Some guy started his shitty motorcycle, and I closed my eyes, and it spelled like burning gasoline, like мойкаs every few blocks, like Yerevan.
Not everyone is fighting over food: Ethnic Armenian and Azeri children at a birthday party enjoy dolma and a whole host of other regional dishes in the co-inhabited village of Tsopi, Georgia © Onnik Krikorian 2012
Onnik, who has done a lot of original work in the co-inhabited parts of Georgia, relayed a spot-on quote from an Azeri man named Ağarəhim: Dolma yeyənindi, Sarı Gəlin oxuyanındı — Dolma belongs to those who eat it, Sarı G(y)alin belongs to those who sing it.
Welcome to Nakhchivan, the San Francisco of the Middle East | VICE
As my plane touched down into Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, I half-expected to step out into a crumbling landscape ripped from a still of ‘Enemy at the Gates.’
This article is what one would expect from Vice, I guess. “Even my friends in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, told me I’d probably be walking out into a wasteland” makes you wonder who his friends are and how much they know about anything, but it’s cute that people are never embarrassed to admit to such ignorance when writing about places no one gives a shit about. And the San Francisco comparison is rather weak. Still an interesting read, made interesting for the fact that virtually nothing is ever written on Nakhchivan in the media (except for Azerbaijani and Armenian but we’ll ignore those for obvious reasons).
Critique of Postcolonial Reason
| me: | Victory Day is big in the Caucasus, so there are a lot of good pictures coming in today, if you are interested. |
| the editor: | you mean Russia? |
| me: | no, the Caucasus. |
| the editor: | whose Victory Day are we talking about? |
| me: | the Soviet Union's. |
Hold up here comes the best story
The first time my grandma got drunk was on May 9, 1945 aka the day World War Two was won, she was on the Solkhoz nearby Shamakhy (Azerbaijan SSR) (that’s the kolkhoz but state owned) and the head of the VinTsekh (Vino-sector), “a nice plump Armenian woman” brought her to the wine cellar and gave her a glass of sweetass vintage wine. And the war was over and everyone celebrated.
That was exactly 68 years ago.
The Hay Skoda aka the local hippie tram spotted rolling along Moshtats street in #yerevan
Typical Armenian trolleybus. I saw this one yesterday, but didn’t have time to photograph it. I’m guessing the management has given the drivers free reign on design. So each one is very unique. As you can see this one features pink fire breathing doors, curtain stickers and what kind of a trolleybus driver would he be, if he didn’t have a picture of Ararat on the back window?
At 50 drams it’s the cheapest and slowest method of transportation in Armenia.
“Atam, Anam ve men. Dad, Mom and Me. Shusha, Karabakh. August 1981” by Murat Gassanly.
The rest of the photo album is here.
Georgians Wrestle With Abortion Issue As Gender Imbalance Grows
TBILISI/PRAGUE — Georgia faces a serious and growing demographic problem. According to the United Nations, the ratio of newborn boys to girls in 1991 was 105 to 100. By 2000, it was nearly 110 to 10…
“Together with its neighbors in the South Caucasus, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia is on a trajectory to develop a gender imbalance on a par with what has been observed in India and China.
According to World Health Organization and UN data from 2005, Georgia has 19.1 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, one of the highest rates in Europe, although in the middle among former Soviet countries. The average woman in Georgia will have three abortions in her lifetime.”
For more on gendercide in the Caucasus:
The Economist: The war on babygirls
Balcani e Caucaso: Gendercide in the South Caucasus
Food feuds continue to simmer in the Caucasus
Your daily reminder that most people are unrelenting idiots.
“Fuck your free market”
May 1 rally in Tbilisi
Photo: David Lobzhanidze
Memorial for a dead Russian soldier, 2000, near the town of Andi in Dagestan along the Chechen border. Photo by Thomas Dworzak/Magnum.
(via architectureofdoom)
Janabar: Women of the Village
For the past two months, I’ve been working with Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) in the Armavir region of Armenia. I’ve been traveling to villages and providing women’s health exams, including breast and cervical screening, as well as contraceptive counseling. I can’t even begin to stress how much of a need there is in these villages for these kinds of services.
The difference between Yerevan and the rest of the country are vast. While Yerevan has all the modern-day conveniences you could ask for, that is not the case in the villages. Almost all households in Armenia have electricity, thanks to the Metsamor nuclear power plant. (Actually, Armenia produces excess energy and exports it to neighboring countries.) Access to water, however, can be a problem.
