It’s getting a little old now, but the issues remain the same — poverty, children enrolled into residential care, conflict resolution, landmines, and democracy — so I’ve decided to make the electronic PDF version of my book, Armenia: Poverty, Transition & Democracy available for download. The book was meant to be a vehicle for raising such issues in the Diaspora, but apart from one or two presentations to the London-Armenian community, few were interested.

Armenia: Poverty, Transition & Democracy

[…]

Articles and photographs cover issues as diverse as socially vulnerable families, children enrolled into residential institutions, mental health, landmines and UXO in Nagorno Karabagh and on the border with Azerbaijan, resettlement in the territory between Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh and the impact of the Rose Revolution in the neighboring Republic of Georgia on Armenia.

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I first read about The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak in a post about the book on iArarat and was intrigued. I have to admit that books by Armenians on the Genocide are really not of any interest to me given that they are predictable and seem to be orientated towards an already convinced audience.

However, the idea of a Turkish writer touching upon this sensitive subject is another matter entirely which is why I’m glad to see that Myrthe from The Armenian Odar has written and just posted a review of the book. The review is made all the more interesting given that Myrthe is not Armenian as well.

The Armenian genocide is a major theme in the story, but eventually it is one of the ways the bigger theme of dealing with the past is worked out. All of the major characters have something in their past they have to deal with, either by accepting it or denying it or, even before acceptation or denial, by trying to find out what their past actually is.

[…]

It is a beautifully told story with an interesting plot, if somewhat constructed at times. I felt as if the author wanted to represent all the different opinions on the Armenian genocide in the book. There is the staunch Turkish nationalist who is absolutely convinced that there was no genocide and that, on the contrary, the Armenians killed the Turks en masse. There is the Turk who acknowledges that the Turks did horrible things to the Armenians during World War I, but that that was in the past and that the current generation is not responsible for it. There is also the Armenian who thinks that Armenians still living in Turkey are being repressed and who is convinced that they’d be better off emigrating. There is the somewhat skeptical Armenian who thinks that striving for recognition of the genocide is the only thing that still binds the Diaspora and that once recognition by Turkey has been achieved, the Diaspora will fall apart. Finally there is the Armenian who was born and raised in Istanbul, feels Istanbulite first and foremost and doesn’t want to live anywhere else. This urge to represent all those opinions led to superfluous scenes and even characters in my opinion. I ended up quickly reading the superfluous parts and then diving back into the rest of the book.

[…]

I am not sure the book is among my favorite reads of this year, but I did enjoy it very much and am certainly interested in reading more by Elif Shafak.

Anyway, although the book doesn’t sound as good as it could have been perhaps, if I can ever find the time to put my feet up to read, The Bastard of Istanbul might be on my list. Of course, I’ve also yet to read Ali and Nino: A Love Story which I might finally do over this holiday season. Thanks, Myrthe, for the review.

Myrthe from The Armenian Odar has a new blog, The Armenian Odar Reads, and as I just picked up accesses coming from her latest post I decided to take a look. Anyway, a little surprising given that the new site is a book review one, but after reading about Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes I discovered why. About a week ago I gave her a copy of Armenia: Poverty, Transition & Democracy by yours truly, and she has indeed taken a look. Not really a review, but it’s always nice to read such nice words even if they are from a friend.

After finishing Sherlock Holmes, I got up, did some chores in the house and then sat down again to read. This time I read Armenia: Poverty, Transition & Democracy by Onnik Krikorian. He is a friend of mine who works as a freelance photographer and journalist here in Armenia. His blog is in my opinion the best English language blog on Armenia and one of the best sources of news on Armenia (and no, I am not saying that because I happen to know the guy). He runs another blog here covering the run-up to the presidential elections in Armenia on February 19 next year. Onnik’s book consists of several articles on Armenia accompanied by his pictures. His website and blogs are well worth a look and a read.

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After visiting Georgia’s second largest city of Kutaisi at the beginning of the year for the Newport Kutaisi Association and EveryChild, the U.S. branch of the Salvation Army yesterday contacted me regarding using one of my images for the front cover of a brochure they’ll be producing. They specifically requested the use of one image included in the audio slide show presentation I produced for the Newport Kutaisi Association and EveryChild.

