The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant was built during the 1970s, about thirty kilometres west of the Armenian capital of Yerevan in the city of Metsamor. The power plant produces about 40% of Armenia's electricity. It was closed due to the 1988 earthquake in Armenia. However, blockades by Turkey and Azerbaijan, which created energy shortages in Armenia, caused the Armenian government to decide to reopen the plant in 1993.
The plant has been operated by Russian company Inter RAO UES since 2003, as part of a five year term to help pay off Armenia's debts.
The authorities in Yerevan formally agreed in 2007 to close the Metsamor plant after several years of pressure from the United States and the European Union, which claim it to be inherently unsafe and are promoting to build its own version of the reactor. The E.U. reportedly had classified the VVER 440 Model V230 light water-cooled reactors as the "oldest and least reliable" category of all the 66 Soviet reactors built in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Armenia is currently discussing the issue of constructing a new nuclear power plant with a projected cost of $4 -7.2 billion dollars to substitute the old power plant.
First stop was the memorial for the Battle of Sardarabad.
In January 1918, two months after the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, the Sovnarkom, the highest government authority under the Bolshevik system, issued a decree which called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Caucasus Front. The Armenians attempted to stall the Ottoman advance as they created a small Armenian army to take up the positions the Russians had abandoned. At this time, only a small area of historical Armenian territory which used to be a part of the Russian Empire remained unconquered by the Ottoman Empire, and into that area hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees had fled after the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian forces immediately began to prepare for the upcoming battle. Catholicos (head of Armenian church) Gevorg V ordered that church bells peal for six days as Armenians from all walks of life – peasants, poets, blacksmith, and even the clergymen – rallied to form organized military units.
On May 21 1918, the Ottomans took Sardarabad. An Armenian offensive was launched on May 22 and in the end Ottoman commanders ordered a general retreat as the surviving elements of the Ottoman army were put to flight.
View from the Sardarabad memorial over the Araks River to the mountains in Turkey on the other side of the border
Echmiadzin is the center of the Armenian Church. It is where the Catholicos (head of Armenian church) of all Armenians lives, and the location of the Ejmiatsin Cathedral.
The cathedral, built in 480 on the very spot Grigor Luysavorich (St. Gregory the Illuminator) dreamt Jesus Himself descended to from heaven to show him where He wanted the church to be built.
Ejmiatsin was founded by King Vagarshak (117-140) in the place of Vardkesavan, an ancient settlement of the third-second centuries B.C. After Christianity was proclaimed the state religion in 301, Ejmiatsin became the country’s religious centre.
Gravestones of the Catholicos (head of Armenian church).
Saint Hripsimé Church, also situated in Echmiadzin, is one of the oldest surviving churches in Armenia. Saint Hripsimé Church is build on a pagan structure. The church was erected by Catholicos Komitas in the year 395 and the church was completed in the year 618.
Wedding in Saint Hripsimé Church.
See also: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1353578307308012045#docid=-2278608743785569598
video from another wedding in Saint Hripsimé Church
the red apple symbolizes the bride's virginity, see: http://armenianodar.blogspot.com/2007/11/sasha-and-reginas-wedding.html
It must have been a good day for weddings. We saw several processions of cars following a nicely decorated car (with the bride and the groom) making noise with their horn – typical for weddings – on the road.
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