Faith
Armenian Church is an independent Christian church, also known as the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church. Its head is the Catholicos, who resides at Holy Etchmiadzin, near Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Christianity was declared the state religion of Armenia in AD 301. Armenia thus became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.
Bed in My Hand, Lebanon
Refugees from Bent Jbeil.
I leave the analysis of the most recent Lebanese Israeli armed clash and contemplations as to what are the lessons to be learned to others and will present facts and photos.
The 2007 Lebanese Israeli armed clash left about 1200 Lebanese dead and displaced almost a quarter of the Lebanese population. In a bid to preserve their lives 60000 people fled southern Lebanon leaving behind their homes and often their elderly.
The overwhelmingly Shia Muslim refugees were given shelter in the schools of the Christian neighborhoods of Beirut. Lebanon was in a blockade, recourses were abruptly cut short and international relief for the internally displaced was delayed and often never delivered because of the continuous bombardment of Lebanon’s ports, airports and roads.
Mattresses were part of the scarce humanitarian aid to the refugees. A mattress had become a most prized personal belonging, something refugees could not afford to leave unattended.
First Book of Old Nation, Yezidis
The Yezidis are a minority group in Armenia, part of a population that extends through Turkey, Georgia, Syria and Iraq. Many live a semi-nomadic life, as they have done for thousands of years, tending sheep and spending winter months in their villages, then moving to high mountain pastures in the spring, where today they live in old Soviet military tents. Yezidis practice a secretive and ancient religion, which predates Islam and appears to fuse aspects of Judaic, Zoroastrian and other local beliefs. Some controversy surrounds their identity. During the Soviet era, Yezidis were classified as non-Muslim Kurds. With the rise of national self-consciousness through the region in the 1980s, a revival of Yezidi identity occurred, and in 1989 the Armenian government declared them to be a separate ethnic group. Yet there remain strong divisions on issues of identity among the Yezidi themselves. One aspect of this disagreement is in the area of language, with some Yezidis claiming that all Yezidis speak Kurmanji (a Kurdish dialect), with others fervently maintaining they have their own language, Ezdiki. In Armenia, most of the Yezidis speak Ezdiki.
In 2006, in Armenia, three textbooks were printed in Ezdiki – an ABC, together with two books at a primary-school level on Yezidi culture and literature. Yet some Yezidi schools refused to accept the textbooks, and returned them. The books form the only teaching resource for those who see Ezdiki as a separate language, and want to learn it as such. For this reason they are used not only by schoolchildren but by adults who have not had the opportunity to study Ezdiki, so the books have a life outside of schoolroom walls. The books are written in Cyrillic script. In centuries gone by, the Yezidi refused to adapt Arabic script, as a means of distancing themselves from Islam and preserving the secrecy of their own holy writings.
Last Road
Every year nearly 1300 carcrashes happen in Armenia with a vital outcome in 300 cases.
2007
Unrecognized Football
Football club of Nagorno-Karabakh (republic not recognized by any other state in the world other than Armenia). Since the republic is not recognized as a republic and so this stadium cannot be used for professional football games played against other countries or clubs. The players of Stepanakert dream of having a national team one day. For now, it’s impossible. The only thing they can do is to play in the Armenian league as an Armenian club. And this, only on Armenian territory.
Karen Mirzoyan
+37491 450342
