Your Namak for Sunday, August 28
Armenian government proposes reduced military service for a fee, business owners will not be compensated for damages in Surmalu blast, and 22 arrested in Yerevan anti-war protest against Russia.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Armenian Government Proposes Reduced Military Service for $60,000 Fee
Armenia’s Ministry of Defense has proposed a new law reducing the length of compulsory military service from two years to 4.5 months for those who can pay a $60,000 fee. Under the current system, all male citizens of Armenia must serve in the army for two years upon turning 18 years old. According to the ministry, funds collected from the program will be used to compensate contract servicemen with a salary of $1,000 per month, improving the professionalism of the army. The draft bill has sparked a heated debate among the Armenian public, with opponents of the law arguing that the measure would exacerbate social inequality in the military, contributing to a disproportionate representation of soldiers from low-income backgrounds.
Armenian Government Will Not Compensate Business Owners Affected by Yerevan Explosion
Armenia’s Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said that the government will not compensate business owners for damages they incurred from the Surmalu shopping center explosion in Yerevan on August 14. In a conversation with journalists, Kerobyan said business owners must seek compensation from their insurance companies if they had policies covering such contingencies. The minister said the government should not be held accountable if business owners fail to adhere to safety regulations and purchase relevant insurance policies.
22 Arrested in Yerevan Anti-War Protest Against Russia
On August 24, Armenian police detained 22 people attending a Yerevan protest against Russia’s war in Ukraine. The police have not publicly released the names of those arrested, however Russian nationals were understood to be among them.
Jessica Esayan: Meet an Argentinian-Armenian designer mapping Armenia’s treasures
“I wanted to move to Armenia but I was scared. I did not know if I could find a job and make money, so starting by volunteering seemed like a reasonable option.”
Jessica Esayan, or Chechu, as everybody calls her –– she doesn’t really know why –– looks like she borrowed rays of sunshine to put them in her hair and smile. Her optimism is infectious.
The 27-year-old graphic designer was born and raised in Buenos Aires to an Armenian father and an Italian mother. She loves to share the story of how her family ended up in the Argentinian capital.
“My ancestors escaped from the genocide and went to Syria. Then they heard they could take a boat to Australia but I think they just bought the wrong ticket or took the wrong boat and they ended up… in Argentina,” she recalls. “You know Australia and Argentina could sound confusing at the time for Armenians escaping.”
After graduating from the Armenian School of Buenos Aires, Jessica studied industrial design at the University of Buenos Aires. Despite growing up in the Armenian community, she did not speak proper Armenian.
“My paternal grandparents grew up in Uruguay and Argentina, and they spoke fluent Spanish with my father, so I never had a push to speak Armenian,” Jessica says. “We used some words and expressions but that was it. My mother’s parents spoke only Italian so I had to learn Italian to communicate with them.”
Learning the language was her main motivation to move to Armenia in 2020. “I knew that to learn the language fluently, it was the only way,” she says. Jessica moved to Gyumri and later Yerevan, volunteering with the Birthright Armenia program.
“I wanted to move to Armenia but I was scared, I did not know if I could find a job and make money, so starting by volunteering seemed like a reasonable option,” she says.
Jessica now speaks very good Western Armenian and is also learning the Eastern dialect. She has built a sustainable life for herself in Armenia, dividing her time between a data analysis job, freelance graphic design and industrial design projects. She now feels that she has found her place, and appreciates Armenia with all its complexities.
“At the beginning, my father did not understand why I was here. Like many people in the diaspora he had this older version of Armenia in his mind, like an undeveloped country where there is nothing to do,” Jessica says. “When he came, he understood why I like it here. He needed to see the reality of Armenia today.”
Jessica is the founder of “Mer Djanabar,” a series of hand-drawn maps of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh with beautiful designs and coloring models for children. “As we have a huge diaspora, with many people, like me before moving here, who do not know the country well outside of Yerevan, I thought it was a nice and fun way to connect diasporans with the country,” Jessica says.
It took her two years to complete the illustrations, and she collaborated with volunteers working in tourism and design in Armenia. She has also designed Armenian letter posters for children, stickers of Armenian monuments and historical sites, and is now working on a puzzle for adults.
The design of the map was finished right before the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War started. “It was very difficult to realize and accept for ourselves and everyone that we lost territories. And then we had to make a decision about what to do with the maps which were ready to print,” she says.
After much deliberation, Jessica decided to keep the original geography.
“We had arguments with teachers who said they could not teach this, that we had lost the territory,” Jessica says. “But we decided to keep it and to explain the history of what happened to the kids. We can’t just delete.”
To watch: Tentative dialogue between Armenia and Turkey: A view from Istanbul, a new documentary taking a deep look at the ongoing effort to normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey. The Armenian media outlet CivilNet traveled to Istanbul to speak with Armenian residents and Turkish political experts about the historic talks.
To read: EVN Report, Climate Change Issue No. 21, the latest edition of Yerevan-based digital magazine EVN Report explores climate change and its unique impacts in Armenia.
That’s it for today, see you next week!
Questions? Story ideas? An urge to say barev/parev? You can send us a secure email at namaknews@protonmail.com.