Today, the Armenian Institute received a very special donation from Hakob and Anna Asatryan, creators of Orer Armenian European Magazine. Thanks to their generous donation, we have become the first Armenian organisation in the UK to hold the full collection of Orer, which has been published in Prague since 1999.
“We donated to the Armenian Institute because AI are one of the famous Armenian spaces in London, and the institute has a library which is very important to us. In our policy we have a programme to donate to all important Armenian libraries worldwide. The British Library is one of our subscribers, who hold all of our issues, but we wanted to have an Armenian space in London where everyone can come and see what we’ve published over the last 23 years.”
Popular issues that have been released include specific research into Armenian Contemporary Art, Armenian Cinema, Armenian Theatre, Independence of Armenia, Karabakh/Artaskh war, Covid, and a special issue with 20 Armenian ambassadors in Europe with interviews about the coronavirus situation in each country.
Upon his first visit to London in 1990, Hakob visited various Armenian organisations and community members, which led to his first article about the Armenian community in England bring written and published in Ask Daily in Armenia. Now, Orer publishes a new magazine every 2-3 months accessible through a subscription.
The project of documenting Armenians across Europe is led by Hakob who has written about 24 European counties, and another 10 on the waiting list. Currently in production is an issue about the Armenians in Ukraine, and other countries such as Cyprus, Britain, Germany, Greece, France, Sweden and Finland are also on the list. This project is supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation.
“Our magazine holds very important information about the Armenian communities in Europe especially, so we’d like to bring this to Armenians in London so they can find out what’s going on in other Armenian communities.”
The Orer website (www.orer.eu) has substantial information about different European Armenian communities (including the Armenian Institute) which is updated daily, connecting community members across the continent. The team are in the process of digitising and uploading all its content in both Armenian and English, but at present their physical magazines are the only way to consume their full anthology.
“For me, the Orer issue focusing on literature about the Artsakh war is the most special, and it was emotional work as I had to read a lot of books from Armenian writers written during the war, including the works of some soldiers. Some of these authors passed away, and we published their work.”
Quotes provided by Hakob Asatryan, Editor-In-Chief.