Your Namak for Tuesday, April 11
Four Armenian soldiers killed in escalation with Azerbaijani military in Syunik region, blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh extends into fourth month, and Armenia to participate in US-led military drills.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Four Armenian Soldiers Killed in Escalation with Azerbaijani Military in Syunik Region
On April 11, according to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched an offensive near the Armenian border village of Tegh, leaving four Armenian soldiers dead and six injured. In a statement, the ministry reported that Azerbaijani servicemen opened fire on Armenian soldiers performing engineering works, and the Armenian side responded with “retaliatory actions.” The ministry published video footage of Azerbaijani servicemen approaching Armenian soldiers on foot, after which a confrontation ensued. The situation on the border was “relatively stable” as of 11:30 p.m. local time. The escalation follows weeks of warnings by top Armenian officials about an imminent military offensive by Azerbaijan, along with threats of violence by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev himself.
Blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh Extends into Fourth Month
For four months, the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh has been under a blockade imposed by the Azerbaijani government, with the Armenian Foreign Ministry warning of ethnic cleansing. Electricity and gas cuts remain frequent, and residents must use food coupons to purchase basic products. After the first few weeks of total blockade, the Russian peacekeeping forces and the ICRC facilitated the transfer of some residents for health reasons and other emergencies, and to reunite separated families. However, hundreds of people remain stuck on opposite sides of the border.
According to State Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Gurgen Nersisyan, there is a new procedure in place for transporting people from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, only for highly essential cases. Last week, according to the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Gegham Stepanyan, self-proclaimed Azerbaijani “eco-activists” blocked a group of Nagorno-Karabakh civilians who were being accompanied back home by the Russian peacekeepers. After negotiations failed, the convoy was forced to return to Goris, where the civilians have been stranded for months.
Armenia to Participate in US-Led Military Drills
According to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, Armenia will take part in two US-led military exercises in Europe this year. On April 5, the U.S. Department of Defense published a list of 26 countries, including Armenia, set to participate in military drills from April to June. Armenia was later removed from that list, which caused some confusion as noted by several journalists.
Sonya Avagyan: Meet the designer working to make a name for Armenian fashion
In lieu of a new profile this week, we would like to bring back a favorite story from our archives. Founder of her eponymous brand, Yerevan-born fashion designer Sonya Avagyan draws inspiration from everyday life in her home country. She believes deeply in the creative potential of Nagorno-Karabakh, where she collects objects that she incorporates into her minimalist jewelry designs. Her goal is to create a new image of Armenian luxury fashion built on traditional craftsmanship and sustainable materials.
“I would like people all over the world to be able to say: ‘Oh yeah, Armenian fashion.’”
Sonya Avagyan is as comfortable in a trendy Yerevan restaurant mingling with en vogue artists as she is in the mud in a Nagorno-Karabakh village surrounded by locals who cannot believe how well she has mastered their dialect.
That’s probably what it takes to be a fashion designer and social entrepreneur in Armenia. Born in 1995 in Yerevan, Sonya was only 17 years old when she started her own business, making and selling custom T-shirts.
“My babysitter had a knitting machine and it was a huge excitement for me. I was intrigued by textiles at a very young age,” Sonya says.
After graduating from high school, she studied fashion design at the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts. Early on, Sonya sought to combine her creative talent with social impact. She moved the production of her shirts to regions outside Armenia’s capital, working with local artisans and training them in quality control.
What began as a small project grew into her eponymous clothing and jewelry brand, which she founded in 2014. She understood the power of social media to take customers inside her creative journey and position Armenia on the global market.
From Gyumri to Stepanakert, and passing through all the provinces in between, Sonya gathers inspiration from everyday life. Her goal is to establish production bases throughout the country that specialize in different aspects of the design process.
“They could do sewing in one village and thread-making in another village, and that’s what I am pretty much trying to set up at the moment,” she says.
In 2018, the United Nations office in Armenia invited her to consult as an expert on textile development throughout the country. She dreams of converting Armenia into a production hub, with the goal of investing in economically isolated villages, many of which suffer from depopulation due to scarce jobs.
Sonya aspires to craft a fashion culture that leverages local talent and materials instead of targeting large-scale production for major companies. Her products are hand-crafted utilizing traditional Armenian techniques and high-quality textiles.
“We need to learn how to make our ideas reality and sell them, and pay proper salaries to our workers, not just rely on those mass markets, because that industry is not going to go well,” Sonya says. “For environmental purposes, we need to reshape our way of producing and selling in the fashion industry.”
Sonya has adopted an environmentally conscious approach to her own clothing line, using exclusively biodegradable and natural fibers and decentralizing production.
Her latest project incorporates found objects from the Askeran region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Sonya extracts natural sea lilies by hand from fossilized rock formations in the village of Astghashen. Millions of years ago, a body of water existed where the village is now located, and the star-shaped fossils are the remains of sea lilies. The stars have become a fixture of Sonya’s minimalist necklaces and earrings.
“Especially when it comes to jewelry, I like when it is natural and easy and you just put materials in the right place,” Sonya says. Her customers always ask whether she alters the shape of the stones. “But no it’s nature! It’s even more incredible,” she says.
After a limited release of her jewelry collection, Sonya will turn her focus back to clothing, her passion and area of specialization. With her brand, she aims to craft a new image of Armenian luxury fashion built on traditional craftsmanship.
“In Armenia, we have a very weak fashion culture, because for many years, clothing and fashion with an artistic and crafts purpose or story were undervalued,” Sonya says. “Clothes or jewelry that people wear are only to show their social status to look good or say something about their personality.”
Sonya believes that people must reimagine what it means to create uniquely Armenian art. “Creating something Armenian does not mean just taking religious symbols and putting them somewhere,” she says. “That is not creating.”
She encourages Armenians to look inward for inspiration and ideas, and take a fresh interpretation of ancient customs.
“We have a really amazing heritage. We should research it and then create new things, inspired by them, but which are modern and work for today’s world.”
To attend: Les Arts Arméniens, regards croisés, a new exhibition at Art Research Paris, featuring a selection of artworks from the Musée arménien de France and contemporary pieces from the collective Menk Project.
To read: Gifts or equality? The Gender Gap, an article by Hranoush Dermoyan in EVN Report reflecting on the stereotypes around gender and the place of women in Armenian society, based on statistics.
To listen: Benevolent Prince, a song by Ripsime, an Armenian artist from Nagorno-Karabakh based between the U.K. and Armenia. A haunting electro-pop journey, produced between London and her native region.
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.