arrangement three. three. three. three broadcast quality video for your media project a free media john to our tetons tom. the week's top stories now here on r t exactly half past the hour in the russian capital a former general recommend of each denies charges of genocide in front of the hague tribunal but serbia waits to see if handing him over will do anything for its b u membership hopes the majors extension the military campaign in libya and deployment of attack helicopters spots concerns a ground operation in the country could be next. and spreading hysteria over killer cucumbers cripples european vegetable markets pushing spain from

a chilly accused of starting the deadly bug outbreak to the brink of a bailout. a lot for me i'll be back tomorrow but in the meantime in half an hour from now your shop available will continue with the news but next we have a special report about former soviet republic of armenia and how it's changed in the last twenty years since the fall of the u.s.s.r. stay with us for that. people living in this land seven thousand years ago were already making wine and shoes this world's oldest shoe was van right here in this hole in the fourth century army adopted christianity as its state religion is fair for us christian nations in the early twentieth century armenians went through the horrors of genocide in total only one point five million are. groups of the armenia broke free from the soviet union in september one thousand nine hundred ninety one what has independence brought to

this ancient country. in two thousand and eight archeologist police custody 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 archaeologist had found the settlements dating back to the year five thousand b.c. . in this also believed this was for among the first finds a group when we saw him it was immediately clear to us that they've heard it from the copper in stone age that means that people were in really living in the east coast seven thousand years ago so even the communities mentoring very close contact inhabited nereus who were touring the north caucasus and miserable time here but used to migrate from north to sell this and yourself to north of the us. 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 you can see a very interesting ritual the bodies of babies under one year of age old bear intact but women between the ages of eleven and twenty five simply chalked up to full burials. the most interesting artifact was found in the caves 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 hole it took 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 our niña there are a few other handicrafts they can unite generations is not as the making of hatch cars or tombstones. the art has undergone little change throughout its thousand year history and hammer chisel and stone are all that's needed for the job a man and his grandson are working on this touch got. this do i got this i like the job. that 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 history they differ just as people do all the curbing patterns are different even on some particular can still there's a 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 those 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 until the seventh century carriage looks quite simple like that there is nothing but across a dark the terrace crust of. the house god 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 a man comes to the symmetry quite often he always follows the same route in his mortal place as he moves from one grave to another on the sim of 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 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 in a center of the town was c.

and. when it quake struck there were people in every apartment out of five story houses to phyllis's here and both sides of the road the only bit of ditch you practically all of them fell a bunch of fish only roost lying on the was filled could be seen after the quake of one. 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 a 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 spit out. the scale of the disaster only became apparent after several days just a handful of people had survived under the rubble the earthquake had claimed twenty five thousand lives. such as teach the dog when the smoke cleared away

three or four hours after the earthquake became clear to the town had been razed to the ground where they'd begin arriving towards leaving because there were no room for. some of the aid came from numerous diasporas in foreign countries. this footage shows charles aznavour a french singer of armenian origin after a visit to devastated spit tak he vowed to do his best to help armenia. but something i was really shocked by what i saw in speech that. i couldn't imagine their polling scale of that disaster. because so many people were killed here should look at. the french scene and set up a fund for the earthquake struck country the money was used to restore thousands of houses in spits hakon gordie's armenia's second largest town it too had been

affected by the disaster the town's residents unveiled a monument to as navarro as a token of gratitude to him therefore to marry until the moment on the twenty second of september in two thousand objects was not what people from all over or new came here they were also visitors 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. we came here on december second when we were given a room on the ground floor and we still lived here most of the canons here are refugees. coronado 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 and joined 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. that reach up the wood for the winter.

is issuing i and this is our home. user my grandchildren doing their homework. going to the post is our stove it and we made it their selves because there is no other source of leading in here out of the 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 garden it got a block as an by johnnie's or fleeing a teria meanwhile the situation for armenians living. azerbaijan was becoming increasingly dangerous. and we went through 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 the golan and 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 you controlled nagorno-karabakh back then as 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. . 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 or executed for people across the soviet union again talking about their concerns and a means in a golden color buck started dozen questions they wanted to know why they were part of azerbaijan even though armenia was next door to a country populated by people of the same nationality and culture when you put your want of those richard. clarke who flatly rejected the 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 fueled by events in the small town of some guy eat the azerbaijan's capital couldn't assume good massacre was the point of no return people were murdered on the right mind you people were killed not even going to care about itself but in some god a town situated far from not going to care about good to go to there is no war now but there is no peace either there is no patient treated like ritual of the. no more and i'm certainly not knowledgeable of those times here is nearly dead year i was in the army then was memories of those days come to contrast and this is but cool. there is a map of the soviet union in go not a petty ns workshop as

