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OVERCOMING ADVERSITY While visitors such as myself, understandably, tend to focus on the million or more dead in 1890-1920, it is more recent history that caused the closure of the border with Turkey in 1993. The end of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s meant households had power for only an hour a day, while a devastating earthquake in 1988 killed 25,000 people, with estimates of hundreds of thousands injured and 500,000 left homeless. There was then a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, that, with Turkey supporting Azerbaijan, resulted in two of Armenia’s borders being closed (this remains the case). That Armenia survived at all is down to its Christian
heritage – it was the fi rst state to convert under Gregory the Illuminator in AD301; its unique language – the books and manuscripts in the city’s Matenadaran are well worth a visit; and its diaspora, which is not just vocal in articulating past wrongs but also gives billions to the country either as remittances to family members or as donations each year. And there are many famous Armenians. To those of
a certain age, Charles Aznavour, the French-Armenian singer who has a square named aſt er him in the centre of Yerevan, would be the best known of these, but to younger readers Kim Kardashian, with her 147 million Instagram followers, built awareness among a new generation when in 2015 she spent eight days in the country her family had fled nearly a century earlier. Early this month she is due to return to Yerevan for the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) – which will be attended by 2,500 professionals from more than 70 countries – to give a keynote speech on “how decentralised technologies have democratised the worlds of entertainment, media and journalism”.
DE C EMB E R 20 19
At the same time, the Aurora Humanitarian Prize will be awarded. This was set up in 2016 “to recognise humanitarian courage, commitment and impact” and is given each year to notable peace and
humanitarian activists worldwide (last year’s winner was Rohingya lawyer Kyaw Hla Aung). It is part of a larger Aurora Humanitarian Initiative that was set up by ethnic Armenians in Russia, including Ruben Vardanyan, who says he has personally made US$300 million in donations to projects in the country in recent years. The awarding of the Aurora Prize is now a central
part of a larger forum and conference that includes the WCIT. Vardanyan told me that he hoped the forum would “not only engage the global community but also inspire Armenians around the world to re-engage with their homeland… We expect our country’s progress to be showcased first-hand to visitors throughout the Aurora Forum. This is a chance for us to bring the world to Armenia, in a way we’ve not been able to do before.” The forum’s focus on IT reflects Armenia’s big
ambitions to become a regional tech hub. Once the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union, accounting for 30 per cent of its military electronics, the country has maintained a competitive advantage in technology development. Technology is the fastest-growing sector in the economy, enjoying a reported 20 per cent annual growth rate. There are more foreign companies working in this industry here than any other, with the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, Synopsys, D-Link, National Instruments and Mentor Graphics having offices and development teams in the country. Other well known
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
TOM OTLEY; WENN RIGHTS LTD/ALAMY; MARLENKA/ISTOCK
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