is occupied by a nature preserve. for the young generation tribes in their ancestors. where the mysterious city of a deadly world come the republic for such a rush. welcome that it is join us so you're watching live from moscow here's a look at the top stories has told the hague tribunal he won't enter a plea to what he told me about noxious charges against him a hearing of the former bosnian serb general will resume on the fourth of july. a major fire at an ammunition death toll in central russia turns the skies red by setting off a chain reaction artillery shell explosions injuring around thirty people.

rush accuses the global commission on drug policy of promoting drugs after it issues a report calling for the legalization of certain narcotics. as the top stories coming up next our he looks at how russia's southern neighbor of armenia has been developing over the twenty turbulent years after the fall of the soviet union. people living in this land seven thousand years ago were already making wine and shoes this world's oldest shoes van right here in this hall in the fourth century armenia adopted christianity as its state religion if christian. in the early twentieth century armenians went through the horrors of genocide in total only one point five million are. sealed groups with armenia broke free from the soviet union in september one thousand nine hundred ninety one what plans independence brought

to this ancient country. in two thousand and eight archaeologist very scarce body and could have rivaled armenian politicians in terms of popularity news of his discovery had spread far and wide for out the world in caves in the mountains around the village of allegheny the archaeologists had found the settlements dating back to the year five thousand b.c. . the goods in this also believed this was for among the first finds a weasel when we saw them it was immediately clear to us that voted from the copper in stone age that means the people were already living in the east coast seven thousand years ago so even the communities maintaining very close contact inhabited nereus litwin the north caucasus and this but time in the used to migrate from north to sell this self to normal goodness. excavation work at the site of the

ancient settlement has been going on for three years now but archaeologists are still unable to say with certainty what kind of people lived in these caves seven thousand years ago. just take a look and see a very interesting ritual the bodies of babies under one year of age old buried intact but women between the ages of eleven twenty thought it was simply chopped up before burials. the most interesting artifact was found in the case in two thousand and eight the world's oldest shoe was dug up from a depth of just half a metre is estimated to be about six thousand years old this world's oldest shoe was very right here in this hole it was a great deal of effort to get it to the discovery of the settlement is an event of crucial importance to the small transco occasion country armenians are proud of the

long history of this land and the find reinforces their pride. in on the union there are a few other handicrafts they can unite generations is not such as the making of hatch cards for tombstones. the arts has undergone little change throughout its thousand year history and i am a chisel and stone are all that's needed for the job a man and his grandson are working on this much god. is do i got this i like the job. it is handed down from generation to generation. the one who taught me as my grandfather. over the course of his long life the elderly man has made scores of hatch cars nowadays in mentors his grandson in the ways of hatch car sculpting.

there are millions of hijackers here each with a different is different just as people do all the curbing curran's are different even on some particular can still there's a show that the world isn't perfect. each grave or monastery has its own tailor made tombstone normally it takes about a month to make one this symmetry in a village of nora jo's is one of the oldest in armenia the long history of this caucasian country a history packed with. drama can be traced by looking at the tombstones set up until the seventh century garden look quite simple there is nothing but across the dark the first cross turtle. the hatch card is in the cemetery don't feature carvings although the graveyard of the small town of spin is much larger.

than before the quake it was a small symmetry but as you can see now it's quite big. for yourself it took some forty days to bury quake victims are tossed sort of to see and comes to the symmetry quite often the always follows the same roots in this mortal place as he moves from one grave to another on december the seventh one thousand nine hundred eighty eight he lost nearly all of his family. it was ten fourteen am when the first tremor with a magnitude of seven on the richter scale shook spit out thirty seconds later the tiny town was no more just a pile of rubble. on the lawn of the main street in the center of the town was c. and. when the quake struck there were people in every apartment out of five story