a tailor you 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 so there are now which was founded in november two thousand and five by this editor found the bell book call it is there and it's this and it will at that thank you 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. add stella sent to a church of three hundred local some branded me each year and that's when equality granted. the british prime minister was not alone in appreciating this brandy in

soviet times armenian cognac was the main symbol of the republican. many agree that the strong beverage produced in the trans caucuses could easily compete with french cognac manufacturers. can consume cond of labor is intense you can sense a whole bouquet of flavors vs pretty unique beverages from stories here i can detect the flavor of our brands the sunshine of arab violence and the beauty of our landscapes of the in. 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 there is gone out and i think that coney ark is one of the most important and most recognizable brands produced in our kneeing it was good to go and see that it's one

of the army is symbols of this symbol of about a minute. noun turnarounds can be seen from several stoltz nieto van 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 cultures that so much about the taxpayers' money madrid is a charade made by people at area saving the hero in the financial and political costs of doing so is it all worth it there's a euro project need a serious rethink should it be. wild kings go mad their people suffer. how some to good advantage of power that was given to them. secrets of big dirty money . on r g.

the mountains height is five thousand one hundred thirty seven meters above sea level according to the bible our arts 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 saw after the group nor are 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. to be in the territory of turkey but still continues to be very mean seen by all who and i mean people they are asked about their national identities they start with the mound. 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 nineteenth twenties in total in ninety eight ninety four nine hundred twenty two within thirty years nearly thirty years earlier 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 get ankara fuses to officially acknowledge the fact that what happened a century ago was genocide is one of the hardest. problems between two nations the fundamental problem fundamental problem here is that turkey in or.

instead of facing its own history let's try and keep trying to deny the very part of take issue shameful page of its own history i mean and genocide rewriting history is one of the dangerous processes in every society uncle or supported as otherwise than 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 year vans difficult relations with neighboring countries these east way of getting together van is by and this. you have to go by ear if you want to we were near the only way because this country has been blockaded throughout the post soviet period. for sereny 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 is 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 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 brains are always fools 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 faith and church as

a substitute for the state. i 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 work and we're doing our best to remedy the harm done by the genocide of armenians turned eighty years of godlessness under lease 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 tier of ministry 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 the cabin of the total cable way the world's longest it links the village of avid sword to the total of the monastery. but there's this five thousand seven hundred fifty meters long and its highest point above ground is three hundred twenty meters us know. 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 that if the electricity fails we will turn these on and of back to river 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 are already being built around the monastery and the cable way. we need water of different temperatures to treat gastrointestinal diseases destroyed is in particular if the patient is suffering from high acidity it destroys is the temperature of the mineral water we give him is between fifty and 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 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 award are doing better than that of the water earth karlov of garri in the czech republic. our water contains more our care i'anson minerals. 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 words preachers between forty five and sixty degrees over what is sold sediments result from our mineral water of the. the time being only tourists from russia visit the german springs. this huge bucket contains molten iron minium

it will take several hours and a production process involving a dozen phases for the allen 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 other industrial plants is said on all 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 row. been holding them up this is not the country was reopened after modernization. despite the crisis it has grown stronger with each passing year it is their actions and armenians worked here together the assets are rushing off each. other through instead when young represents what might be called the local dentist the 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 through example the color of the more taro you see a little bit with good dice from herbs ago the mixture of many dyes me for the road loop darker it looks like terry if there were fewer dollars the root of 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 of handicraft handed down from generation to generation. because the little square means and not just a weave of grow after old but you know every color is here it is. like the

element implants this factory has a soviet past behind it then automatically looms and 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 it we were to complete one square meter is also a very difficult job with taking a lot of effort for this reason their prices are higher than those of machine i mean we're up so called within a half. researcher a good home is seen as a sign of wealth. there is 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 year of and they like to say the nights are at their darkest just before dawn people across armenia believe that dawn has already broken over their country.

wealthy british style some good some of them.