touch from the top story. on the go. video on demand. minefield comes an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the call. live from moscow this is all to top stories now at half past the hour a major u.s. bank allegedly loses a billion dollar investment from libya's sovereign wealth fund and goldman sachs is one of the banks playing for the recent economic crisis putting the financial worries of the american and libyan people in the same boat. meanwhile in libya nato helicopters have hit their first targets attacking colonel gadhafi forces near the port city of brega russia's foreign minister slammed the coalition's actually saying it's a signal the ground operations in the country are looming. and

a huge fire which has been raging for more than a day and destroyed an ammunition depo in central russia has been found there are still occasional explosions on the number injured in the incident is nearing. i'm back with more news when the thirty minutes from now in the meantime a special report focuses on how the ex soviet republic of all menier has developed two decades after the collapse of the u.s.s.r. stay with us for that special report next a nazi. people living in this land seven thousand years ago were already making wine and shoes this world's oldest shoe was filmed right here in this hole in the fourth century armenia adopted christianity as its state religion is fair for us christians. in the early twentieth century armenians went through the horrors of genocide. in the one point five million years we queued group to move on when you broke free from the soviet union in september one

thousand nine hundred ninety one was has independence brought to this ancient country. in two thousand and eight archeologist bodies yesterday 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 at any the archaeologists have found the settlements dating back to the year if five thousand b.c. . also believed this was for among the first finds of when we saw them it was immediately clear to us that they dated from the copper in stone age that means the people were already living in the east coast seven thousand years ago the communities maintaining very close contact inhabited leiria through which were in

the north caucasus and miss the time of year they used to migrate from north to sell this and the self to normal goods. excavation work at the site of the ancient settlement has been going on for three years now but archaeologists still unable to say with certainty what kind of people lived in these caves seven thousand years ago. we'll. just take a little contingency a very interesting ritual of babies under one year of age intact but women between the ages of eleven twenty five simply chopped up a full 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 all sure was very right here in this whole it was a great deal of effort to get it through the discovery of the settlement is an

event of crucial importance to the small trans caucasian country armenians are proud of the long history of this land and the find reinforces their pride. in our media there are a few other handicrafts they can unites generations is not such as the making of hatch cards or tombstones. the yard has undergone little change throughout its thousand year history 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 good to others 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 he mentors his grandson in

the ways of hatch car sculpting. there are millions of hijackers here each with a different history they different just as people do all of the curbing patterns are different even on some particular don't stone this is to show that the world is imperfect. 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 does 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 so up until the seventh century karajan look quite simple at that there is nothing but across a jar that first crossed over.

the head scarves in the cemetery don't feature carvings although the graveyard of the small town of split tag is much larger. before the quake it was a small symmetry but as you can see now it's quite big. which are some of it to some forty days to very quickly victims are tossed sarkisyan comes to the cemetery quite often the always follows the same route in is more full place as he moves from one grave to another on the center of the seventh nine hundred eighty eight lost nearly all of his family. it was ten fourteen am when the first tremor with a magnitude of seven on the ridge the scale shook spit out thirty seconds later the tiny town was no more just a pile of rubble. more than the one of the main street an ascent of the town was

soon. going to quake struck there were people in every apartment of the five story houses two or three listed here and both sides of the road the only bit of gives you practically all of them fell a bunch of food dish only roost lying on the laws field could be seen after the quake while. 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 one thousand nine hundred eighty 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 attack. the scale of the disaster only became apparent after several days just a handful of people had survived on of the rubble the earthquake had claimed twenty

five thousand lives. such as the huge did or when the smoke cleared away three or four hours after the earthquake became clear the town had been razed to the ground they'd begin arriving towards leaving because there were no rooms or. some of the aid came from numerous diasporas in foreign countries. this footage shows charles as an avoider a french singer of armenian origin after a visit to devastated spits tak he vows to do his best to help armenia. but there's so much stuff i was really shocked by what i saw in street art. i couldn't imagine their polling scale of that disaster. because so many people were killed here look at. the french cinema set up a fund for the earthquake struck country the money was used to restore dozens of

houses in st tacon gordie's armenia's second largest town it too had been affected by the disaster the town's residents unveiled a monument to as novel as a token of gratitude to him here for a memory on build a monument on the twenty second of september in two thousand are sure it was nobody who from all or nearly came here they were also just as from france. after the break up 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. followed your governor we came here on december second we were given a room on the ground floor and we still live here most of the tenants here are refugees. or petit and his family also lost their home in december one thousand nine hundred eighty eight they became refugees but not as

a result of the earthquake it was a bloody interethnic conflict that 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. chop the wood for the winter.

this was and this is our home you know you these are my grandchildren doing their homework. is our stove it and we made it ourselves because there's no other source of leading in here it's out of your news i'm sure. 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 back as and why johnnie's were fleeing that area meanwhile the situation for armenians living. in azerbaijan was becoming increasingly dangerous. and we went for a quite a good deal for instance my husband had an aunt with a dark complexion it was easy to see that she was there me and she was attacked several times on the natural. the conflicts root cause stems from the one nine hundred twenty s. when azerbaijan and armenia joined the soviet union they go in

a 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 who controlled nagorno-karabakh back then the soviet republics or 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. . because the school the soviet government showed signs of weakness at the start of perestroika when people were told they could speak up without running the risk of being imprisoned oryx accused of people across the serbia union began talking about their concerns and i mean eons in recalling color buck 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 would of as that of the border. 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 of producing good massacre was the point of no return people were murdered mind you people were killed not in the going to care about itself but in some good terms situated far from the going to care about going to go to that there is no war now but there is no peace either with you there is no peace treaty to control the. no monarch i'm certainly not dodging about those times here is nearly there gil i was in the army then was memories of those days come for contrast and this is vocal opposition there is a map of the soviet union in go nine a pity ends workshop as

