Khatchkars

Erected adjacent to the entrance of newly established cities and churches, or to commemorate military victories, khatchkars (cross-stones) have traditionally signified genesis.

“I want for Armenians what I want for Kurds’: An interview with Mayor Abdullah Demirbas

Abdullah Demirbas is a man on a mission. The mayor of Diyarbakir’s central district strives to restore some of the city’s multi-cultural and multi-ethnic character through a series of initiatives to renovate places of worship, adopt multi-lingualism, and encourage those with roots in the city to return.

Ughtasar: The Petroglyphs of Armenia

The petroglyphs, or rock engravings, of Ughtasar can be found all over Yerevan; they are inscribed onto silver jewelry, painted onto coffee cups, traced into hand-made pottery, and they adorn the walls of cafes. Reaching the actual petroglyphs of Ughtasar (“ught” meaning camel and “sar” meaning mountain, due to the resemblance of its peaks to the humps of a camel) can be a bit of a challenge, and as with most of Armenia’s noteworthy sites this provides half of the trip’s excitement and intrigue.

State of the Arts – Bei-Ru

I was born and raised in Los Angeles – my parents moved to the U.S. in the mid-1970s from Lebanon. As a kid, my parents would play a lot of Armenian music in the house. We visited Armenia when I was 6, and my folks took me and my siblings to see orchestral concerts and operas. I think all of that nurtured my love for music. I also started taking piano lessons around the time of our Armenia trip, and stuck with it for about ten years.

State of the Arts – Rouben Malayan

I was born in Yerevan in the spring of 71. Went for four years to Terlemezian college of art (painting), continued to the academy (graphics) and in May 93 left Armenia to Israel. 16 years in Tel Aviv, 2 years in Amsterdam, now I am trying my luck back home in Hayastan. Many questions, few answers, but its an ongoing process of reconnection and I was prepared for it before I made the leap forward. Its challenging but very interesting experience.

Moments Captured in Time: Photography from Armenia and the Diaspora

Expressing yourself is probably one of the most important things you can do in your life. Photography is magic. Since it started about 200 years ago it still hasn’t left us. Mediums like film and music owe a lot of their method to photography. For me personally, I love capturing moments, things that move, things that need to stand still to be more appreciated. To me photography is all about the details.

Through the Lens: Culture & Purpose in Today’s Armenian Reality

There are hundreds of young, talented Armenians exploring the bounds of art and identity through countless means including music and film. They interpret culture through their own individual lens. Haytoug sat down with some of these creative individuals to explore their thoughts on culture and identity.

Culture: The Indestructible Bridge

The horrendous crimes of genocide committed by the Ottoman Government against the Armenians in 1915 will forever be a bitter truth in Armenian history, but it does not identify us as a people. We have much to celebrate in our few thousand years of existence and, most importantly, we must feel proud to have survived through what I hope was the worst of it. However, our existence today does not mean that our fight for survival is unnecessary; on the contrary, every day we are fighting for the survival of our language, our faith, our homeland, and especially the survival of our future.

When Genocide Turns into Suicide

When I was first asked to write a guest column for Haytoug that addressed the issue of a “white genocide” and the perceived evils of assimilation, I was tempted to write this entire piece in Kra’par (Classical Armenian). After all, it is my humble opinion that if you do not know how to read Kra’par, then you’re not a “real Armenian.” Then I thought to write it in Armenian but I couldn’t decide what language to water our mother tongue down with – Turkish? Arabic? Russian? Farsi perhaps? But then I thought, “The one language that we all can or should understand is English .” – plus, I don’t know how to use an Armenian keyboard or anything that resembles one. So using the King’s English, let’s address the issue of Armenian assimilation and the “jermag chart.” (I hope I’m not the only one who sees the irony in that.)

Canons Against Self Slaughter

For as bright and innovative as the Ittahadists, Nazis and Hutus were in the murder, slaying, raping of peoples, races, religions etc, etc. They really could have turned our very own omniscient and all-knowing deity for harbingers of holocaust. In the passage above we see «Ուր էիր աստուած» himself getting a little more proactive and asking King Saul to head out in the desert and make Paul Pot look passive. This sacrosanct yarn is an example of a greater problem when it comes to nationalist topics, a complacent tendency to leave the “sacred” unquestioned.

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