AJA magazine 1st issue (1)

Armenian Signatures in Watchland

44

New AJA PresidentNew Ambitious Plans

13

BASELWORLD 11

24

5000-Year-Old Heritage

36

INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINEMay 2011 | №1

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MessagesMessages

The Armenians have created a very rich history in the art of jewellery, the best traditions of which continue to this day. Masterpieces created by gifted and fine Arme-nian craftsmen have always been of great demand all over the world.

Very often it has been with the help of talented men of art that the Armenian nation has been able to establish firm grounds and respect in many cultural centers all over the world. The art of Jewellery is one of the widely spread professions having a traditional history that has accompanied us throughout centuries and is an indispensable part of the Armenian culture.

It is with victorious expectations that I would like to congratulate all board members of the Armenian Jew-eller’s Association and its President Mister Gagik Gevor-gian, wishing countless new achievements in this com-plex and honorable field.

President of the Republic of Armenia

Հայ ոսկերչական արվեստը հարուստ պատմություն ունի և այսօր էլ շարունակվում են այդ արվեստի լավագույն ավանդույթները: Հայազգի տաղանդավոր և բարձրաճաշակ վարպետների ստեղծած ոսկերչական գլուխգործոցները միշտ էլ մեծ ճանաչում են ստացել ամենուրեք:

Շատ հաճախ հայ հանրաճանաչ արվեստագետների շնորհիվ է, որ մեր ժողովուրդը ամրախնդում է իր բարի, հարգանք և համակրանք վայելում աշխարհի ամենատարբեր մշակութային կենտրոններում: Իսկ ոսկերչական արվեստը մեր ժողովրդի առաջատար ու, ինչու չէ, ամենա տարածված ու ավանդույթներ ունեցող մասնագիտություններից է, որ դարեր ի վեր մեր մշակույթի անբաժան մաս է եղել:

Հաղթարշավի ակնկալիքով ողջունում եմ Հայ ոսկերիչների համաշխարհային միության խորհրդի անդամներին` նորընտիր նախագահի Գագիկ Գևորգյանի գլխավորությամբ և մաղթում նորանոր նվաճումներ այդ դժվարին ու պատվաբեր բնագավառում:

ՀՀ նախագահ `Սերժ Սարգսյան

The Adress of the President of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Serzh Sargsyan to the Armenian Jewellers' Association

ՀՀ Նախագահ Սերժ Սարգսյանի

ուղերձը Հայ ոսկերիչների

համաշխարհային միությանը

Patriarchal BlessingFrom the Holy See of Saint Echmiadzin we send

warm greetings and Patriarchal blessings to the new-ly-elected president and all the members of the Arme-nian Jewellers’ Association.

Գիր ՕրհնութեանՄայր Աթոռ Սուրբ Էջմիածնից ողջունում և

Հայրապետական Մեր օրհնութիւնն ենք բերում Հայ ոսկերիչների համաշխարհային միութեան նորընտիր նախագահին և անդամներին:

Մեր մշակութային հարուստ ժառանգութեանը ուրոյն փայլ են հաղորդում հայկական ոսկերչութեան ձեռքբերումները: Վաղնջական ժամանակներից մեր շնորհալի վարպետներն իրենց տաղանդով ու ստեղծագործ հոգու կնիքով ոսկեայ զարդերն ու քանդակները վերածել են արուեստի անկրկնելի գործերի: Շարունակելով դարաւոր ավանդները` հայ ոսկերիչնեչը այսօր էլ հիացնում են իրենց ոսկէ ձեռքերի բազմահմուտ արգասիքներով, որոնք ճանաչում են գտնում ողջ աշխարհում:

Մեզ համար ուրախութիւն է, որ շուրջ մէկ ու կէս տասնամեակ Հայ ոսկերիչների համաշխարհային միութիւնը համախմբում է մեր ժողովրդի

Message of His Holiness the Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II to the Armenian

Jewellers’ Association

Ն. Ս. Օ. Տ. Տ. Գարեգին Բ Ամենայն Հայոց Կաթողիկոսի ուղեևձը Հայ Ոսկերիչների

Համաշխարհային Միությանը

The achievements of Armenian Jewellery confer a special radiance on our rich cultural heritage. From ancient times our craftsmen, with their talent and cre-ativity, have turned goldsmith jewellery and statues into exclusive pieces of art. Today, while continuing their centuries-long traditions, Armenian goldsmiths still as-tound us with the artfully-made products of their ‘gold-en hands’ receiving recognition all over the world.

