October on View 2025

2026-01-25 - 21:06

Opinion The Ontology of Violence: Growing Up Hayastantsi in Los Angeles Nerses Kopalyan In this raw exploration of excessive masculinity and violence within the Hayastantsi subculture of 1990s Los Angeles, Nerses Kopalyan examines the ontological roots of aggression that shaped a generation, and how that mentality has mutated into an incoherent, hybridized identity in the decades since. Beyond Washington: Azerbaijan’s Performative Peace Tatevik Hayrapetyan More than two months after the Washington declaration, Tatev Hayrapetyan examines the widening gap between Baku’s diplomatic vows with on-the-ground reality: inflammatory rhetoric, sham trials, expansionist “Western Azerbaijan” narratives and divergent TRIPP talk signaling a performative peace narrative. Politics Armenia, China, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Navigating Between Poles Sossi Tatikyan Oct 22, 2025 Armenia’s pursuit of a strategic partnership with China and its bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) reflect a broader effort to recalibrate foreign policy amid shifting global alignments, balancing ambition with constraint in an increasingly multipolar world. Read more Armenia vs. Azerbaijan: Competing Narratives at the UN Sossi Tatikyan Oct 1, 2025 Five years after the 2020 war, Aliyev and Pashinyan addressed the UNGA with sharply contrasting narratives. Aliyev employed cognitive warfare to assert dominance and legitimize past aggression, while Pashinyan exercised narrative constraint, emphasizing sovereignty, reciprocity and constructive peacebuilding. Sossi Tatikyan explains. Read more Environment Unconventional Grief: Armenia’s Landscapes Lost to Mining Anahit Ghazakhetsyan Oct 21, 2025 In Teghut, Armenia, as mining transforms forests into pits and rivers into waste, villagers like Yegishe mourn landscapes lost to industry, naming their sorrow solastalgia—the homesickness felt while still at home. Read more Solar Takes Off: Can It Fuel Armenia’s Energy Independence? Hovhannes Nazaretyan Oct 16, 2025 Armenia is rapidly embracing solar power, with rooftop and utility-scale projects driving energy independence and sustainability. Hovhannes Nazaretyan examines the country’s growing capacity, landmark farms like Masrik-1, future wind ambitions, and the challenges of integrating renewables into the national grid. Read more The Climate Is Changing, How Are Armenian Winemakers Adapting? Catherine Odom Oct 15, 2025 Armenia’s winemaking renaissance faces a new challenge: climate change. From shifting harvests to genetic research on native grapes, winemakers and scientists are adapting—experimenting with higher-altitude vineyards, irrigation methods, and biodiversity to preserve a six-millennia-old tradition. Read more Law & Society License to Chaos: The Reality of Driving in Yerevan Hranoush Dermoyan From chaotic intersections to the challenges of getting a driver’s license, navigating Yerevan’s roads reveals deeper issues of enforcement, infrastructure and culture. Through personal experience and research, Hranoush Dermoyan explains what it takes, and what it costs, to drive safely in Armenia. Raw & Unfiltered Armenia, Still Off the Beaten Track? Hranoush Dermoyan Oct 23, 2025 Armenia’s tourism industry has seen remarkable growth in recent years, yet structural weaknesses including limited funding, poor visibility, and lack of strategy continue to hold it back. Unlocking its full potential requires sustainable planning, decentralization and serious government commitment. Read more Finding the Ones Who Stayed Maral Tavitian Oct 17, 2025 In Istanbul, the remnants of an ancient Armenian presence continue to endure. Through encounters with community members and reflections on belonging, Maral Tavitian explores how those who remained in Turkey preserve identity, culture and memory amid loss and resilience. Read more Columns Democracy Under Pressure: Moldova, Georgia, and the Road Ahead for Armenia Olesya Vartanyan Oct 13, 2025 Moldova and Georgia’s recent elections reveal how fear, manipulation and political crisis can shape a nation’s future. As Armenia approaches its own vote, lessons from Chișinău and Tbilisi offer crucial insights on preserving stability, countering disinformation and sustaining democratic resilience. Read more Forgive Me Not Sheila Paylan Oct 7, 2025 Forgiveness is often misunderstood whether as surrender, self-help, or moral performance. Drawing from personal experience and collective trauma, Sheila Paylan explores the tension between justice and mercy, insisting that peace built on truth, not amnesia, is the only kind that endures. Read more Geography of Delusion in the South Caucasus Maria Gunko Oct 14, 2025 Between Kars and Gyumri, reality bends on the map. Maria Gunko traces how geography, technology, and politics conspire to blur borders in the South Caucasus, where every route reveals both connection and confinement, every map is a tool of both navigation and imagination. Read more Breaking New Ground with “Topographies of Dissent: Armenian Art from the Dodge Collection” Christopher Atamian Oct 20, 2025 A sweeping curatorial study of post-Soviet Armenian art, “Topographies of Dissent” at the Zimmerli Art Museum traces how artists navigated censorship, identity and modernity—transforming dissent into a language of aesthetic and cultural renewal. Read more Creative Tech DigiTec 2025: Where Armenia’s Tech Future Never Sleeps Ani Toroyan Marking its 20th anniversary, DigiTec 2025 promises three days of nonstop innovation, creativity and connection. With a global lineup of speakers, AI-driven discussions, investment opportunities, and cultural celebrations, Armenia’s largest tech event is evolving into a citywide festival of technology and imagination. Podcast Up Close & Personal with Gulnara Shahinian Human rights advocate and founder of Democracy Today, one of Armenia’s longest-standing human rights NGOs, Gulnara Shahinian reflects on her decades-long fight against modern slavery, human trafficking, and gender-based violence. From leading international missions to empowering women in Armenia’s border communities, she shares how conviction, courage and compassion have guided her life’s work. ARPA’s Data Driven Mindset From organizing the first energy conference in 1992, which concluded that the Medzamor Nuclear Power Plant should be restarted for the country’s survival, to developing AI algorithms combating disinformation campaigns against Armenia, ARPA Institute has long been at the intersection of research, innovation and national strategies for the future. Dr. Hagop Panossian, founder and president of the institute, speaks about the solutions-based approach that has defined ARPA’s work for more than three decades. The PEACE Act: Targeting Azerbaijan’s Achilles Heel Tim Jemal, president of Global ARM, discusses the recently introduced PEACE Act — a U.S. congressional bill that he says “puts a target on Aliyev’s back,” sanctioning Azerbaijan’s leadership, military capacity, and financial institutions tied to its oil and gas sector in the event of renewed aggression against Armenia. Jemal also outlines Global ARM’s strategic approach to political advocacy, one designed to counter Azerbaijan’s powerful lobbying machine and strengthen coordinated, global pro-Armenia and pro-Artsakh efforts. LIFESTYLE The October issue of SALT takes you through spaces where memory and imagination intertwine—from the house-museum of Lusik Aguletsi, who transformed remembrance into a radical act of cultural resilience, to an abandoned clock factory reborn through the vision of contemporary artists, onto the runways of Yerevan Fashion Week, and finally to a story of how one person’s initiative is transforming the face of the country. Walk the Walk, Strike the Pose Lusik Aguletsi’s Radical Act of Remembering The Runway Talent, Identify and Resolve on the Runway Borrowed Time: Yerevan Clock Factory Gets New Life as Artist Hub Greener, Better, Brighter: The Quiet Revolution