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15.2 km South of Lachin, Kashatagh Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

The last two days saw an opportunity to meet up with Caucasus editor of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), Tom de Waal, while he was in town to launch the Armenian translation of his book on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War. Tom and I traveled through Karabakh for some of the research for his book and also worked together on a story for the Los Angeles Times on cultural monuments in the disputed territory in 2001.

Anyway, as I hadn’t seen Tom since the launch of the Russian translation of the book in Yerevan last November it was great to meet up with him over dinner with the lovely Amberin Zaman and her husband, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Joseph Pennington, on Monday, and again last night at an IWPR bash before he returned to London. As with the first edition of the English version of the book, the cover photo was again mine with more inside.

Anyway, now that there are English, Russian and Armenian versions of the book, there should be one in Azeri in the near future. Armenian Public Radio covered the launch of the book.

The US Embassy and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting Armenia Branch held a discussion at the US Embassy on October 1 to mark the release of the Armenian translation of British journalist Thomas de Waal’s book “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War.”

The book presents a careful reconstruction of the history of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and its aftermath, based on six months traveling through the South Caucasus, more than 120 original interviews, and unique archives.

The widely-read book was first published in English in 2004. A Russian translation of the book came out in November 2006 and discussions were held in Yerevan, Tbilisi and Baku.

Thomas de Waal is editor of the Caucasus Reporting Service of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. He is also known as co-author of A Small Victorious War, a book on the conflict in Chechnya. De Waal completed a degree in Russian and Modern Greek at Oxford, has worked for the BBC, The Moscow Times and The Times in London and Moscow.

As you can see from the sidebar to this blog, I thoroughly recommend Black Garden to anyone interested in a chronological account to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A review of the book can be found here, and the English version can be purchased through Amazon.com here.

In continuing attempts to set a precedent for online media resources and blogs in Armenia to become self-sufficient and truly independent, Oneworld Multimedia has now become an Amazon affiliate. What this means is that items such as CDs, DVDs and books can be ordered online from Amazon.com through a newly established aStore.

All orders are handled via secure online transactions by Amazon.com.

Ordering through the Oneworld Multimedia / Amazon aStore won’t cost readers extra and might actually save them money on selected items, but a small referral fee will be paid by Amazon.com which will be used to fund new projects and coverage on issues that were first brought to light by Oneworld Multimedia or still remain ignored by the media here and in the Diaspora.

However, items sold through the Oneworld Multimedia / Amazon aStore will be relevant to this site and thus provide a service to its readers. From time to time, Oneworld Multimedia will also recommend certain items which it considers invaluable or especially relevant to the South Caucasus republics, and Armenia and Azerbaijan in particular.

Two such items are the excellent Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War by Thomas de Waal and Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic by Thomas Goltz. Coincidentally, Oneworld Multimedia accompanied de Waal for some of the research on Black Garden and the book also features photographs by yours truly. Reviews have been excellent so it’s probably appropriate to quote what EurasiaNet had to say about de Waal’s book.

On February 20, 1988, the local assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh issued a stunning, plainly-worded resolution that called for the transfer of their autonomous region from the republic of Azerbaijan to the republic of Armenia. “The dreary language of the resolution,” writes Thomas de Waal in his fine new book Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, “hid something truly revolutionary.”

The resolution helped trigger a cycle of events that sparked the first inter-ethnic war of the Perestroika era, Mikhail Gorbachev’s ill-fated attempt to reanimate the Soviet Union. The “hot” phase of the Karabakh conflict lasted six years, claiming an estimated 15,000 lives and creating a wrenching population “transfer.” The warfare displaced hundreds of thousands Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The two countries remain stalemated to this day on a political settlement.

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De Waal goes on to debunk some of the conspiracy theories that helped drive the conflict, namely that the Kremlin orchestrated the conflict. Through presentation of papers from Soviet archives and interviews with key players, de Waal shows that Soviet leaders in Moscow were “running to keep pace with the dispute, rather than leading it.”

Perhaps most interestingly, de Waal argues that the conflict “cannot usefully be reduced to its socioeconomic components.” History and identity – or, rather misguided and dangerous ideas of history and identity – played a more important role. He writes: “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict makes sense only if we acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Azerbaijanis were driven to act by passionately held ideas about history, identity, and rights.”

