestry of textile production. In the summer of 2020, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s My Armenia Program partnered with Armenian publication Yerevan Magazine to publish a special issue highlighting community-based cultural heritage tourism in the country. Over the next few months, the Center will publish English translations of the articles to Smithsonian Voices. During this difficult …
Greater Los Angeles is a collection of not just smaller cities but also exotic populations. Among those cities is Glendale (not so small: it would be the second-most-populous city in New England), a center of the Armenian diaspora and home to one of the world’s largest Armenian populations outside Armenia. Fleeing religious violence in the …
The relationship between the Byzantine Empire and ancient Armenia was a constant and varied one with an equal mix of wars, occupations, treaties of friendship, mutual military aid, and cultural exchange. Regarded as a vital defence to the Empire‘s eastern frontiers, emperors used various means of influence from outright takeover to gifts of titles and lands to Armenian nobles. Influence …
November 5, 2021 on the Azerbaijani website www. cbc. az a video was published, which again showed the “pilgrimage” of the representatives of the Udi community in the Surb Harutyun Church near the town of Hadrut, the Spitak Khach monastery in the Vank village, both are located on the occupied by Azerbaijan territory. The current …
VENICE — Armenian civilization is one of the most ancient of those surviving in the Middle East, but for large parts of its history Armenia has been a nation without a country. This has given the spoken and written word, the primary means through which Armenian identity has been preserved, enormous prominence in its people’s …
Despite the hurdles, territory seized by Azerbaijan from Armenia in last year’s war is being transformed with breathtaking speed. KELBAJAR, Azerbaijan — The medieval monastery walls are masked with camouflage netting. Machine-gun nests line the courtyard under a fluttering Russian flag. Cannons mounted on armored vehicles guard the mountainside where tour buses used to park. …
Tigranuhi Asatryan, born in 1910, Kagizman town, Kars Province. 2010. “We emigrated from Kagizman on two occasions. I don’t remember the first time well. But I remember the second, in 1918, very well — that terrifying day, the dead children … until we managed to get to Leninakan. We lost our relatives — my aunt, …
Food plays an important part in shaping identities, culture and society as a whole. In Armenia, everything has a legend or story attached to it, imparting a deeper meaning: our mountains, rivers and lakes, apricots and pomegranates, grapes and wine, and bread. All those legends and traditions come to define us as a nation and our …
“My life is different because of Armenia,” said Veronica Joy Rogov as she welcomed guests to the final dinner of an audacious project at an audacious restaurant in Armenia. We had flown from all over the world to this small mountain village an hour outside the capital, Yerevan, to discover something new, to let ourselves …