Etymology
​There’s a beautiful legend behind the name Haghartsin. During the consecration of the main church, people witnessed an eagle soaring high above the dome. In Armenian, “hagh” means game or play, and “artsin” means eagle. Thus, the monastery came to be known as the Monastery of the Playing (or Soaring) Eagle—Haghartsin. A name born of both reverence and wonder.

​History
According to the medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi, Haghartsin played a significant role in the spiritual and cultural life of medieval Armenia. The monastery reached its peak in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, especially under the leadership of Khachatur Taronatsi, a prominent priest and educator. At that time, it became an important educational and scientific center.
The monastery is also believed to be the final resting place of King Smbat I of the Armenian Bagratid Kingdom, connecting it even more deeply to the nation's royal and spiritual history.

​Saint Gregory Church
The oldest structure in the complex is the Church of Saint Gregory, likely built in the 10th century. It is a domed church with a rectangular exterior and a cross-shaped interior, though one of the eastern chapels is not separated from the main prayer space. The dome rests on traditional sagr trumpets, and the only remaining decorations are its worn corner cornices, with simple acanthus leaf motifs and other archaic carvings.
Attached to its western side is a four-columned gavit, built at the end of the 12th century. Its vaulted ceiling features reliefs of humans, birds, rosettes, and angels, along with inscriptions. Tombs have also been preserved near its southern wall. On the northern side stands a 13th-century chapel, and just east of it is the Church of Saint Stepanos, built in 1244 from striking bluish basalt stone, showcasing refined architectural detail.

​Church of St. Astvatsatsin
At the heart of the complex is the Church of the Holy Mother of God (Surb Astvatsatsin)—a domed hall-type structure and the monastery’s main church. According to an inscription above its southern door, it was rebuilt in 1281, but architectural evidence suggests that the original church may have been founded in the 10th–11th centuries.
The facades (except for the western one) feature traditional Armenian niches, and the drum of the dome is encircled by decorative altars. Decoration is modest—limited to crosses and broken cornices—but the harmony of structure and setting is deeply moving. In front of the western side lie the remains of an earlier structure, possibly a previous vestibule.

​The Refectory
One of the architectural highlights of Haghartsin is its refectory, built in 1248 by architect Minas, as recorded in the inscription near the southwestern entrance. This is one of only two such structures in Armenia (the other being in Haghpat).
The refectory is a rectangular hall (21.6 x 9.5 m), divided into two parts by a pair of columns, each covered by intersecting arches. The only interior decorations are the stone entablatures, while exterior embellishment is limited to the southwestern entrance. It is a masterpiece of functional design and craftsmanship.
To the east of the refectory are remains of utility buildings, likely including a kitchen and bakery—revealing how monastic life was both spiritual and practical.

​A Place to Remember
Haghartsin is more than stone and history. It’s a place where legend meets faith, where kings were buried, and where eagles once danced above domes. The silence of the forest around it only deepens the feeling of peace and reverence that lives in every arch, every wall, every khachkar.
For anyone walking its grounds, Haghartsin offers a quiet but powerful reminder of Armenia’s spiritual depth and architectural grace.

Learning a new language is more than memorizing words — it’s planting seeds of connection, culture, and curiosity. Over the years, we at Learn Armenian Online have seen how our students blossom when they approach Armenian as a daily ritual rather than a race.
Whether you’re uncovering the secrets of the Armenian alphabet or picking up phrases for your travels, here are ten ways you can grow your language skills gently and steadily.

The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the Feast of Holy Nativity and Theophany of Our Lord Jesus Christ on January 6. The celebration begins on the evening of January 5 with a Candlelight Liturgy (Chragaluytsi patarag) served in churches.​

The word Chragaluyts Ճրագալույց means to light a lamp (candle). People take the lamps lit in the church home on that day. The burning lamps symbolize the Bethlehem star that guided the Magi to the Baby Jesus. As people take the Christmas light home from church, they believe they are receiving the divine light, or blessing, of the church.

Since the evening of January 5, people greet each other with the phrase "Christ is Born and Revealed!". Blessed is the Revelation of Christ.” 
​
On January 6, a Divine Liturgy is celebrated in all churches. At the end of the liturgy, a water blessing is performed, which symbolizes the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River. 

