Notes from the Pink City Archives

Data mapping is a necessary tool against COVID-19. But mass surveillance doesn’t have to be.

March 31, 2020 at 1:19 pm Raffi Elliott 0

This week, the Armenian government passed its most controversial measure yet in its struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, a motion that would allow authorities to access personal phone data passed a first […]

How the “Silicon Mountain” Handles Quarantine

March 25, 2020 at 9:30 pm Raffi Elliott 1

On Tuesday evening, when Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the nation to announce stricter lockdown measures, he urged people to stay home and do their banking, utility and grocery payments online instead. After a short […]

Social Isolation, Luxury Hotels and Internet Memes

March 18, 2020 at 10:09 pm Raffi Elliott 1

I remember watching news reports of the Fukushima nuclear disaster back in 2011. Looking through images of Japanese people in the affected areas stoically queuing up in an orderly fashion as the years of emergency […]

“Privet, Rob” and other musings

March 12, 2020 at 11:55 am Raffi Elliott 2

On the evening of September 25, 2001, Poghos Poghosyan, a native of Javakhk, was sitting at the famous Poplavok cafe in central Yerevan when he saw his former classmate, then-President Robert Kocharyan walk out, accompanied […]

“My Agri Summer Camp” wants your kids to learn about their Armenian roots and nature

February 25, 2020 at 1:28 pm Raffi Elliott 1

Satenik Khachatryan is an early childhood educator with a lot of experience under her belt. Her master’s degree on the subject carries the seal of not one, but four prestigious educational institutions: University of Gothenburg, […]

Is Jared Kushner the key to peace in Karabakh?

February 19, 2020 at 5:48 pm Raffi Elliott 4

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin trotted down the steps of Tel Aviv’s City Hall one November evening in 1995 when a gunman discharged three rounds from a concealed Beretta 84F. The PM had just concluded […]

Echoes of Deir ez-Zor at Auschwitz

January 29, 2020 at 8:54 pm Raffi Elliott 14

I’ve actually been to Hell – well, this Hell wasn’t located in the fiery depths of the afterlife, but in the countryside on the outskirts of the baroque Polish city of Krakow. Accompanying me on […]

Overlooked: The Armenian Greta Thunberg who Spent Six Days in Jail

January 8, 2020 at 3:40 pm Raffi Elliott 1

Just days before Christmas, a Russian court sentenced a young climate activist to six days in jail for participating in a climate change demonstration in Moscow. Supporters of the 25-year-old violinist Arshak Makichyan claim that […]

Is Armenia’s proposed wiretapping bill unconstitutional?

December 11, 2019 at 3:06 pm Raffi Elliott 0

If passed, an amendment to Armenia’s current law on intelligence-gathering operations would give police the authority to wiretap telephone conversations of private citizens independently from the National Security Service (NSS). Such a legislative amendment would […]

HDIF aims to turn Armenia into fair trade crocheting nation

December 4, 2019 at 7:32 pm Raffi Elliott 0

With Christmas only three weeks away, crocheted gifts from Armenia are flying off the shelves from Yerevan to Los Angeles. Two tags stick out from many of these hand-knitted gloves with Armenian carpet motifs or […]