The villages we worked in have populations between 300-1,000, most of which are women. Most work in the fields to make money. But, the economic situation in Armenia is pretty bad. More and more men are going to neighboring countries, especially Russia, to find work. They usually stay there 10 months out of the year, and return back to their families in Armenia for the rest. Some have even started new families in Russia. Many of these men have extramarital affairs while in Russia, and bring home sexually transmitted infections (STIs) to their wives when they return.
For most women of the villages, this is a sad but true reality. They all know it happens. I was surprised how openly they talked about it. I’ve heard so many of them say, “They are men. They have needs. What can we do?” Of course, not all men have gone off to Russia, and not all men cheat, but it has still created a huge problem. STIs are on the rise in Armenia, including HIV.
Another rampant problem in the villages is abortion. It usually serves as a woman’s go-to form of contraception. Every day, I meet at least one or two women who have had 15 or more abortions. Most have had at least three or four, and very few have had none.
If you look at recent family planning data, it looks like the number of abortions is going down, but that is not necessarily the case. An even scarier thing is happening. Women are using a medication called cytotec to induce abortions at home without the supervision of a trained medical professional. Cytotec’s indication is to treat ulcers, but it also acts as an abortifacient. Women are using it because it’s cheap. You can get enough pills of cytotec to induce an abortion for about 50 cents, whereas a surgical abortion usually costs about $25. This is extremely dangerous because women are relying on this medication for birth control, not understanding the serious side effects, which can include bleeding to death.
So, maybe now you can understand why organizations like COAF are so vital to these women. COAF provides free screenings for breast and cervical cancer. They also provide free treatment for STIs. As part of my work with them, I’ve been counseling women on birth control options. This has been quite a challenge, as there are so many myths surrounding birth control. But, the women have been so amazing, such a joy to work with, and they really are so interested, because no one has ever taken the time to explain any of this to them. And even though they may not change their minds about birth control right away, I know at least they’re thinking about it, and sometimes that’s enough. It takes a while to start changing mentalities.
Access to birth control is a problem because of cost. One pack of birth control pills costs about $15-20 a month in Armenia. For a family in the village barely making $100 a month, it is completely unaffordable. As part of my work with COAF and with the help of the UNFPA, I’ve been inserting intrauterine devices (IUDs) to women who are eligible for free. This provides them with one of the most effective forms of birth control for up to ten years.
Most women do understand that multiple abortions are not the answer, and they do want help. Many times, it’s their husbands who don’t allow them to use another form of birth control or their mother-in-laws forcing them to get abortions. Yes, mother-in-laws. When a woman in Armenia gets married, she moves in with her husband, and his mother. The mother-in-law is usually the matriarch of the family, and what she says goes.
Also, this is a reason why sex-selection has become such a huge, recent issue in Armenia. Many women are also getting abortions because they want sons. Since women leave their homes and join their husbands family after marriage, a son provides a source of security for his parents.
The other day, I met a woman who was coming in to her village clinic for an abortion. She had two children and this was going to be her fourth abortion. She told me that her husband wants to have another child, but that he’s also an alcoholic and beats her. She doesn’t think it’s right to bring a child into this world when her life at home is so unstable. He’s been an alcoholic since the day they got married, and she is completely dependent on him for financial security. Living in the village, there are very few resources for either of them to get any help. This is just one example of some of the sad stories I’ve heard.
On my final day with COAF, I brought some women into the clinic to insert their IUDs. One of the women was so thankful that as soon as the procedure was complete, she jumped up and gave me a big kiss. She had had six surgical abortions, and she couldn’t remember how many times she had taken cytotec to end her other pregnancies. She was so thankful to not have to worry about that anymore.
It has amazed me how much women have opened up to me. They are yearning for this information and truly feel grateful for the care that is being provided for them and that someone is taking the time to talk to them about their bodies and their health. Despite all the economic and cultural barriers, I believe things are changing, slowly of course, but in the right direction. My hope is that educating women about their health and family planning options will empower them to take control of future and reproductive health, and at the very least to know where and when to seek care if they need it.
The situation with the men leaving for Russia/not coming back/coming back with STIs/the mother-in-law/gendercide or gender-based abortion is pretty much the same in rural Azerbaijan. Abortion as birth control is a Soviet (and post-Soviet) phenomenon, where birth control was not readily available.
Attendees of #Gender #Activism #Tolerance #Equality camp taking a break from their seminars. #GATE #PINK #Armenia #Dilijan #nature (at Dilijan)
(via chotai)
beyondasleep asked: i have been to Georgia and spent most of my 5 weeks there in Aspindza but also got to hang out in Tbilisi. that was last summer, and i still think about it every day and wish i could go back. at least i live somewhere with a Georgian bakery!
