Armen Hakobyan

Seasonal flu hits Armenia hard

Dec 12, 2009: The Health Ministry has registered 31,467 contagious cases of upper respiratory illness in Armenia between November 9 and December 9. All schools have been closed for 10 days as a preventative measure. The "Armenian Reporter" spoke to Armenia's chief infectious diseases official. Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

Rebuilding the Earthquake Zone is a big honor and a big responsibility

Dec 07, 2009: As part of a two-year government contract to build homes for the last of the families left homeless by the earthquake that devastated northern Armenia 21 years ago, the company Glendale Hills will be handing over 1,056 apartments in Gyumri and another 520 houses in rural areas this December. The Armenian Reporter spoke to Vahe Almoyan, general director of the company.  more...

Heritage Party stays out of Yerevan city elections

Mar 26, 2009: The Heritage Party, the only opposition party in Armenia's National Assembly, will not run in Yerevan City Council elections on May 31, leaving the opposition field to the Armenian National Congress, Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

Amendments to Criminal Code adopted in parliament

Mar 21, 2009: On March 18 the National Assembly adopted amendments to articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code. The Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly in January had undertaken to have the laws amended, as a way to ensure that no political prisoners are held in Armenia, Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

Levon Ter-Petrossian, Armenia’s first president, is now running for mayor

Mar 21, 2009: Levon Ter-Petrossian, who was Armenia's first president and lost a bid to return to power last year, has now decided to head the Armenian National Congress's list of candidates for Yerevan City Council elections set for May 31. The first slot on each party list is reserved for the party's choice for mayor. Armen Hakobyan has the story.  more...

Armenian dram is stable after sharp fall

Mar 06, 2009: After propping up the value of the dram for several months by selling foreign currency reserves, the Central Bank of Armenia on Tuesday, March 3, allowed the dram to float. The price of a U.S. dollar went from 305 drams to 400 at once. After that initial panic, in which many people lined up to buy dollars, the rate stabilized on Friday to 359 drams to buy a dollar and 355 to sell. Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

Yerevan to elect a city council for the first time

Feb 27, 2009: Armenia’s capital city will hold its first election for City Council on May 31, Armen Hakobyan reports. Yerevan will have a parliamentary-style government. A 65-member City Council will be elected by citywide party lists. The City Council, in turn, will elect a mayor.  more...

World Bank approves $85 million loan to Armenia

Feb 27, 2009: The World Bank on February 24 approved a package of four operations, for a total amount of $85 million, to help Armenia mitigate the impact of the global economic crisis. This package is the first installment on a four-year $525 million World Bank commitment made in January. Armen Hakobyan has the story.  more...

Citizens protect nature from its guardians

Feb 21, 2009: A forest ranger has been fired and heavily fined after being caught on videotape shooting at wildlife he was hired to protect.  more...

Armenia sees investment in IT sector

Feb 21, 2009: Delta Partners has agreed to invest $6 million in the Armenian-Norwegian Armenian Datacom Company (ADC) to develop and broaden the company’s fiber optic network, Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

Bjni mineral water plant auctioned off

Feb 21, 2009: Ruben Hayrapetian, a member of parliament from the governing Republican Party of Armenia, has purchased the Bjni mineral water bottling company, which the Armenian government last year confiscated from member of parliament Khachatur Sukiassian and his family. Mr. Sukiassian helped bankroll the failed 2008 presidential campaign of Levon Ter-Petrossian.  more...

Prosperous Armenia Party stays its course

Feb 21, 2009: The Prosperous Armenia Party congress reelected Gagik Tsarukian as leader, Armen Hakobyan reports. In spite of differences over tax policy, the congress confirmed the ties between the Republican Party and the Prosperous Armenia Party, the two parties with the largest delegations in parliament.  more...

How to become a millionaire, Armenia style

Feb 13, 2009: Whoever thought getting a receipt for the purchase of a few groceries would generate so much excitement? As of January 1, every cash register receipt in Armenia is also a lottery ticket. The objective is to encourage consumers to ask for receipts. Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

Armenia’s Ombudsperson: “I do not feel that we learned our lesson from March 1”

Feb 13, 2009: In an interview with the Armenian Reporter's Armen Hakobyan, Armenia's Human Rights Defender discusses the aftermath of the bloody March 1, 2008, clashes in Yerevan.  more...

MCC focused on Arzni-Shamiram waterway

Feb 06, 2009: MCA Armenia hopes to complete the renovation of 1.7 km of the Arzni-Shamiram waterway by the start of this year's irrigation season, Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

U.S.-funded construction of Armenia’s waterways proceeds

Feb 06, 2009: Now at its halfway mark, the five year U.S. Millennium Challenge Compact with Armenia is moving ahead at a hectic pace, Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

The court rises instead of the defendants

Jan 30, 2009: The key trial emerging from the March 1 clashes in Yerevan has been postponed repeatedly as the defendants refuse to rise when Judge Mnatsakan Martirosian enters. Armen Hakobyan speaks to a prominent defense attorney and a former judge about possible ways forward.  more...

