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Armenia
// THE COGNAC REPUBLIC
Little Armenia has a whole set of brands that have become symbols of the country: brandy, Ararat, Radio Armenia, and finally Armenians themselves. Ironically, cognac recently turned out to be brandy, Ararat is outside the country, and so are most Armenians. And it turns out there never was a Radio Armenia.
Three Great Nations
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| This cask is laid down in honor of Boris Yeltsin. He could ask to have it sent to his home at any time, but it keeps better here |
Here is a Radio Armenia joke: " How many great nations are there in the world?" Answer: "Just three-Russians, non-Russians, and Armenians." It's true that Armenians never hesitate to talk about themselves in superlatives. Residents of Yerevan invariably remind visitors to the capital that their city is 300 years older than Rome. They also do not forget to mention that Armenians became Christians before Byzantium; two years ago (2001), the republic celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity as the national religion. Armenia was not always so small either. Under Tigran the Great, its possessions stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and the country was called Greater Armenia.
Then Armenia endured several difficult centuries and shrank dramatically in size. Today, twin-peaked Ararat (Sis and Masis in Armenian), Armenia's national symbol, which literally hangs over Yerevan in clear weather, is located in Turkish territory, just like Armenia's ancient capital, Ani.
However, none of this affects Armenians' national pride. They have recently taken to calling their capital "little Paris"; and Armenians actually have warm feelings toward France. This may be because they resemble the French in their lively nature, but it is more likely because France is home to the world's second-largest Armenian community, which has given the world such celebrities as Charles Aznavour and Cher.
The world's largest Armenian community lives in California and is no less of a market for Armenian goods than Russia. Armenians are weighed down by their isolation from the rest of the world, which is the result of a closed border with Azerbaijan, difficult relations with Turkey, and deteriorating relations with Russia and Georgia. Armenians resent the inaccessibility of the Russian market, especially since Armenia is Russia's main partner in the Transcaucasus: the country's entire antiaircraft defense system, as well as protection of the border with Turkey, the power industry, and many large companies (in repayment of debts to Russia), have been turned over to Russia.
At the same time, the worldwide Armenian diaspora helps Armenia; for example, billionaire Kirk Kirkorian has given $180 million for road reconstruction. Yerevan is probably the only capital whose roads resemble the aftermath of a bombardment: holes half a wheel diameter deep lie in wait everywhere and there is no way around them. Yerevan residents compare driving around the city to figure skating.
One of the worst road incidents is connected with a romantic story. One day, they brought a female elephant to Vova, a male elephant living in the Yerevan zoo. Vova was charmed by the lady, and when the time came to part, he was deeply distressed. In his confusion, Vova broke out of the zoo, overturned several trolleybuses, trampled a large number of cars, and headed resolutely for the city center to let them have it. As he approached the center, he got into a battle with a police detachment that tried unsuccessfully to shoot him; he was finally killed by an armored troop carrier. As experts in amorous affairs, Yerevanites still recall Vova's tragedy with sympathy.
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| The Dengi correspondents were lucky enough to be able to photograph the president of Armenia while he was skiing at Tsakhadzor. Despite the dark glasses, the president was easy to recognize by the size of his entourage |
For Russians, Armenia remains a set of stereotypes. Two hundred years ago, a great poet expressively described a scene thus: "The Armenian kissed the young Greek woman." However, the story ended badly. Later, Armenians, like Georgians, were identified with market vendors, although it is not they - Azerbaijanis who control Moscow's markets.
Without a doubt, the most outstanding Armenian brand is cognac. The appearance of a bottle of Ararat, Ani, Nairi, Akhtamar, or Vaspourakan on a holiday table added prestige to the occasion. Doubts about the legitimacy of the expression "Armenian cognac" have arisen only in the last ten years. However, even after French owners arrived at the Yerevan Cognac Factory, its products continued to be called cognac in Russia, and not brandy.
