Your Namak for Tuesday, May 9
Blockade continues as water crisis looms in Nagorno-Karabakh, Washington hosts talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and tensions rise amid Armenia-Turkey normalization process.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Blockade Continues as Water Crisis Looms in Nagorno-Karabakh
According to State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Gurgen Nersisyan, the region’s Sarsang Reservoir water resources have reached a critical low. Ever since the start of the blockade by Azerbaijan on December 12 and an interruption in energy supply to the region on January 9, residents have experienced prolonged electricity cuts daily. The only domestic electricity generation infrastructure in Nagorno-Karabakh is the Sarsang Reservoir. Several villages depend on the reservoir for irrigation, and worry is growing as summer approaches.
Washington Hosts Talks Between Armenia and Azerbaijan
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, met in Washington for talks mediated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken from May 1 to 4. No treaty was signed, as there are still many unresolved issues between the parties. The official press release from the State Department said, “Both Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed in principle with certain conditions and better understand each other’s positions on unresolved issues.” The statement said that an agreement was “within reach,” and both sides “will continue to enjoy the full support and involvement of the United States in their efforts to secure a lasting peace.”
Tensions Rise Amid Armenia-Turkey Normalization Process
After Turkey closed its airspace to Armenian airline FlyOne Armenia without prior warning last week, Turkey’s Foreign Minister announced the closure of the country’s airspace to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the move in an interview with Russian media, as retaliation for the unveiling of a new monument in Yerevan dedicated to “Operation Nemesis.” In this operation, survivors of the Armenian Genocide organized the assassinations of Ottoman officials who perpetrated the atrocities, still officially denied by Turkey. At the same time, President of the Armenian National Assembly Alen Simonyan participated in a summit of speakers of Parliamentary Assemblies of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) and met with his Turkish counterpart Mustafa Sentop.
Alexandre Bagdassarian: Meet a French-Armenian photographer documenting the turmoil in Armenia while discovering his ancestral homeland
“I am trying to be delicate, to show things but not explain everything. I am obsessed with people and places which are steeped in history, so obviously working in Armenia has been extremely intense.”
Alexandre Bagdassarian speaks very fast and with a passionate tone. You can feel his excitement as he describes his current project taking place in Armenia.
The 30-year-old photographer was born and raised in Valence, France. The city in the center of the country is one of the biggest hubs of the French-Armenian diaspora, but Alexandre grew up outside of the community.
“My mother is French and my father was not very close to his family. Except for the food and the language I could hear at my grandparents’ place, I did not know much about that side of me,” Alexandre says. “Besides having an Armenian last name, I have never had any links to the community or the country. It was interesting to arrive with a neutral, fresh, new look.”
Alexandre’s first trip to Armenia was in January 2022. Before that, he studied photography in France at the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs from which he graduated in 2014, and worked as a photographer for newspapers and private companies in France and Chile.
“My first summer job was in corn fields and I used my first paycheck to buy an analog camera,” Alexandre says. “I was always fascinated by photos and the art of developing the photos.”
“My approach is really documentary photography, I am trying to be delicate, to show things but not explain everything,” the young photographer explains. “I am obsessed with people and places which are steeped in history, so obviously working in Armenia has been extremely intense.”
Alexandre was always curious to discover Armenia, and decided to plan a trip to explore the country, but also document it, as the geopolitical situation had taken a dark turn in the region. During his trips in 2022, the idea of a long-term project emerged.
Called “La couleur de la grenade” (The color of pomegranates), a reference to the iconic film by Sergei Parajanov, the project is about the future of Armenia and its youth, through the eyes of a diaspora photographer discovering the country at a particularly tense and uncertain juncture.
“Also I had never really tasted pomegranates before. Can you believe it? And they just taste so amazing in Armenia,” Alexandre says with a smile.
“When I arrived in Armenia, I found some familiar faces and physical features and felt like I belonged in a way. Even if I did not speak the language,” he says. “I felt at ease and never in danger with Armenians, even if of course near the border you can feel the tension.”
Apart from his personal photography projects, he takes on assignments for various media outlets, and most recently documented the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and establishment of an illegal Azerbaijani checkpoint at the entrance of the Lachin corridor, for Libération.
An exhibition of “La couleur de la grenade” is planned in the fall at the Galerie Le Bleu du Ciel in Lyon, France. And even though he is not closing the Armenia chapter yet, Alexandre is already starting to work on his next documentary project about Syrian refugees in France.
To read: Painting the World on an Egg, the story of Yakov Zargaryan, who has collected 1,200 painted eggs by 940 artists from 52 countries. Samson Martirosyan visited his museum-like home for Hyperallergic.
To read (and listen): Yêrêvan Xeberdide: How a Soviet Armenian Radio Station Preserved Kurdish Culture, an article by Gayané Ghazaryan for Ajam Media Collective, about how Radio Yerevan helped thousands of Kurds connect with their culture.
To read: 7 Furry Facts about the Ermine: The Royal Armenian Rat, an Ara the Rat blog post about the ermine, a creature from the Armenian plains whose fur is popular among royals until now.
That’s it for today, see you next week!
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