houses with a few misses here and both sides of the road you practically all of them fell a plant if you get only roots lying on the was filled could be seen after the quake you know. there is a church where our tours house once was more than twenty years on there are few reminders of that devastating earthquake. but in the cold month of december in one thousand nine hundred eight people around the world came to know the name of this small town in armenia aid began pouring in. from across the soviet union at that time armenia was part of it. the powerful earthquake affected all of armenia's northern areas as well as spectacular. the scale of the disaster only became apparent after several days just a handful of people had survived under the rubble the earthquake has claimed twenty five thousand lives. such as the each the door when the smoke cleared away

three or four hours after the earthquake became clear the town had been razed to the ground where they'd begin arriving towards leaving because there were no regrets about. some of the aid came from numerous diasporas in foreign countries. this footage shows charles elson a voice a french singer of armenian origin after a visit to devastated spitz attack he vowed to do his best to help armenia. but there's so much that i was really shocked by what i saw in st ut. i couldn't imagine their polling scale of that disaster. because so many people were killed here because. the french cinema set up a fund for the earthquake struck country the money was used to restore dozens of houses in spits hakon gordie's armenians second largest town it too had been

affected by the disaster the town's residents unveiled a monument to as know for as a token of gratitude to him you have thought of me on build a monument on the twenty second of september in two thousand our journey was not what people from all over a million came here there were also visitors from france. after the breakup of the soviet union in one nine hundred ninety one reconstruction work in armenian town slowed down the new houses built in the three years after the disaster made up only one fifth of those destroyed by. the earthquake. we came here on december second we were given a room on the ground floor and we still live here and most of the tenants here are refugees. and his family also lost their home in december one thousand nine hundred eighty eight they became refugees the not as a result of the earthquake it was a bloody interethnic conflict the forced them to flee.

armenia is a republic situated in the trans caucuses enjoin the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred twenty two when the republic won independence in september one thousand nine hundred ninety one this was the most troubled region in the post soviet space the country was at war with neighboring azerbaijan over nagorno-karabakh. the wood for the winter.

was issuing and this is our home. user my grandchildren doing their homework or choosing. is our store for them we made ourselves because there's no other source of eating in here just out of your news one shoe and his house in azerbaijan's capital of baquba was larger and more comfortable they had to leave their native city in a hurry already there was gunfire in the corner kind of block azerbaijanis or fleeing and teria meanwhile the situation for armenians living. azerbaijan was becoming increasingly dangerous. and we went for quite a good deal for instance my husband had an aunt with a dark complexion it was easy to see that she was a median she was attacked several times on the natural. conflicts root cause stems from the one nine hundred twenty s. when azerbaijan and armenia joined the soviet union big only care about a territory where armenians had been a predominant population from time immemorial was placed on the other by john's

control they didn't matter much in controlled nagorno-karabakh back then the soviet republics were part of an integrated country by the time bomb eventually went off and violence erupted between the two in the late one nine hundred eighty s. . of the girls soviet government showed signs of weakness but the start of perestroika when people were told they could speak up without running the risk of being imprisoned or a security of the people across the soviet union began talking about their concerns and armenians in a golden color back started asking questions they wanted to know why the old part of azerbaijan even though armenia was next door to a country populated by people of the same nationality and culture which are wards of the girls. but who flatly rejected yet advance demands the nagorno-karabakh be handed over to armenians control. meanwhile the first major

interethnic conflict was gathering pace in the soviet union south it had been fuelled by events in the small town of some guy eight the azerbaijan's capital goods producing good massacre was the point of no return people were murdered mind you people were killed not in a golden karabakh itself but in soon go to town situated far from the going to care about to go to that there is no war now there is no peace leader there is no peace treaty which will move the. no longer and i'm certainly not dodging about those times here is nearly dare you i was in the army then was memories of those days come for contrast and this is because. there is a map of the soviet union in go night acadians workshop as a tailor in need something colorful to rest his eyes on but the map also gives food