I felt attached to it immediately. The moment I tried it on I felt it is absolutely and totally MINE. I felt such a flow of energy from the Tree of life on it at that moment that I bought it without a second thought. And that’s where the miracles started. ​

"Ապագայում՝ մարդը կարողանալու է բազմաթիվ գործառույթներ իրականացնել առանց տանից դուրս գալու՝ ինտերնետի միջոցով: Կրթությունը դրանցից միայն մեկն է: Եւ օնլայն վճարումը պետք է նույնքան հեշտ եւ խնդիր չառաջացնող գործընթաց լինի, որքան հեռախոսազանգ կատարելը"...:   Link to the full interview below​
news.am/arm/news/343602.html​

Hello! I am  Gohar Martirosyan, the founder and CEO of Learn Armenian Online project.  With this post I am starting a series of publications that will unfold the process of creation and development of our project.  

I am really excited about making "Learn Armenian Online" grow into something great and I want to document this process so that as years pass we will be able to follow  the path of our development and fully assess where we have started from and where we have reached. 

Let me start with a couple of words about myself.  I am a graduate of Yerevan State University, faculty of International Relations and have almost 15  years’ experience in working as a TV journalist and interpreter (languages – English, Russian, Armenian). Throughout these years I’ve been an international correspondent visiting many foreign countries and having contacts with the Armenian communities there. 

Armenian Diaspora and the Armenian Language

As a result of those contacts I’ve realized that there is a huge problem in Armenian communities all over the world. The level of knowledge of Armenian language is declining among the younger generation of Diaspora Armenians. I’ve realized how hard it is to preserve your Armenian identity by living in a foreign country. Armenian schools and teachers are not always available at the place where you live or attending them may seem not very reasonable. 

The demand is there

However I’ve noticed a huge demand and desire to learn their mother tongue among Armenians living abroad. Moreover, many Diaspora Armenians are now doing business in or with their Motherland, or considering more frequent visits and even repatriation. Thus, a good command of Armenian language is necessary for successful contacts and work in this direction. 

Learn Armenian Online

Analyzing all these facts I have founded a project aimed at teaching Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian online. The participation in the project  gives people the essential basic knowledge they may need to read, write and communicate in Armenian successfully. The major focus of the course is on teaching our students to SPEAK and COMMUNICATE their ideas in Armenian both in oral and written forms. 

The advantages of an online course

In the process of developing the project I have examined the modern methods of online language teaching and the resources that are used by the tutors all over the world. Modern technologies truly allow to compensate the lack of face-to-face contact with the tutor, so this course has some additional advantages. Students don’t have to travel to their tutor, miss lessons when they are away or on a vacation.  As a result of all the mentioned reasons the cost of the online course is also much lower. Besides, our students get the advantage of a one-to-one learning that is considered the most effective way of instruction but often the most expensive too. 

More details about the course

The main emphasis of the course is the development of  speaking and understanding skills along with reading and writing ones. This will be done through communication with a native speaker, listening to recordings, watching videos in Armenian, memorizing and repeating texts, dialogs etc. The method is completely interactive so the process of learning is both fun and useful. So, all you need to do is to register and provide us with your diligence. We from our part guaranty an individual approach to every student as well as a highly effective and interesting learning process. The course is focused not only on providing you with language skills but also with necessary information about Armenia. While learning the language you will also obtain an important knowledge about Armenian history, culture and traditions. We will help you immerse into the atmosphere of the country. 

How to register 

You simply need to fill in the registration form or write us an e-mail. We will contact you and set a time for a free consultation to assess your needs and set up a learning plan. 

Contacts: 
www.learnarmenianonline.com
learnarmenianonline@gmail.com 
Skype ID: learnarmenianonline

PS  And I want to be  honest as usual, we need support very much! We need the support of our friends and their friends and all those people who would like to give a start in life to a worthy project. The information about us should be spread over so that those who need us can find it. Anyone who would consider that necessary can help us in that. Please, like and share this story forward if you like the idea of the project and wish us success! Thank you!

Yours’s sincerely,
Gohar Martirosyan,
Founder and CEO of the Learn Armenian Online project

​Martial dances have an important place in the rich cultural heritage of Armenian people. They reflect the heroic spirit, strong will and unity of the Armenian nation. Martial dances were widespread especially in Sasun, the homeland of Armenian epic heroes.   
 