A well-preserved ancient site discovered in Armenia

Jan 30, 2009: “Such a site, preserved in this way, is granted to man by God once in a lifetime,said archeologist Boris Gasparyan, co-head of the of the Armenian-American-Irish research group investigating the caves located around the Arpa River in Armenia. Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

World Bank more than doubles financial assistance to Armenia

Jan 30, 2009: The World Bank will grant Armenia financial support in the amount of $525 million over the next four years, said Shigeo Katsu, vice president of the World Bank, at a press conference on January 27. Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

The economic crisis hits the Alaverdi copper foundry

Jan 23, 2009: One of Armenia's major employers and taxpayers, the Armenian Copper Program is slowing production at its Alaverdi copper foundry in response to falling copper prices in the world market. Armen Hakobyan goes to Alaverdi to get a local perspective.  more...

The felling of trees in Teghut has begun

Jan 23, 2009: Acres of forest are being cut down in the vicinity of the villages of Teghut and Shnogh in northern Armenia to make way for an open-pit copper mining project. Armen Hakobyan speaks to residents, the village heads, and a representative of the mining company.  more...

The president pardons nine more convicts in March 1 cases

Jan 17, 2009: On January 12, it became known that President Serge Sargsian had signed a decree pardoning nine people convicted in connection with the events of March 1–2, Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

Buy your groceries and win the lottery

Jan 09, 2009: To improve tax collections, Armenia’s State Revenue Committee has started a lottery: your ticket is your cash register receipt. Prizes range from $16 to $16,000.  more...

Armenian president rules out general amnesty for activists in March 1 cases

Dec 26, 2008: Speaking to the Armenian Reporter, President Serge Sargsian on December 23 ruled out a general amnesty for opposition activists being held in connection with post-election violence on March 1–2 that cost 10 lives, as the trial of seven leading activists continued. Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

Trial of seven opposition figures begins in March 1 case

Dec 19, 2008: Armenia’s Special Investigations Service (SIS) has dropped its case against four prominent opposition activists even as, on December 19, the trial of seven other prominent figures began in Yerevan. No one has been charged for killing any of the 10 individuals who sustained mortal wounds on March 1 and 2, Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

The Armenian Madonna lives on

Dec 13, 2008: Marineh Nouroyan and her three daughters, Anna, 8, Christine, 6, and Shushanik, 1, were in their fifth-floor apartment in Gyumri when the earthquake hit on December 7, 1988. They were rescued from the rubble on the second night. The photograph, at left, by Mkhitar Khachatrian, became a worldwide symbol of the Armenian people’s will to live. At right, Ms. Nouroyan appears with her grandchildren. Armen Hakobyan spoke to Ms. Nouroyan and her husband and with the photographer.  more...

In the earthquake zone, the tragedy continues for the homeless

Dec 06, 2008: Armen Hakobyan talks to families in Gyumri who still live in temporary shacks set up after the December 7, 1988, earthquake in northern Armenia.  more...

Twenty years after the earthquake, tomorrow’s Gyumri has a luminous face

Dec 06, 2008: Reporting from the Entanik Youth Creative Center in Gyumri, Armenia, 20 years after the earthquake that devastated the city, Armen Hakobyan finds the luminous and certain faces of today's students -- and a hopeful future for northern Armenia.  more...

In Gyumri, 20 years after the earthquake, people find, “a very important thing has broken”

Dec 06, 2008: The city "center changes the future path of people's lives. Is it possible for them to change the future path of the city?" This is one of the questions sculptor Vardan Tiraturian discusses with correspondent Armen Hakobyan in Gyumri, 20 years after the earthquak  more...

Open Sky agreement signed by Armenia and the United States

Nov 29, 2008: As part of the process of authorizing direct flights between the United States and Armenia, the two countries signed an Open Sky agreement in Washington on November 21, Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

PACE envoy disappointed with democratic progress

Nov 29, 2008: It is becoming evident that Armenia will not be able to circumvent discussions by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the state of democracy in the country and the events of March 1 during the assembly's January session, Armen Hakobyan reports from Yerevan.  more...

