18 February 2013 - Akhaltskha.Net

Akhaltskha’s Mariam Harutyunyan becomes Armenia’s best student

The RA Ministry of Education and Science summed up the results of its Best Student nation-wide competition yesterday.

RA Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan greeted the students and granted their awards. The annual competition also serves as a way for the government to reveal and encourage the best students and help them grow as professionals.

The students passed two stages. The first was held within universities. Each university had submitted to the RA Ministry of Education and Science the documents of the winner of the first stage from the Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree Programs, according to spheres.

The second stage was held by a commission established upon the executive order of the RA Minister of Education and Science. The competition was held in the following areas: natural science, medicine, humanities, social studies, engineering, Armenology, culture/sports.

To win the competition, the students of various universities had to not only have outstanding performance and be socially active, but also be involved in academics.

This year, there were participants from 18 universities. One of the winners of the competition is 2nd-year Master’s student of the Faculty of Informatics and Applied Mathematics at Yerevan State University Mariam Harutyunyan, who is from Akhaltskha. She was awarded with a certificate and a one-time nominal scholarship set by the RA Minister of Education and Science a...
Akhaltskha celebrated St. Sarkis the Warrior Day

On February 11, the Armenian Apostolic Church is celebrating the day of Saint Sarkis the Warrior, His Son, Mardiros and the 14 soldiers.

Every year, the faithful of Akhaltskha region travel nearly 4 kilometers to visit the St. Sarkis the Warrior Chapel, which is located next to the Holy Cross Church in Sazel village. The holiday is especially a joyful holiday for young Armenians who very often head towards the St. Sarkis the Warrior Chapel in groups and with their classmates, and this has been a folk ritual in Akhaltskha for a long time now.

On the occasion, a Holy Mass was served, and the celebrant was pastor of Akhaltskha and the nearby villages, Fr. Priest Torgom Vardanyan at Holy Cross Church in the Sazel village of Akhaltskha.

His Holiness and Fr. Torgom interpreted the symbol of the day for the faithful and congratulated them.

At the end of the Holy Mass, Spiritual Superintendent of Akhaltskha, Fr. Friar Hakob Sahakyan and the celebrant performed the blessing of youth.
Lebanese-Armenians visited House-Museum of Jivani

Despite the cold winter, the House-Museum of Jivani continues to host visitors and convey the warmth that was characteristic of the troubadour. Today, it is a pleasure to state that there are visitors from quite a lot of countries around the world.
Lebanese-Armenians recently visited the House-Museum of Jivani in Kartsakh. During their visit, they mentioned the following: “We were very impressed with the museum in Kartsakh where the items were sorted properly, interestingly and meticulously. The life of Jivani was presented in a very interesting way. We received great explanations and got to know Jivani up close. We hope many people visit this museum,” writes javakhkmedia.com.

The guests left with great impressions and promised to return with a larger group in the spring.
Vardges Surenyants’s house in Akhaltskha on sale

The house of great Armenian painter Vardges Surenyants in Akhaltskha is on sale. According to the homeowner, he has preserved the former look of Vardges Surenyants’s house and has not renovated it since he still believes there will be people who will want to purchase Surenyants’s house and turn it into a museum.

Vardges Surenyants’s house has five medium-size rooms and a small garden in the back of the house. Currently, the house is on sale for $90,000 dollars.

On August 1, 2009, a plaque dedicated to the memory of great Armenian painter Vardges Surenyants was unveiled on the wall of the painter’s house in Akhaltskha.

The event dedicated to the painter’s 150th birth anniversary and the unveiling of the plaque were organized by businessman Sos Sahakyan, who lives in Armenia and is originally from Akhaltskha.

Vardges Surenyants was born in 1860 to a family of a clergyman in Akhaltskha. He received his primary education at the Lazaryan College, after which he continued his studies in the department of architecture of the highly reputable school for painting, sculpting and architecture in Moscow. He started pursuing his career as a painter at the imperial academy in Munich.

Knowing ten languages, Surenyants also studied the arts and literature of different nations. According to his contemporaries, he would recite the poems of Persian poets Hafez and Khayam, translate the works of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde,...
Public discourse on Akhaltskha’s budget for the year 2017

Representatives of the city council of Akhaltskha participated in the discussion on the city’s budget for the year 2017. Among the representatives of Armenia organizations were the founder of the Democratic Union of Nations of Georgia Ashot Kavaleryan and Director of the Media Analysis Center of Samtskhe-Javakhk Eduard Ayvazyan.

The discussion began with a speech by Head of the Sacrebulo of Akhaltskha Davit Lomidze. “The regional development foundation has allocated 2,250,000 Laris and has distributed the funds to solve issues in various sectors, including infrastructure projects and social programs. As far as the sacrebulo’s budget is concerned, we reduced it by 126,000 Laris and immediately allocated it for the implementation of infrastructural projects,” head of the city council Davit Lomidze.

After being introduced to the draft of the city’s budget, the participants of the meeting expressed their views on the budget. The attendees said it would be nice, if the city solved the issues related to stray dogs, public restrooms, the renovation of the local cultural center, public transportation and the wrongly placed road signs.

According to Davit Lomidze, the budget for the year 2017 in Akhaltskha will make up nearly 7,900,000 Laris. According to the draft, administrative expenditures have been reduced by 798,200 Laris.

COUNCIL OF ARMENIAN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS OF SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHK CALLS ON NOT DESTABILIZING THE REGION

18.02.2013

Taking into account the latest events that took place in Samtskhe-Javakhk (the rallies organized by activists of the ruling "Georgian Dream” Coalition and officials of the Akhalkalak region supporting the "United National Movement”), the Council of Armenian Non-Governmental Organizations of Samtskhe-Javakhk urge the sides to not destabilize the region and give preference to the solution to several urgent issues in the region.

The Council also calls on the people of Javakhk to be organized, not give way to the events taking place in Georgia since violation of the stability in the region isn’t in the interests of the people.

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Meeting with Georgian Armenian writers who write in a foreign language

18.02.2013

"Armenian writers, who compose in a foreign language, are not strangers to us” - that was the title of a literary soiree, which was held on February 16 at the "Hayartun” Cultural Center of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church in Georgia in the Hall of Calouste Gulbenkian. The initiator and organizer of the evening was the "Vernatun” Union of Armenian Writers of Georgia and the cultural center "Hayartun" supported the event.

President of "Vernatun” Union Gevorg Snkhchyan opened the evening and presented the writers, who despite the fact of writing in a foreign language, remain Armenians in soul, and the idea, the subject and the source of their works are national. He introduced the members of the "Vernatun” Union of Armenian Writers of Georgia who write in Russian, that were Marina Kirakosyan-Mosesova, Michael Ananov, Artem Grigorents (Kirakozov) and writing in Georgian Garry Kalamkarov.

President of the "Kamurj” Literary-Cultural Organization, the poetess and translator Anahit Bostanjyan described in detail the writers who write in a foreign language, emphasized the uniqueness of their creations, the presence of a colorful description of Tbilisi and the Armenian spirit that fills rich literary world of each. Anahit Bostanjyan welcomed progress in the Armenian translation of works of Armenian writers who write in a foreign language, noting the excellent translation into Armenian by poet Ara Artyan of the poems of Marina Kirakosyan-Mosesova and t ... »»»

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