"Rock the borders" regional rock festival in Yerevan, Armenia

September 28 was the coldest day in Yerevan since the March I guess… It was raining round the clock and stopped close to the evening of Sunday. Luckily it stopped, because the rock festival that was widely advertised - had to take place in a park, under an open sky.
Bands from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey and Italy, and Armenian bands like Stryfe, Dogma, Vortan Karmir, were announced to be playing. In my memory, this was the biggest ever event of this type in Armenia. Italian band "Sadist" was among the most anticipated ones, since they are quite famous among metal music fans.

I haven't been at rock concerts for a while… some 4-5 years ago I wasn't missing any :) during this one I realized how much I did grow up since then :D
Most of the attendees were teenagers - under the influence of emo, gothic and other subcultures like these. To me it was unusual seeing this much Armenian teenagers with tattoos and piercings. Some years ago these people were quite rare and they were getting much more attention than these young people now. Alternative culture is becoming more and more popular here year by year… When it was my 'age' of attending rock concerts, the 'weirdest' people were guys with long hair and girls wearing large and rude boots, a lot of

Outstanding was fact of the presence of Turkish band "Northern Lights", taking into account the fact of a long-term Turkish-Armenian conflict, and the absence of diplomatic relations between the countries. This was unprecedented event and was interesting for watching the reactions of the public (there are certain masses in Armenia that are against any Turkish presence).
Not surprisingly for me, the audience was welcoming and I didn't notice any display of intolerance. I was wondering if it would be the same with any other concert, especially if it was pop. Yep, even when rock fans are more anti-social, I personally think, they are also more open-minded.
I heard that all of the guest bands wereastonished by the Armenian hospitality which wasn't a surprise for me ;))
It was really cold there and people who liked the music and were dancing had an advantage. Since heavy metal is not my preferred style, I was freezing and left the concert for a hot tea in the middle of performances missing the Italian band, but it was becoming more and more crowded there.

 Performance of the Turkish band "Northern Lights"

this is about Armenia, as i know it

This is my first post in this blog and I'm going to write about my country.

I'm living in independent Armenia for 17 years now. No I'm not 17, I'm 24. It's my country that just turned 17 year old (we celebrated the Independence Day on September 21).
Republic of Armenia has become an independent state from the Soviet Union in 1991. So I was born in Armenian Soviet Republic.

I won't be giving you encyclopedic data, you can easily find it on the net without me, I will just write my memories and about my perception of Armenia. I've seen the painful process forming of the state being already a conscious schoolchild. September 1991 was not only the month of the declaration of independence, it was also my first month at school.

The declaration of independence followed some not very easy processes in the history of Armenia. In 1988 my country faced a terrible disaster - an earthquake which completely destroyed some cities… caused 50,000 deaths, also among my relatives. Then the movement for independence of Armenia started - with mass demonstrations and rallies.

After the declaration of independence - the war for the Karabakh liberation started. Because of the unstable economic situation and the resources concentration on the war, we had some hard years. Those years are called "dark and cold" years. Because of the earthquake danger, our nuclear plant was closed which was our main source of energy. We had electricity for 2 hours daily... Even not every day. We were buying bread by coupons - each person had a right to buy 250 grams of bread per day. For my family of 5, we were buying one bread and a quarter, daily. Winters of those years seemed even colder. People were heating their houses with some petroleum heaters, or cutting trees in the city parks to be able to burn them in the furnace and heat themselves. We were studying under candle lights, watching black and white small TVs working on 12V car accumulators. And yes, I remember tanks marching on the central streets. I was watching it from the windows of my classroom.

These was my childhood, I don't remember it in dark colors, but my parents weren't, of course, that carefree as us - children. The crisis lasted for about 4 years and after the ceasefire in 1994, my country slowly started to recover. Unfortunately that years we had a lot of people emigrating to another countries - mostly to Western Europe, USA and Russia. Young families couldn't afford the living here and were trying all methods to escape. Many of my father's friends did so. I'm happy and grateful to my parents because we weren't among them.
People that leaved then, won't recognize the country now. It has changed radically. It's growing and developing and becoming a pleasant place for living. And it's safe ! I've heard from many tourists that they had quite different thoughts before coming. I'm happy that the tourist flow is growing year by year and more and more people are getting acquainted with my culture and country.