Another important brand is also called Ararat, but it is not cognac but rather a football team that was champion of the USSR in 1973. It is no longer a very important team; the Grand Tobacco Co. Ltd. Factory team has become the leader of the Armenian football championship instead. There were also Yerevan cigarettes with a black filter that were called Akhtamar, like the cognac.
What else comes to mind? Tsakhadzor, a mountain resort and the USSR's main Olympic center, of course. Then there are mineral waters like Bjni, Jermuk, and Arzni. And shoes. In the time of the famous "Soviet quality", shoes made by the Masis and Nairi factories in Yerevan were in great demand, although these factories are no longer in operation. On the other hand, many small companies in Armenia successfully make "real Italian-style" shoes and Armenians take pride in their high quality.
Jewelry is another ancient Armenian specialty. Foreign sales of cut diamonds that Armenia obtains through an agreement with Diamonds of Russia-Sakha (ALROSA) are an important source of income. Specialists of the old Soviet school remember the "mailboxes", the local radioelectronics industry [called "mailboxes" because the factories or offices were secret and were identified only by a mailbox address] that labored hard and long for the good of the Soviet defense industry and ordinary citizens.
There is also no forgetting YerAZ minibuses, Armenia's answer to the Latvian RAF model. Unlike RAF, the Yerevan Automobile Plant (YerAZ) is still in operation. If this is still not enough, let's return to the brand we started with, Radio Armenia.
How Armenians Fired the Director of the CIA
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| Grand Tobacco has some unique equipment for testing cigarettes. This machine lights up by itself and inhales |
Radio Armenia was asked: "Why did they fire the director of the CIA." Answer: "Because he couldn't give Kuzkin's mother's address or Radio Armenia's wavelength or figure out what the Voluntary Society for Collaboration with the Army, Air Force, and Navy (DOSAAF) did." On arriving in Armenia, the Dengi correspondents conducted their own journalistic investigation into Radio Armenia.
At first, it seemed fairly straightforward to locate a radio outlet where a group of specially trained wits sat splitting their sides with their own jokes and transmitting them around the world. However, in answer to our questions about Radio Armenia, Armenians only shrugged their shoulders enigmatically.
After some in-depth intelligence work, we came up with several versions. The first is obvious: "All our radio is Armenian." In Armenia, as in Russia, everyone listens to FM radio stations today; but there is no station called Radio Armenia that is capable of broadcasting outside the republic. The second version is that Radio Armenia is not located in Armenia at all, but is an invention of Moscow wits. However, only one Moscow radio station in the late 1980s ventured to call itself Radio Armenia and it did not last long.
The third version attributes the start of Radio Armenia to members of a Joviality and Wit Club (KVN); but the Yerevan team called the New Armenians clearly has nothing to do with it, because the name Radio Armenia was around long before any of them were born.
In our search for the truth, we turned to the management of Armenian Public Radio, who gave us a more conspiratorial version of the origin of Radio Armenia.
Amasi Oganessian, deputy general director of Armenian Public Radio: This invention has nothing to do with either Armenia or Russia. Radio Armenia appeared in the 1960s during the Cold War as the creation of a special section of the CIA. The jokes had a political nature, and their objectives included anti-Soviet propaganda and undermining the political regime of the USSR. The first collection of Radio Armenia jokes was published in West Germany in 1980.
Incidentally, the version of the secret-service origin of Radio Armenia is discussed on the Internet as well. In one of these forums, they talk about the reasons why the special Armenian joke sections in Western secret service agencies were eliminated. Once, at a congress of All-Union Broadcasting workers the chairman announced, " I now give the floor to the representatives of Radio Armenia…", and the whole room roared with laughter. The spies realized that the weapon of special propaganda had turned into a means of amusement for the whole country and turned the spies themselves into clowns.
However, Radio Armenia itself gives a different reason on the Internet for its closure: "It's just that Jew who thought up all the jokes left for Israel." Today, Armenians listen with pleasure to Russian Radio, and not Radio Armenia.