Police brass promise better service at passport agencies

Nov 13, 2008: Police Colonel Gevork Mherian, a newly appointed deputy head of Armenia’s Police, held a news conference on November 11 to herald an era of improved service at passport agencies and the central office of OVIR -- where non-citizens apply for visa extensions, residency permits, and dual citizenship. "Now you will not see people filling in their applications on the hood of a car and surly officers. And if you do, call me immediately. Those officers who are very rude will be punished and lose their jobs." Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

Some naïve questions about the March 1 investigation

Nov 13, 2008: Over eight months past the clashes between protesters and security forces in Yerevan on March 1, which left 10 people dead, many criminal charges have been filed and cases have gone to court. But no one has been indicted for murder; people in principal roles have not even been called in for questioning; and allegations that formed the basis for declaring a state of emergency on March 1 remain unsubstantiated. Journalist Armen Hakobyan discusses some of the questions he has been asking and that remain unanswered.  more...

The pain of an open wound

Nov 08, 2008: "1988. December 7. 11:35 a.m. We, the first-year students of the journalism department at Yerevan State University, were in class, as usual," Armen Hakobyan writes. "However, those days were anything but usual. Those days we frequented Freedom Square and participated in the rallies for the unification of Artsakh more often then we went to class. However, that day we were in class...."  more...

Professor Yeritsyan’s immeasurable wealth

Nov 08, 2008: Luthier Martin Yeritsyan is the hero of this new installment of the Armen Hakobian’s “Armenia at Work” series. A talented musician and pedagogue, Mr. Yeritsian is also the son and successor of a renowned master of violin making or luthier, Shahen Yeritsyan. Preserving the rich musical heritage he inherited from his forefathers, Martin Yeritsyan continues to make all kinds of bowed instruments in his studio in Yerevan. “I am rich when a student plays on one of my instruments and afterwards, seeing me, greets me with a smile. I feel that I am doing a good thing for my nation, for the Armenian child, for talented violinists and for people in general,” Mr. Yeritsyan says.  more...

If you want peace you must train well

Oct 25, 2008: Driving along dirt roads, the column of military trucks that had transported humanitarian aid to the village returned to base. An all-terrain vehicle suddenly emerged and, raising a plume of dirt, squeezed in between the column and the advance guards. The sound of an explosive was heard.... Soldiers from 14 countries were included in this NATO exercise in Armenia. They spoke to one another and exchanged data and commands in English with various accents.  more...

Local elections continue in Armenia’s regions

Oct 25, 2008: The ruling Republican Party of Armenia has lost in a number of recent local elections.  more...

Opposition decides to suspend rallies temporarily

Oct 25, 2008: Levon Ter-Petrossian, the first president of Armenia and now a leader of the opposition, has announced a temporary halt in all mass protests. He made his announcement at a mass rally on October 17.  more...

Military training aims to enhance regional trust

Oct 04, 2008: Some 1,100 service members from seven NATO countries, 12 Partnership for Peace countries, including Armenia, and other countries cooperating with NATO launched a military training exercise in Armenia this month. The exercise is focused in the interoperability of NATO and partner forces. The scenario is a crisis response operation with a UN mandate. Armen Hakobyan reports.  more...

Saralanj or Kirk Kerkorian highway opens

Oct 04, 2008: The Saralanj highway, made possible by Kirk Kerkorian’s Lincy Foundation, is finally open. The highway through central Yerevan, which took three years and about 6 billion drams (approximately $20 million) to build, is expected to ease congestion in the city center.  more...

Armenia’s Defense Ministry has a new headquarters

Sep 27, 2008: Armenia's new Ministry of Defense complex is situated in north Yerevan, between the Avan and Nor Nork communities. The opening ceremony for the complex took place on Independence Day, September 21. The commander-in-chief, President Serge Sargsian, was present for the occasion, as was Karekin II, the Catholicos of all Armenians.  more...

Armenia bids farewell to Tigran Torossian as Speaker, but no one is sure just why

Sep 27, 2008: The Speaker of the National Assembly is the first in line to succeed the president of Armenia and the number-2 person in the country's official protocol. Speaker Tigran Torossian was forced to resign on September 19. The reasons for the change at the top remain a mystery - even though the machinations that led to his resignation began in the early summer: the resignation of a member of parliament, the nomination of the member's brother, Hovik Abrahamian, to replace him, the election of Mr. Abrahamian, and the decision of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia to ask Mr. Torossian to cede to Mr. Abrahamian.  more...

Radical opposition holds another "decisive" rally

Sep 23, 2008:   more...

The seeds of hope being planted in Gyumri

Sep 20, 2008: Gyumri, a city known for its arts and crafts, was heavily damaged in the 1988 earthquake. Today, twenty years later, it is still recovering. However, initiatives like the Gyumri Information Technology Center (GITC) are instilling hope and providing fertile ground to attract business investment. The Armenian Reporter’s Armen Hakobyan traveled to Gyumri, and spoke with the founders, administrators, and students of this new institute. Hrachik Mnatsakanian, one of the first 17 graduates of GITC said, “After studying at GITC, I gained in-depth knowledge, which enabled me to find a new job ... this center gave me the opportunity to realize one of my dreams.”  more...