We are extremely delighted and happy that the AJA has united the talented children of the Armenian nation for around a decade and a half, and, with its effective and ef-ficient activities, has served the development of this beauti-ful branch of art. Truly gratified, we wish success and new achievements to the Armenian Jewellers’ Association.

From the depths of our hearts we pray to our Lord to confer His blessings and protection on the newly-elect-ed president of the Armenian Jewellers’ Association, the faithful follower of our Holy Church and philanthropist of the Holy See of Saint Echmiatsin Mr. Gagik Gevorki-an and the respected members of the Association, and keep their path unimpeded to head for better accom-plishments and initiatives.

May the graces of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

His Holiness the Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II

տաղանդաւոր զաւակներին և արդիւնաւոր գործունէութեամբ ծառայում արուեստի այս գեղեցիկ ճիւղի զարգացմանը: Գոհունակ սրտով Միութեան գործունէութեանը մաղթում ենք նոր յաջողութիիւններ ու ձեռքբերումներ:

Ի խորոց սրտի աղօթքով հայցում ենք, որ Երկրաւոր Տէրը Իր Սուրբ Աջի օրհնութեան ներքո պահպանի Հայ ոսկերիչների համաշխարհային Միիութեան նորընտիր նախագահ, Առաքելական մեր Սուրբ Եկեղեցու հաւատաւոր զավակ և Մայր Աթոռ Սուրբ Էջմիածնի բարերար Տիար Գագիկ Գևորգեանին և Միութեան սիրելի անդամներիդ և հաստատուն պահի ձեր ընթացքը բարի գործերի և ձեռնարկումների իրականացման ճանապարհին:

Շնորհք Տեառն մերոյ Յիսուսի Քրիստոսի ընդ ձեզ ամենեսեան ամէն:

ՕրհնությեամբԳարեգին ԲԿԱԹՈՂԻԿՈՍ ԱՄԵՆԱՅՆ ՀԱՅՈՑ

4 AJA 05'11 05'11 AJA 5

MessagesMessages

Dear friends!Firstly let me thank you all for your trust.I have been an AJA member for six years already,

but I know what hopes it has been cherishing for 15 years. In 1997, following a gathering of Armenian jew-ellers from all over the world, the Armenian Jewellers’ Association (AJA) was founded by patriotic Armenian jewellers. The idea of establishing a world jewellery as-sociation was born on an airplane flight. This is very symbolic, since it happened so close to God.

I strongly believe that under my leadership we will be able to have great achievements. I believe that the new board will be able to unite around great objectives. We have been striving to implement big projects for 15 years already. There are great projects and hopes for the forthcoming two years of my leadership.

I would like to thank the previous leadership – Mr. Pierre and Mr. Vartkess - who not only supervised the AJA over the last two years, but were also the parents of the AJA. I am thankful that they established this in-stitution, which is very close to me. We have spoken much about AJA’s advantages, and now we are showing the meaning of those advantages through our life and work. Throughout these years a warm and cooperative

Message of Mr. Gagik Gevorkian

atmosphere and trustworthy business links have been established, our children have got acquainted with each other, etc., and with all that we are getting even more powerful.

Of course, during these 10 years there have been hardships that were due not to any human factor, but rather purely economic reasons. Unfortunately, the eco-nomic crisis of the last two years has weakened many.

Notwithstanding this fact, we, especially because we are Armenians, have overcome all the obstacles.

Jewellery is one of the common professions among us Armenians. From this day on I would like us to put our art on a higher level, to make it so that our jewellers are not only renowned for being good craftsmen, but also be-come world-famous designers. In this regard I would like to present you with the projects I have envisioned.

We all have different approaches to our businesses. The mentality and traditions of each country shape dif-ferent business styles, we are often not ready for com-promises, and it is often difficult to unite around one single idea. Let me try to unite you all around my ideas. This is an issue that I consider to be of great importance – we need to be united.

Thank you!

6 AJA 05'11 05'11 AJA 7

Messages editorial

Dear Readers,On behalf of the editorial team I would like to con-

gratulate you on the occasion of holding the new, revived magazine of the Armenian Jewellers’ Association.