How Armenians Fought Against Aging in Iron
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| The management of the tobacco factory is trying to promote a healthy lifestyle among its workers |
Armenians were insulted when their cognac started being called brandy following the example of the French. Anyone will tell you that "brandy is made by another process, but we've always used the cognac process." The industrialist Nerses Tairiants brought the technology from France and founded the Yerevan Cognac Factory in 1887. Twelve years later, his company was bought by Nikolai Shustov's trading house, purveyor to the court of His Imperial Majesty. Shustov's personal cask has been stored in the aging room since 1902, and only three people have drunk from it: Marshal of the Soviet Union Hovaness Bagramian, Boris Yeltsin, and President of Armenia Robert Kocharian.
Laying down personal casks has become a tradition at the factory. We saw casks for Yeltsin, Ryzhkov, Putin, Kvasnevsky, and other well-known politicians, each of whom (or their descendants) can send a courier for them at any time. There is also a "peace cask", which they promise to share when there is peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Finally, there is a whole lane of casks for Charles Aznavour, Armenia's favorite Frenchman.
There is also another custom of weighing important guests on the factory floor for the purpose of giving them a gift. The guest is seated on one pan of the scale, while the other pan is piled with gift cases of cognac. They say Boris Yeltsin weighed in at five cases. People at the factory have noticed that Western guests usually immediately transfer the amount of the gift to charitable funds, whereas guests from CIS countries instantly pack the cases into their motorcades.
In June 1998, the factory passed to the hands of the French company Pernod Ricard. According to Pierre Larretche, the factory's president and general director, Pernod Ricard wanted to strengthen its positions on CIS markets. However, 1998 was the year of the Russian default and within a year, output had decreased from 3.5 million bottles to 1 million. Production was restored to previous volumes only last year. On the other hand, the French owners took advantage of the time to redesign production processes and reorganize the management structure and sales system. It is shameful to admit that the cognac had formerly been aged in metal vessels with chips of oak bark thrown in. Now the cognac is properly aged in natural oak casks. For this purpose, the art of cooperage, lost in the 19th century, had to be revived in Armenia. Under an agreement with the Armles company, Armles has committed to planting two new Armenian oaks for every delivered tree.
Of course, the French are a long way from solving all local problems. For example, up to 30% of the cognac on the Russian market (and even in Armenia) is counterfeit. Russia accounts for 75% of the 93% of production going to export, and another 10% goes to Ukraine and Belarus. There are plans to increase exports by exporting to another 25 countries. However, expansion of production is hampered by a shortage of grapes, because the vineyards cannot satisfy market demand.
The Battle Against Smoking, Armenian Style
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| Producers of Bjni mineral water are getting ready to conquer the Russian market once again |
Here is a curious fact. Viticulture has started losing out to the rapidly growing tobacco industry, all because a lot of people in Armenia smoke: more than 50% of the population (the world norm is 40%). Grand Tobacco Co. Ltd. Is the country's largest taxpayer. The company has begun financing farmers to grow tobacco, and today this occupation is five to six times more profitable that any other agricultural sector. However, when peasants in the Ararat Valley (which is where cognac grapes are grown) went so far as to tear up their vineyards in order to expand the area under tobacco, the tobacco company's management took pity on cognac and stopped buying tobacco from Ararat peasants.
Tobacco has been cultivated in Armenia since the 17th century, but cigarette production began in 1938 when a fermentation plant and a workshop for producing papirosy [Russian cigarettes with a cardboard mouthpiece] started operating. In 1946, they were merged with the Armtabak company, which had 99% of the Armenian market and supplied cigarettes to the entire USSR.
