Armenian Workshop Makes Carpets The Traditional Way

Photojournalist Karen Minasyan has traveled around Armenia’s wide sprawling plain overlooked by Biblical Mount Ararat to capture some of its spring bloom.

Joseph Karapetian, his wife and eight daughters had lived in a small and shabby hut for years before the story by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service telling about their plight caught the attention of an individual philanthropist in Germany last year. This spring the large family from the village of Mayisyan in Armenia’s western Armavir province has moved into a newly built spacious house equipped with all modern amenities that has been granted to them by their benefactor. (A photo story by Karen Minasyan)

Opposition candidate Raffi Hovannisian has rallied supporters across Armenia to protest against official results of the February 18 presidential election that gave victory to incumbent President Serzh Sarkisian. RFE/RL's Karen Minasyan followed Hovannisian's meetings in southern Armavir and Ararat provinces.

(A photo story by Karen Minasyan.)

Randomly greeting people and talking to them in the street, shops and other public settings during election campaigns may be the norm for politicians in the West but is highly unusual in Armenia. The U.S.-born opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian is doing just that in his ongoing presidential election campaign. The Photolur news agency followed his first campaign outings in Yerevan.

(A photo story by Karen Minasyan.)