There are currently more than 30 dances with preserved idea of war and confrontation. Martial dances were mainly performed before the battles to raise the morale spirit of the army. However, there were dances performed after war. They were sort of dramatized performances presenting some episodes of the battle.
 
Martial dances were also performed while celebrating a victory or during a funeral if the late was a soldier. 

​Yarkhushta (Յարխուշտա) is a martial dance and game that was widespread in Sasun. The name of the dance is interpreted in several ways one of which is “a comrade in arms”. Dancers divide into two “rival” groups and each participant dances with the person standing in front of him. The dance can also be interpreted as a symbolic battle of two groups.  

​“Yarkhushta” performed by “Karin” Armenian folk dance and song ensemble 

​This dance is performed to the sound of dhol (Armenian drum) and zurna (a wooden wind instrument). The dancers form a line. Sometimes they can form two lines standing in front of each other. The dance steps made forward by the line are interpreted as an attack on the enemy. After that the line goes back to its place. This dance symbolizes an attack and self-defense.  

​“Kertsi” performed by “Karin” Armenian folk dance and song ensemble

​A training clip on “Kertsi” by the founder of “Karin” Armenian folk dance and song ensemble Gagik Ginosyan

Article prepared by Gohar Martirosyan
Source: http://www.hayzinvor.am
http://imhayastan.am
​

The Oscar winner and Pulitzer Prize recipient William Saroyan, who gained world fame with his classic book "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1934), was born in California to Armenak and Takoohi Saroyan, Armenian refugees from the Turkish Ottoman Empire which perpetrated the Armenian genocide.
With his unmistakably American literary works, deeply rooted in his Armenian heritage, William Saroyan soon established himself as one of the preeminent short story writers, playwrights and novelists in the United States.
In 1939 and 1940 William Saroyan's "My Heart's in the Highlands" and "The Time of Your Life" were staged for theater and "Love's Old Sweet Song" opened on Broadway, winning the New York Critics Circle Award.
In 1943 his MGM screenplay "The Human Comedy" was novelized and published and received great reviews, and he won the Academy Award for Best Writing Original Story for "The Human Comedy".
He wrote the lyrics of Ross Bagdasarian's famous # 1 hit song "Come On-a My House", performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Rosemary Clooney, which was featured in Madonna's "Swept Away" (2002) and Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952).
William Saroyan is one of the most important American writers of the 20th century -- along with such masters as John Updike, John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller, who admired him. Saroyan is perhaps the only writer to receive both the Pulitzer Prize and the Academy Award, and his work continues to appear on the theater stage and the silver screen worldwide.
Source - http://www.imdb.com/

In the city of Rostov I passed a beer parlor late at night and saw a waiter in a white coat who was surely an Armenian, so I went in and said in our language, How are you, God destroy your house, how are you? I don’t know how I could tell he was an Armenian, but I could. It is not the dark complexion alone, nor the curve of nose, nor the thickness and abundance of hair, nor is it even the way the living eye is set within the head. There are many with the right complexion and the right curve of nose and the same kind of hair and eyes, but these are not Armenian. Our tribe is a remarkable one, and I was on my way to Armenia. Well, I am sorry. I am deeply sorry that Armenia is nowhere. It is mournful to me that there is no Armenia.
 There is a small area of land in Asia Minor that is called Armenia, but it is not so. It is not Armenia. It is a place. There are plains and mountains and rivers and lakes and cities in this place, and it is all fine, it is all no less fine than all the other places in the world, but it is not Armenia. There are only Armenians, and these inhabit the earth, not Armenia, since there is no Armenia, gentlemen, there is no America and there is no England, and no France, and no Italy, there is only the earth, gentlemen.
 So I went into the little Russian beer parlor to greet a countryman, an alien in a foreign land.
 Vy, he said with that deliberate intonation of surprise which makes our language and our way of speech so full of comedy. You?
 Meaning of course I, a stranger. My clothes, for instance. My hat, my shoes, and perhaps even the small reflection of America in my face.
 How did you find this place?
 Thief, I said with affection, I have been walking. What is your city? Where were you born? (In Armenian, Where did you enter the world?)
 Moush, he said. Where are you going? What are you doing here? You are an American. I can tell from your clothes.
 Moush. I love that city. I can love a place I have never seen, a place that no longer exists, whose inhabitants have been killed. It is the city my father sometimes visited as a young man.
 Jesus, it was good to see this black Armenian from Moush. You have no idea how good it is for an Armenian to run into an Armenian in some far place of the world. And a guy in a beer parlor, at that. A place where men drink. Who cares about the rotten quality of the beer? Who cares about the flies? Who, for that matter, cares about the dictatorship? It is simply impossible to change some things.
 Vy, he said. Vy (slowly, with deliberate joy) vy. And you speak the language. It is amazing that you have not forgotten.
 And he brought two glasses of the lousy Russian beer.
 And the Armenian gestures, meaning so much. The slapping of the knee and roaring with laughter. The cursing. The subtle mockery of the world and its big ideas. The word in Armenian, the glance, the gesture, the smile, and through these things the swift rebirth of the race, timeless and again strong, though years have passed, though cities have been destroyed, fathers and brothers and sons killed, places forgotten, dreams violated, living hearts blackened with hate.
 I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose history is ended, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, whose literature is unread, whose music is unheard, whose prayers are no longer uttered.
 