After the collapse of the USSR, Armtabak completely lost its market and imported cigarettes filled its place. At that time, Grant Vartanian, one of Armtabak's managers, emigrated to Canada. Then in 1997, he got in touch with a former Armtabak colleague, Ruben Airapetian, and came to an agreement on setting up a Canadian-Armenian tobacco company. The partners interested farmers in growing tobacco, set up a fermentation plant, started marketing, bought a unique laboratory, and within a short time managed to win back 75% of the Armenian market. Today Grand Tobacco produces about 60 name brand cigarettes with a volume of 4 billion cigarettes per year, some of which are exported to the United States, Russia, and Arab countries. The factory's management is convinced that the quality of their cigarettes is as good as that of international brands.
David Galumian, executive director of Grand Tobacco Co.: We used to produce five or six name brands. Think of Kosmos and Salyut in soft packages without cellophane or foil, Prima, Astra… But these cigarettes differed only in their packages; the blends were all the same. Now about half of our production consists of elite cigarettes made of fine tobacco that we buy abroad.
The factory still produces those very same Akhtamar cigarettes with the black filter. The name comes from an Armenian legend poetically recreated by the writer Hovhannes Toumanian: Once upon a time on an island there lived a beautiful girl named Tamar, and every evening she would light a fire to guide her lover who swam to her from the mainland. One day, some wicked people put out the fire. The youth lost his way in the sea and began to cry "Akhtamar! Akhtamar!" (Ah! Tamara, Tamara!). The young man drowned, but the Akhtamar cigarette and cognac brands live on.
If You Like Bjni, You'll Love Noi
Any Armenian will tell you that Armenia has the best-tasting water in the world. The stony, treeless mountains of Armenia heated by the hot sun provide ideal conditions for keeping water pure and fresh. "You always want 'Evian'," argued an acquaintance. "Fine, just so you don't think I'm boasting, even if our water is no better it's no worse. But it's really even better."
In the USSR, water from the Armenian Bjni, Jermuk, Dilijan, and Arzni springs competed with Georgian Borjomi and Narzan from Kislovodsk. Today, water production is only one-tenth of what it was in Soviet times and it competes only with itself. About ten companies produce only Jermuk (the leader in sales volumes) and their product varies in quality (products with dark blue and black labels were recommended). Bjni is in second place in sales volumes; it belongs to one of Armenia's largest companies, the SIL group owned by the Soukiassian family.
Khachatur Soukiassian, president of SIL group: When there are a lot of producers of one brand, that's bad. One starts to advertise Jermuk and the others profit from its advertising without investing a single kopeck. And vice versa, if one produces a poor-quality product the rest suffer.
Khachatur Soukiassian is a parliamentary deputy and one of the richest people in Armenia. He founded his empire in 1989 with a car wash, a service station, and a parts business. For a short time, he was an owner of the Kotayk Brewery, one of the country's largest. Today more than 25 companies belong to the SIL group, including Armekonombank, Hotel SIL, the Pizza di Roma fast food chain, a construction company, and eight factories producing furniture, wood products, lemonade, corrugated packaging, etc. Soukiassian bought the Charynsavan Bjni plant in 1997 with the right to lease the spring for 25 years. Today the plant has 150 employees who produce more than 5 million bottles per year. America is the main export market, because they began working with it earlier, but Russia will soon catch up in sales volumes. In addition to Bjni, the factory has started producing a successful new brand of noncarbonated drinking water called Noi (Noah; Armenians believe that Noah was Armenian).
Khachatur Soukiassian: Along with water, we've started delivering juices to Russia-mango, guava, rosehip-and even we're surprised at how successful we are. It's too bad that deliveries to your country are complicated by problems with transportation services and the rigid dictates of sales networks.
Businessman and deputy Soukiassian sees some novel political approaches to cooperation with Russia. "Imagine how easily Russia could solve its problems with Georgia," he says. "They show a meeting with Putin on TV, and on the table you have Bjni instead of Borjomi! Then how Borjomi producers would start cursing their president!"
by
Vladimir Gendlin and Dmitry Lebedev (photos)
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 31, 2003
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