for thought he recalls the days when everybody lived in the same country a country that later burst at the seams. this is there. a wicket was founded in november two thousand and one said by this editor found the bell or call it in there and it would descend we can add it back and i am a. nobody at this distillery can say with any certainty when cognac from this barrel will be bottled but it has every chance of becoming a vintage brand adding to the distilleries rich collection. abstemious sent to a trench of three hundred bottles and branding each here and that's why they call it brandy. the british prime minister was not alone in appreciating this brandy

in soviet times armenian cognac was the main symbol of the republic. many agreed that the strong beverage produced in a trance caucuses could easily compete with french cognac manufacturers and. change in sumi going to flavor is intense you can sense a whole bouquet of flavors vias pretty unique beverage has different stores here i can detect the flavor of our brands the sunshine of our add value and the beauty of our landscapes of that in. the production process in armenia and france is totally identical the spirits of the stilled in the same way and the oak barrels looks very much alike the armenians are just proud of their product as the french are of their is going out and i think that coney are just one of the most important and the most recognizable brands produced you know arnie at work and that's why i would even see the elites want to warn me as symbols symbol of. our apps can

be seen from several spots around the entire history of the armenian people is links to it but it's off limits to armenians they can't reconcile themselves with the loss. of more than a month. in one of the most extreme environments on the planet this is antarctica and people have to be aware that they are far away from civilization shawntel is discovers what makes antarctica so special and attractive for many life in antarctica is the bones and friends of. the expedition to the bottom of the earth. they've been once around the sun. and here in isolation traveling

a million miles a day. the men from mars are heading to earth. mars five hundred closer to the edge of possibility on our team. the mountains height is five thousand one hundred thirty seven meters above sea level according to the bible nouns out of rats was the first landmark the no a sought after escaping the great flood. in the bible testify and it is connected with noir arc saw after the google noir arc stuck to the peak of mind. however alamance is the main source of pain and suffering for armenians under the nine hundred twenty one agreements signed by soviet and turkish leaders the symbolic mountain was left on the other side of the border in the mountains to the territory of turkey but still it continues to be our

main scene and when i mean people they are asked about their national identity they start with the mound that the fact that out of that is no longer in their territory also serves as a reminder of the greatest tragedy of the country's people the armenian genocide genocide is the word used in armenian to describe the policy pursued by the ottoman empire towards ethnic armenians from the late nineteenth century through to the one nine hundred twenty s. in total in ninety eighty ninety four nine hundred twenty two within thirty years nearly twenty thirty years nearly one point five million armenians killed brutally at the same time turkey was the first country to officially recognize armenians independence in one nine hundred ninety one today turkish society is divided over the events that led to the deaths of one and a half million armenians in the early twentieth century and kerr refuses to officially acknowledge the fact that what happened

a century ago was genocide as one of the hard there's. problems between two nations the fundamental problem on them and the problem here is that turkey in order is sort of facing its own history to try and keep trying to deny at the very heart of take issue share full page of its own history i mean in genocide rewriting history is one of the dangerous processes in every society. uncle supported as otherwise john at the height of the ethnic conflict over nagorno-karabakh bay closed its borders to armenians the border between armenia and azerbaijan is likewise locked up. given airport is the main gateway to armenia travelers have little choice considering your van's difficult relations with neighboring countries the z's way of getting to get a van is by air with both of. you have to go by here if you want to we were

near with the only way because this country has been blockaded throughout the post soviet period. force or really has land borders with georgian around but there is little cross border traffic there and therefore going by here is still the best option. nearly every plane is filled to capacity it's clearly demonstrated by flights going to russia which is now armenia's biggest economic partner one of the largest armenian diasporas is found in moscow on health that many of these aviation is the only means of transport for amenia it's obvious that there is no other way out. that's why our drains are always full of passengers.