In my next post I will describe you the things that make Armenia unique and so attractive for tourists, also about the famous inventions that were made by Armenians. I will also tell you why Armenia is the only place I can imagine myself living in. Stay tuned!

 

Photo credits belong to me.

Armenia

Hello everybody. My name is Nvard. I’m from Yerevan, Armenia.
The Republic of Armenia lies in the north eastern part of the Armenian plateau, in the highlands surrounding the Biblical mountains of Ararat, upon which Noah's Ark came to rest after the flood. Ancient Armenia was one of the largest states of the Middle East. Its name is among six other countries depicted on a Babylonian map dating back to the 5th century B.C. Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. In 301 A.D. Armenia adopted Christianity thus becoming the first country in the world to proclaim it a state religion.
Armenia is currently a member of more than 40 international organizations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Asian Development Bank, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the World Trade Organization and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.
Hospitality is well-known in Armenia and stems from ancient tradition. Social gatherings focused around sumptuous presentations of course after course of elaborately prepared and well-seasoned food. The hosts will often put morsels on a guest's plate whenever it is empty or fill his or her glass when it gets low. After a helping or two it is acceptable to refuse politely or, more simply, just leave a little uneaten food. Alcohol such as cognac, vodka, and red wine are usually served during meals and gatherings. It is rare and unusual for one to go inside an Armenian household and not be offered coffee, pastry, food, or even water.
As George Gordon Byron said, “There is no other land in the world so full of wonders as the land of Armenians…”
Yerevan, the pink capital city of Armenia, one of the most ancient eastern cities, is already 2789 years old. But being an ancient city it is flourishing day by day.

I promise to tell you about the youth life in Armenia and hope you will be interested in.

I begin :)

Hello to everybody. Glad to see you visiting my little world on “ForgottenDiaries” .

My name is Amata, I’m from Grozny – the capital of Chechen Republic. We know that everybody, who takes part in this project, is from some conflict region and very often we hear dangerous things from the regions we live. You know, I’m glad to have an opportunity to take part in this project and hope that after several posts with photos, videos, interesting news of my republic you will see, that Chechen Republic and Grozny are still one of the best of the best and the best))))) And I’m ready to believe you if you say the same about your country.. J

If you visited my republic in 2000 year, or in 2004 y. you could find only ruined cities, villages, and no light in the people’s eyes. But before 1994, before the war, Grozny was the most beautiful and green (because of many parks) city on Caucasus and people from all over the world came here to study in the State Grozny Oil Institute (there were only 2 Oil instates those time).
I’m so sad I was too small to see and remember all sights of my republic, but I can show you what is now here, how we live, how we spend our time and so on…

A very important event happened recently in the life of Chechen Republic. Maybe you heard about it – it’s the 1st International movie festival “Ark of Noy”. Guests from more that 20 countries came here to take part in the festival, to show their works. Mark Dakaskos and Armand Assante – famous Hollywood stars – visited our capital.

You know what was unusual in this movie festival – there were no any film that couldn’t be watched by whole family, I mean with children. And it’s a very rare thing in modern life.

Why “Ark of Noy”?

Noy was a prophet who tried to safe people from evil, to make them listen to God. But they didn’t want to do it, they preferred to live while they were alive making harm to each other, sowing promiscuity and wars on Earth. They forgot that for every evil one makes in this life he will pay in another. And only those who followed Noy to his ark stood alive, when God sent a flood on Earth.

So, giving that name to this festival its organizers wanted to show that only good=kind movies are allowed at the festival. I think, you’ll hear about it in news or read in the Internet.

I hope all people will understand finally that evil and wars must be excepted from our world…

I’ve done some excursus to the past, sorry if it was borring)) This is just the beginning. Next time I’ll tell you about the life of my youth.

Bye for now… Will be glad to hear from you too..