a tailor you need something colorful to rest his eyes on for 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 lps barrel. which was founded in one of them there again two thousand and then one day for this editor found the bell to call it in there and up and because of this and we can and i can and i am a. nobody yet is 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 curator of three hundred bottles and branded me each year and they're trying to call the big ground. the british prime minister was not alone in appreciating this

brandy in soviet times and minion cognac was the main symbol of the republican. many agreed that the strong beverage produced in a trans caucuses could easily compete with french cognac manufacturers. trained in sunni going to flavor is intense you can sense a whole bouquet of livers vs going for it it's a unique beverage of ribs and here i can detect the flavor of our brands the sunshine of our of volumes and the purity of our landscapes elaine. the production process in armenia and france is totally identical the spirits of distilled in the same way and the oak barrels look very much alike the armenians are just proud of their product as the french are of theirs but. i think that calling up is one of the most important and most recognizable brands produced in our immediate world and

that's it why would you assume either it's one or were me use symbols. mountain out of wraps can be seen from several spots over 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. fish. if.

the mountains height is five thousand one hundred thirty seven meters above sea level according to the bible mount ararat it's was the first landmark the no a sought after escaping the great flood. or you know in the bible testified and it is connected with noir arc. after the didn't know where arc stopped to the peak of moment. however iran is the main source of pain and suffering for armenians under nineteen twenty one agreements signed by soviet and turkish leaders the symbolic mountain was left on the other side of the border the mountain to the territory of turkey but still it continues to be our main seem when i mean people they are asked about their national identities 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 armenia to describe the policies pursued by the ottoman empire towards ethnic armenians from the late nineteenth century through to the one nine hundred twenty s. been told over in ninety eight ninety four one hundred twenty two within thirty years nearly to me purdy here is the one point five million armenians killed. 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 killer a fuse is to officially acknowledge the fact there what happened a century ago was genocide is one of the hardest. problems between formations were the fundamental problem for them and the problem here is that. in order. instead of facing its own history let's try and keep trying to deny the

very part of take issue shameful hate of its own history i mean in genocide we're writing histories of one of the dangerous processes in every society uncurse supported as otherwise john at the height of the ethnic conflict over nagorno-karabakh it 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 yet of iran's difficult relations with neighboring countries these east way of getting to get a van is by air as. you have to go by here if you want to leave early and with the only way because this country has been blockaded throughout the post soviet period of. course there really has land borders with georgian around but there is little cross border traffic there therefore going by here is still of

their star. 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 and else many of these deviation is the only means of transport for amenia it's obvious that there is no other way out. that's why our planes are always full passengers. armenia was the world's first country centrist sanity into a state religion that was way back in the early fourth century a.d. for more than fifteen centuries armenians have regarded faces and church as

a substitute for the state. they are can work 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 we're doing our best to remedy the harm done by the genocide of armenians and 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 by cable way. is the world's longest reversible road a fifteen minute journey offers a magnificent view of a deep picturesque. numbers we're in

a cabin of the total cable way the world's longest it links the village of avid sword to the total monastery but there's this five thousand seven hundred fifty meters long and its highest point above ground is three hundred twenty meters lots of. 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 that produces five hundred thirty three kilowatts here you can see the emergency diesel generators if the electricity fails we will turn these on and of back two of 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 project believe that in a couple of years armenia will become a popular tourist destination. hotels and campsites already being built around the monastery and the cable way. we need water of different temperatures to treat gastrointestinal diseases were destroyed as in particular if the patient is suffering from high city of destroys it is the temperature of the mineral water we give him is between reaching fifty three degrees celsius in a low as it is the case is needs from thirty to thirty five degrees above. the town of jenin maclise in the mountains during the soviet years people here already knew how to attract tourists the spa similar to the celebrated karlovy valley resorts has been in operation in general but decades and that's it most of the competition

of our award are doing better than the water it's carlo bukhari in the czech republic. our water contains morons here our aunts and minerals the. 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 gentlemen hope that the water and spa resort will be another incentive for people to visit armenia. they germinal communal water springs from the ground in those gorge. between forty five and sixty degrees or what nice old thirty minutes result from our mineral water of the. of the time being only tourists from russia visit the germ of sprains. this huge bucket contains multan our many and it will take several hours and a production process involving

a dozen phases to 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 but like most other industrial plants they sit on idle during the first years of independence that was a very difficult period for this nation the plan survival began in two thousand when it became part of a raw. and holding them up this is not the lunch was reopened after modernization. despite the crisis it has grown stronger with each passing year to. their actions in armenians worked here together the assets are russian the. other turn stepan young represents what might be called the local element in him in a state his father used to work at this plant. in 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 it should come as no surprise they have russian investments in the whole of the coaxes as their markets. would say for example the color of the more taro you see a little bit it's me who just dies from herbs or go to mixture of many dies meets the road loop door through it looks like terry if there were fewer divers there are a 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 means handicraft handed down from generation to generation. because the little square means an odds with the way we've rolled after all but you know every color is here it is. like the elemental implants this factory had the soviets past behind it then

automatic limbs were brought in to make rugs quickly and in large quantities none the less ancient technologies have become popular in armenia since independence. it takes a month for we were to complete one square meter is also a very difficult job with taking a lot of air for this reason their prices are higher than those old machinery ropes so called was going to. researcher a good home is seen as a sign of worlds. there are some ten million ethnic armenians around the world just simmer 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.

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all comes. down to fear for sure auntie affleck a sure your i phone i pod touch from the phone.