armenia was the world's first country to turn christianity into a state religion that was way back in the early fourth century a.d. for more than fifteen centuries armenians have regarded face and church as a substitute for the state. they are from earth and saving human souls and preserving the nation are the two missions pursued by the armenian church today as it has been doing throughout its existence apart from we're doing our best to remedy the harm done by the genocide of armenia and sister found eighty years of godlessness under the soviet regime. fortunately the soviet campaign to stamp out the church had little impact in armenia it didn't affect the scores of ancient monasteries many of them are over a thousand years old. it's now possible to reach the top of monastery

one of armenians oldest right cableway. is the world's longest reversible roadway a fifteen minute journey offers a magnificent view of a deep picturesque pool. it's just not what we are in the cabin of the total cable way the world's longest it links the village of avid sword to the total of the monastery was about theirs but it is five thousand seven hundred fifty meters long and its highest point above ground is three hundred twenty meters lots and. when the cableway was opened in october twenty ten the hope was that it would attract foreign tourists. its design is unique in many ways for instance the nearly six kilometer long cable way has only three supports european specialists help to build it. this is our main electric generator

it produces five hundred thirty three kilowatts here you can see be emergency diesel generators if the electricity fails we will turn these on and of back you with the passengers we have a great safety system in place too and most of the cable car passengers are people living in nearby villages who gets. free transport influx of foreign tourists is small for the time being but the businessmen who have invested in the ambitious projects believe that in a couple of years armenia will become a popular tourist destination. hotels and campsites are already being built around the monastery and the cableway. we need water of differing temperatures to treat gastrointestinal diseases destroyed is in particular if the patient is suffering from high acidity of destroyed his temperature of the mineral water we give him is between fifty and fifty three degrees celsius in low is easy cases it's from thirty to thirty five degrees above. the town of jenin maclise in

the mountains during the soviet he is people here already knew how to attract tourists a spa similar to the celebrated karlovy valley resorts has been in operation in general but decades that it must survive the composition of our water is doing better than that oh the water is karl rove of gharyan the czech republic. our water contains more on our hands and minerals and than all that said. local mineral water is yet another armenian brand it is true though that it's not as famous as cognac or ancient monasteries but residents of jeremiah cope with the water am spars source of a another incentive for people to visit armenia. a german communal water springs from the ground in those words. between forty five and sixty degrees or what was sold thirty minutes result from our mineral water of the. the time being only

tourists from russia visit the gentleman explains. this huge bucket contains molten alamy and it will take several hours and a production process involving a dozen phases for the island medium to be turned into super fine for oil this plant is one of amin is leading industrial enterprises like many others it was inherited from the soviet era like most of the industrial plants is said i will join the first years of independence that was a very difficult period for this nation the plans for viable began in two thousand when he became part of a. been holding them up this is not the lunch was reopened after modernization. despite the crisis it has grown stronger with each passing year with. their actions and armenians worked here together the assets are russian the. other turns that

when young represents what might be called the local element in him in a state his father used to work at this plant my old and my mother and father used to work here now it's time for my brother and me i'm not a unique case and everybody here has taken the job over from their old folks. the plant is one of the most successful in the country and should come as no surprise they have russian investment and the whole of the coaxes as their market. would for example the color of the more taro easy a little bit would you dies from herbs or go to a mixture of me dies makes the road loop darker it looks like terry if there were fewer divers there ruin matter produces a very beautiful red dye no chemicals around it nothing but natural components making rugs is a family business to the subtleties of this very old all meaning handicraft handed

down from generation to generation. because the little square means in knobs they weave through old after row boats and every color is here it is. like the elemental implants this factory has a soviet past behind it then automatically looms were brought in to make rugs quickly and in large quantities none the less ancient technologies have become popular in armenia since independence. takes a month for the revert to complete one square meter is also a very difficult job taking a lot of effort for that reason their prices are higher than those of machine media world so. and such are a good home is seen as a sign of wealth. there are some ten million ethnic armenians around the world just so over three million of them live in armenia the armenians at home believe that the worst of their country's history is a thing of the past any advantage they like to say the nights are their darkest

just before dawn people across armenia believe that dawn has already broken over their country.