Go ahead, destroy this race. Let us say that it is again 1915. There is war in the world. Destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them from their homes into the desert. Let them have neither bread nor water. Burn their houses and their churches. See if they will not live again. See if they will not laugh again. See if the race will not live again when two of them meet in a beer parlor, twenty years after, and laugh, and speak in their tongue. Go ahead, see if you can do anything about it. See if you can stop them from mocking the big ideas of the world, you sons of bitches, a couple of Armenians talking in the world, go ahead and try to destroy them.
 
New York. August, 1935.

 Sayat-Nova ("Սայաթ Նովա" in Armenian) (1712-1795), meaning 'King of Songs' or 'Lord of Verse' in  Persian, is the name given to Harutyun Sahakyan . He grew up in a village near  Tbilisi, Georgia, and was skilled in writing poetry, singing and playing the Kamancheh. He performed in the court of Heracle II of Georgia, where he also worked as a diplomat, and apparently helped forge an alliance between Georgia, Armenia and Shirvan against the Persian Empire. He lost his place at court when he fell in love with the king's daughter, and spent the rest of his life as an itinerant bard. In 1795 he was killed in  Haghpat    by the army of Agha Mohammed Khan.
About 220 songs can be attributed to Sayat-Nova, although he may have written thousands altogether. These songs are still sung today. His songs are written mainly in Armenian, but also in Persian, Georgian and Azeri Turkish. He also knew Arabic.
Sayat Nova was officially recognized as the greatest ashough (folk singer-songwriter) that ever lived in the Caucasus (the area between the Black and the Caspian sea, shared among current Armenia, Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan). The world-famous Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian wrote an opera called "Sayat Nova". Named after him are a music school in Yerevan, Armenia, a long-established Armenian dance ensemble in United States, and an annual music competition program, to cite a few.
The 1968 art film "Sayat Nova" directed by  Sergei Parajanov - which was banned in the USSR - follows the poet's path from his childhood wool-dying days to his role as a courtier and finally his life as a monk. It was released in the United States under the title The Color of Pomegranates. It is not so much a biography of Sayat Nova but a series of tableaux of Armenian costume, embroidery and religious ritual interspersed with scenes and verses from the poet's life.nov - which was banned in the USSR - follows the poet's path from his childhood wool-dying days to his role as a courtier and finally his life as a monk. It was released in the United States under the title The Color of Pomegranates. It is not so much a biography of Sayat Nova but a series of tableaux of Armenian costume, embroidery and religious ritual interspersed with scenes and verses from the poet's life.

Source - http://www.armeniapedia.org

On September 24-25 2005, a conference entitled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy" was held at Bilgi University in  Istanbul   after two previous attempts which were blocked by the Turkish government. The goal of the conference was to call into question the official Turkish account of events.  It was the first time this subject was ever discussed so openly in Turkey. Hrant Dink was one of the organisers.
I was there as a journalist from Yerkir Media TV. Here is my coverage of the event (in Armenian).