The life of one of Armenia’s greatest composers father Komitas has always fascinated me. I’ve often considered his tragic story to represent the history of the Armenian people of the last century. To him we owe much for the preservation of Armenian folk music. His musical genius and poetry are yet to be fully...
Why Armenians had a constitution before the United States

It is generally considered that the constitution of the United States (created in 1787) is the oldest working constitution in the world. Its contents was directly inspired by the enlightenment movement of its era. In comparison, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of the French Revolution was created in 1789 and...
Gauhar Jaan – an Armenian lady who became India’s first Superstar

Today India is famous for the vibrant Bollywood superstars but it wasn’t always like that. Before mass media India was a fairly traditional colony with some western influences. People had to attend concerts in order to hear musicians perform. All of this changed with the invention of the gramophone. It was during this era when...
Grandmaster Levon Aronian Wins FIDE Chess World Cup for the Second Time

Armenia’s chess Grandmaster Levon Aronian wins the FIDE Chess World Cup 2017 (held in Tbilisi, Georgia), by defeating his Chinese opponent Ding Liren during tie-break games. In the first game Levon started with an advantage and defeated Ding in 30 movies. In the second game Levon started with a clear disadvantage but was able to turn...
Jeweled gun of Sultan Mahmud I by Hovhannes Agha Düz (1732-1733)

Armenian jewelers, just as in the Russian and Persian empires, were renown in the Ottoman empire. English archaeologist V. Gordon Childe in his work ‘New Light on the Most Ancient East’ describes that the ancestors of the Armenians were among the first tribes in the world to start working metal; they had invented iron...
Explaining Tabby’s Star; the “Alien Megastructure” Star named after an Armenian astronomer

The 2015 publication of an enigmatic star made huge waves in the media. People quickly started to speculate of a possible “Alien Megastructure” that is blocking the view of the star KIC 8462852 colloquially known as “Tabby’s Star” or “Boyajian’s Star”. Bizarrely enough, however, this is not outside of possibility. “We’d have to rewrite astronomy’s textbooks… This...
Levon Aronian Wins The Norway Chess Tournament With 0 Losses

Congratulations to Levon Aronian for winning the Altibox Norway Chess 2017 Tournament! Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian won the Norway Chess Tournament after 9 rounds without a single loss. After defeating world’s number 1 ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen with a brilliant game, Levon went on to defeat both Russia’s top players Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin....
Aronian Takes Sole Lead After Defeating Karjakin

Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian is now the sole leader of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament 2017, after beautifully defeating Russia’s Sergey Karjakin in the 7th round. Aronian scores 5 points after his 3rd win in a row. Sergey Karjakin lost in the 41th move. Two more rounds remain! In the round 8 Aronian is playing against...
Levon Aronian crushes Vladimir Kramnik in Norway

In another brilliant game of chess, the Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian defeats world’s 3rd ranked chess player Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, in the ongoing chess super tournament in Norway’s Stavanger. Aronian was able to defeat Kramnik in the 34th move, after which the official twitter page of the tournament tweeted that: “Levon Aronian wins...
Levon Aronian beats Magnus Carlsen in “the game of the millennium”

The Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, worlds number 1 ranked chess player lost in his fourth game when he played against the Armenian Levon Aronian (ranked 6th) in the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger, Norway. With a brilliant set up Aronian lured Carlsen into a trap by sacrificing his own pieces to force a mistake from...