Notes from the Pink City Archives

Meet the artists trying to revive Yerevan’s medieval city-center

May 23, 2019 at 11:34 am Raffi Elliott 1

Yerevan celebrated its 2800th birthday last year, but one would be hard-pressed to find any structure in the city older than 300 years. Over the previous century, Yerevan’s precious few historical buildings and entire neighborhoods […]

The Armenian Government’s Struggle to Build a Unified Digital Identity

May 1, 2019 at 8:37 pm Raffi Elliott 0

I have already used this column to advocate for swift implementation of an e-gov platform, as well as to suggest the rollout of an e-residency system for Diaspora investors. For my third foray into digital […]

Yerevan Remembers

April 25, 2019 at 9:49 am Raffi Elliott 2

YEREVAN—A constant stream of people crossed the Hrazdan bridge and passed the Hamalir into the Genocide memorial park perched atop Armenia’s capital. As the walking paths narrow, the crowd gets thicker until they reach their […]

Are Tariffs Protecting Local Jobs or Corporate Welfare?

April 17, 2019 at 3:58 pm Raffi Elliott 4

This week, the workers at the Ararat Cement plant took to the streets in protest following news of mass layoffs. The plant, located just outside Ararat, is one of two in the country and employs […]

Reflecting on the April War on Its Third Anniversary

April 3, 2019 at 1:41 pm Raffi Elliott 4

Three years ago, I was sitting at my desk in Yerevan when a shootout on the Talish sector of the Line of Contact (LOC) in Artsakh flared into a brief, but deadly encounter. For four […]

e-Residency for Diaspora Armenians?

March 27, 2019 at 10:03 pm Raffi Elliott 12

Last month, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called for renewed ties between the Armenian Diaspora and the homeland. His cabinet voted to close the Ministry of Diaspora and vest its responsibilities to a newly-created High Commissioner […]

Scuffles Over the Opera Café Dismantling: A Sign of the Pains to Come

March 20, 2019 at 8:12 pm Raffi Elliott 3

Last week, the Yerevan Municipality began dismantling several illegal outdoor cafés around the city’s landmark Opera House as part of a bid to return the city’s shrinking green spaces to its residents. This move was […]

Armenia Needs a Comprehensive Approach to E-Governance

March 14, 2019 at 9:25 am Raffi Elliott 4

“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy,” wrote Franz Kafka in The Metamorphosis. Though these words were meant to convey protagonist Gregor’s disappointment in his company’s management ethics, they […]

My Uncontroversial Proposal to Alter an Armenian National Symbol

March 4, 2019 at 1:41 am Raffi Elliott 3

Last month, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan sparked a minor controversy when he took to Facebook to express nostalgia for the tune of the Soviet-era anthem composed by Aram Khachaturyan. Of course, […]

Azerbaijan Shouldn’t Exploit the Memory of Khojali Victims

February 28, 2019 at 8:45 am Raffi Elliott 11

Last week, I proposed a thought experiment to the readers of the Armenian Weekly. I argued that if Armenians are truly committed to the pursuit of justice for the Armenian Genocide on humanitarian grounds, our […]