Radical opposition holds another “decisive” rally

Sep 20, 2008: The newly formed opposition Armenian National Congress held a rally on Monday, September 15 in central Yerevan. The rally, which was sanctioned by the city, drew between five and ten thousand participants, continuing the trend of dwindling participation in rallies called by former president Levon Ter-Petrossian.  more...

When your neighbor’s house catches fire…

Aug 30, 2008: When your neighbor's house is burning, some of the sparks may land on your roof. By August 10-11, the consequences of the war in Georgia could already be felt in Armenia.  more...

“There is no gas”

Aug 30, 2008: The Armenian Reporter's staff correspondent Armen Hakobyan explores the immediate consequences of the war in Georgia for Armenia.  more...

Armenia celebrates its bronze heroes

Aug 30, 2008: In the early evening hours of August 26, thousands of Armenians gathered in Republic Square to pay homage to Armenia's six bronze medalists and the rest of Armenia's Olympic team who had participated in the XXIX Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.  more...

Parliament tightens law on rallies and demonstrations

Mar 22, 2008: The 20-day state of emergency declared by President Robert Kocharian on March 1 expired on schedule without incident. A special session of parliament was convened on March 17 to consider amendments to the law "On Conducting Meetings, Assemblies, Rallies, and Demonstrations." The amendments, which will make it more difficult for opponents of the government to hold lawful mass rallies in the near future, were adopted 90-6 and signed into law the next day by Mr. Kocharian.  more...

Officials, critics assess observers’ new report

Mar 15, 2008: The third interim report regarding the February 19 presidential elections in Armenia was issued by the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM). Armenian officials and Levon Ter-Petrossian gave different evaluations of the report.  more...

Armenia’s Constitutional Court lets election result stand

Mar 15, 2008: On March 8, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia issued its final verdict on the results of the presidential elections. The CC examined petitions submitted by presidential candidates Tigran Karapetian and Levon Ter-Petrossian, in which they disputed the final results of the February 19 elections as announced in a protocol of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC).  more...

An Armenian peacekeeper in Iraq

Dec 29, 2007: It can be said that meeting 53-year-old driver Atabek Petrosian was the will of providence. It can also be said that the meeting with the hero of this installment of Armenia at Work was simply a coincidence.  more...

Millennium Challenge Account dollars are hard at work in Armenia’s rural areas

Oct 20, 2007:   more...

Aram’s iron-forged triangle: faith, family, work

Jul 14, 2007: "I would say it in the words of our Lord: Labor was the result of Original Sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said to the woman, ‘In pain shall you give birth,' and to Adam he said, ‘You shall earn your bread by the sweat of your brow.' That is to say, to gain our daily bread, we have to suffer pain, we have to sweat. That's it. And we have to live with that.  more...

Alla drives confidently in life’s traffic jams

May 26, 2007: Driving a taxicab is possibly one of the most popular occupations in Armenia today. That's most obvious in Yerevan, and especially at night, when I counted 30-35 cabs among 55 cars that passed by me over five minutes on a congested street.  more...

Shushi’s revival, like its liberation, will require a united Armenian effort

May 05, 2007: In a few days, Armenia will mark the 15th anniversary of the liberation of Shushi. The military operation that wrested the city from alien hands on May 9, 1992 was welcome evidence that Armenians, when united, are capable of outstanding achievements.  more...

European observers say May 12 will be a touchstone for Armenian democracy"

Apr 21, 2007: "The upcoming Parliamentary elections in Armenia on 12 May will be a crucial touchstone for the degree of maturity of democracy in Armenia." A four-member "pre-election delegation" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) reached this conclusion during a visit to Armenia that lasted from April 10 to 13. The delegation had been invited by the speaker of Armenia's National Assembly.  more...

Khachik’s 100 houses and his one castle

Mar 24, 2007: The hero of this installment in our “Armenia at Work” series is not in the real-estate business, as the title may suggest – although the craft in which he is a master is clearly tied to real estate, and more specifically to houses. Khachatur (or Khachik) has one the most important jobs in the world – indeed, in the history of the world: our hero is a master mason, the scion of a family of masons. “This is our ancestral craft,” he says matter-of-factly, and not without a little pride.  more...

Give us this day our daily bread

Mar 03, 2007: Work is a way to make a living. But it is also a way to realize one’s potential, a way to express oneself, a way to do something useful with one’s life no matter one’s nationality, religion, sex, and party affiliation. The expression, “peaceful, constructive labor” means a lot today in Armenia, a country still making the difficult transition from one economic system to another, a country still blockaded, a country that still has high unemployment, still suffering from the shock of the 1990s and the consequences of the war. Especially for our people. The salt of our earth, working people. Working people with their quotidien concerns, their problems, their joys. In this series, we tell you their stories as they are.  more...