Deeply Social. Mostly
Sirarpi left her husband, who beat her throughout their seven years of marriage, and is now fighting for her rights to her child in court. Against her are her ex-husband, the law enforcement system and the guardianship authorities.
What can save a blind, skinny, aggressive dog with a malignant tumour, doomed to a slow death? For example, the knack of being in the right place at the right time — and in front of the right people.
Stage-four bilateral breast cancer, two months left to live — that was the diagnosis the oncologist gave Naira. Two and a half years later, doctor and patient met at a conference on oncology.
Azatui, whose name means ‘free,’ spent 26 years held captive by her own husband. But she managed to escape, undergo rehabilitation at the Support Center for Women Who Have Experienced Violence, and begin a different life.
My first impulse when I need to show support is to take someone’s hand. Not to hug them, but specifically to take their hand in mine. It is as though I am reliving my childhood betrayal and, late though it may be, still making a different, right choice.
How do stray cats find themselves new owners? Writer and screenwriter Marina Sobe-Panek told us about it especially for a charity house concert in aid of the Centaur therapy centre and shelter for stray animals.
Eka Gorstka, founder of the “Voskeporik” centre for aesthetic development and rehabilitation, on how to integrate children with special needs into society properly, why involve parents in therapy, how opera singing led her to charity work, the good in the pandemic and “wings of kindness”.
“When I found out I’d lost an eye, I made a mental note of the fact. Thought, the other eye is still there — good, I can see. When I could finally walk to the toilet on my own two feet, I looked in the mirror. I was curious to see what was left of the eye. I like anatomy in general, the structure of the body.”
Understand herself. Move forward. Not get drawn into the general despondency. Grow and change the world around her. Not shut herself away in grief for those she lost in the war, but live — in their stead too. Be a bright sun, not murky water. That is what little Nina decided, having grown several years older in just a few days.
After Armenia’s capitulation in the war with Azerbaijan, many Armenian villages disappeared from the map of Karabakh. The editor of “Kalemon” recounts the last hours of emptiness spent on the eastern border.
There are no borders anymore. There are mountains shrouded in fog, burning houses and villages that life has left behind. The only inhabitants of this zone of emptiness are cats and dogs that became strays overnight. We went to the villages in eastern Karabakh to see them one last time: the day before—and the day after the end.