“That the vast mass of these ideas were dangerous and delusory does not make them any less sincerely felt,” de Waal continues. “From 1990 and 1991, there were plenty of volunteers prepared to risk their lives for them… The darkest of these convictions, ’the hate narratives,’ have taken such deep root that unless they are addressed, nothing can change in Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

[…]

De Waal points out that the 1988 movement for Karabakh’s transfer to Armenia was organized chiefly by those who were, at the time, living outside of the enclave. As in many Diaspora communities, romantic nationalism has the power to erase historical memory: in this case, the confluence of cultural and personal ties between the two peoples on the ground.

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De Waal does well to remind his readers of the eighteenth century Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova who wrote in Armenian, Georgian, and Azeri and “moved happily between the nations and regions of the Caucasus.” Sayat Nova, a revered poet in the region, represents the best of cosmopolitan Caucasus culture, a culture that is being choked by a conflict that locks Armenians and Azerbaijanis in “their self-destructive states of fear and defiance.”

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Copies of a collection of my articles and photographs, Armenia: Poverty, Transition & Democracy, published by the Gomidas Institute are available at The Club at 40 Tumanian Street in Central Yerevan. One reader wrote the following on the book in November.

Buy this book! I want to recommend it to everybody. I got it visiting Armenia several weeks ago and its impressive photos are still appealling to me, its texts a demand. This excellent journalist is keeping his solidarity to the poor, outcasted people, and the book is a lesson.

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Mkhitarist Seminary, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / CNEWA One Magazine 2006

I’ve been a little quiet of late because of work and in particular an article and photos that I had to produce for One Magazine, a publication of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). After viewing my Lightstalkers portfolio, the magazine’s photo editor approached me for a story on the return of the Mkhitarist Fathers to Armenia.

As I like stories on subjects that are seldom covered here, I jumped at the chance. The Mkhitarist Fathers are particularly interesting as Wikipedia explains.

The Mechitarists (Armenian: Մխիթարեան), also spelled Mekhitarists, are a congregation, founded in 1712 by Mechitar, of Armenian Benedictine monks in communion with the Catholic Church.

Their eponymous founder, Mekhitar, was born at Sebaste in Armenia in 1676. He entered a monastery, but under the influence of Western missionaries he became possessed with the idea of propagating Western ideas and culture in Armenia, and of converting the Armenian Church from its alleged monophysitism (a christological heresy in Roman Catholic viewpoint) and reuniting it with the Latin Church.

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Stepanakert, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

I’ve just come back from a quick drink with Tom de Waal, Caucasus Editor of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, before he had to shoot off for some reception, and IWPR’s Armenia Country Director, Seda Muradyan. Beforehand, Tom launched the Russian translation of his book on the Karabakh conflict, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War. Eurasianet reviewed the book, which also includes photographs by yours truly, here.

Today, the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh – located within the boundaries of Azerbaijan but populated largely by Armenians — has become one of those “political flashpoints” that few beyond the region understand or pay much heed to. Journalist Thomas de Waal, a veteran observer of the Caucasus, helps fill the need for an authoritative, clear-eyed, balanced account of a conflict that only occasionally appears on the international media radar screen.

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Stepanakert, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

Tom de Waal, Caucasus Editor for London-based the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), will be holding a discussion in Yerevan on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh on Monday 6 November 2006 at 3.30p.m.

Here’s the full press release for anyone interested in attending, although I guess you should contact sedaiwpr@web.am first.

The Armenian branch of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is pleased to invite you to the presentation of the Russian translation of “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War” by British journalist Thomas de Waal and a following discussion of the book November 6th 2006, at 15:30 p.m..

Thomas de Waal is also the renowned co-author of the book called “The Small Winning War” about the conflict in Chechnya.

The Russian translation of the “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War” was published a year ago. The Armenian and the Azerbaijani translations of the book are also ready for publication.

The presentation and the discussion will be held at the office of the Armenian branch of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting at Yeznik Koghbatsi, 39.

The working language of the discussion is Russian.

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Copies of a collection of my articles and photographs, Armenia: Poverty, Transition & Democracy, published by the Gomidas Institute are now available at The Club at 40 Tumanian Street in Central Yerevan.

The book covers subjects as diverse as socially vulnerable families and children deprived of parental care in Armenia, landmines, settlement in the territory sandwiched between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, and the 2003 Presidential Election.

It costs 5,000 AMD.