Spring has knocked on the doors of our lives with a typical sense of love and renaissance. And, inspired by this feeling, we have decided to generate a new type of AJA magazine designed not only for AJA members, but also for those who are interested in the Armenian and world jewel-lery industry, as well as for those who, with their lifestyle,

personify the eminence of beauty and admiration of art.The business of jewellery is more an art form than a

manufacturing industry, and, I would say, it is one of the most complex and finest forms of art, as it is directly linked to the masterful creation of beauty, and it is indisputably a very profitable business. That is why we are going to cover

all aspects of this field of interest for you in this magazine.The roots of the Armenian jewellery art lie deep in the

past. As early as millennia ago our craftsmen were produc-ing, designing and creating exclusively beautiful ornaments. Armenia was one of the main centers of the craft and had a large number of goldsmiths’ workshops: the art of jewellery was so highly developed there that goldsmiths in different cities even specialized in particular branches. And from the depths of history until today the Armenian jeweller’s art has many things in common with that of the neighboring peoples, yet is original and quite independent in its style and the technique used to make it. Due to various histori-cal conditions Armenian goldsmiths had to work in many foreign countries, such as cities in the Caucasus, Greece, etc. Here they continued and developed their beautiful art, thus supporting the development of goldsmithery in these areas. Today this beautiful craft of antiquity is not only accepted but is progressing anew, becoming more productive thanks to the rapid technical progress. The traditions passed on by our ancestors to our craftsmen are still the basis for the unique pattern of the Armenian jeweller. Nowadays a large number of gold and silver ornamentations are produced for wide use, mainly based on the old traditions of the great art of the Ar-menian goldsmith of ancient times. We very much hope that you will learn about this much more through our magazine.

Wishing you pleasant reading!Gayane Manukyan.

Editor-in-chief: Gayane Manukyan

Features editor: Igor Gaiter

Editor:Mariam Chakhoyan

Art & graphic design:Oleg Ivliev

Contributors:Pierre Akkelian

Sofia MartynkevichDouglas GollanOla Iablonska

on the coverCatholicos’s crozier

ABOUT AJA:

A 15-Year History. 8

NEWS:

Newly-Elected President and New and Ambitious Plans. 13

AJA creates a Trust Fund. 16

A Message from AJA France. 20

Russia Elected a New Board of Members. 21

EVENT:

Baselworld 2011. 24

15th Annual Dinner in Basel. 30

JEWEL OF THE SPRING:

Vaagn Mkrtchian.Author of the Catholicos’s crozier. 32

GOLDEN ROOTS:

A 5000-year heritage. 36

ARMENIAN SIGNATURES:

Armenian Signatures in Watchland. 44

The Father of «Tick-tacks». 45

FACES AND FIGURES:

Vartkess Knadjian. 50

BUSINESS:

The Armenian Goldsmith Industry. 56

Inside this issueEditorial

13

44

24

40

May 2011 | №1

INTERNATIONALMAGAZINE

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About AJAAbout AJA

One of the founders of the AJA, Mr. Pierre Akkelian, kindly shared his memories with us and told an inspiring story about the formation of the AJA, its first steps and

further growth.“When two Armenians meet anywhere in the

world, see if they will not create a New Armenia,” wrote William Saroyan. How aptly these words describe the creation of the Armenian Jewellers’ Association.

Back in 1991, at the onset of the first Gulf War, three Armenian businessmen found themselves thrown together by fate, passengers in the first-class cabin of a Tokyo-bound Canadian Airlines flight. Vartkess Knad-jian, president of the oldest diamond company in Bel-gium, his brother Adom and I spent the duration of the 15-hour flight discussing business and other common interests.

On arrival, Vartkess kindly introduced me to his Japanese contacts, through which my company Canadi-an Gem would sell approximately 15,000 wedding bands

annually. One in a hundred Japanese newlyweds in those days would get married with exclusive Tresoro wedding bands handmade by Armenian jewellers in Montreal.

Vartkess and I would meet again in Tokyo in 1997. This time we were invited to attend the wedding of the daughter of Hedetaka Kato the illustrious founder and chairman of Kashikey, the largest and best-known fam-ily-owned diamond and jewellery distribution company in Japan, also the exclusive distributors of our Tresoro wedding bands. Vartkess had just arrived from Armenia with exciting news and stories of unique opportunities for the jewellery business in Armenia.

Unbeknownst to most of us in the West, Commu-nist Armenia was a major Soviet diamond-cutting and polishing center, employing over 3,000 workers and pro-ducing the highest-quality diamonds in the world. The state-run jewellery manufacturing company employed over 5,000 workers. Recently independent, gripped by war with Azerbaijan and still recovering from the dev-astating earthquake in 1988, Armenia hardly presented

ideal conditions for foreign investors. But by bringing in rough diamonds from Antwerp, trail-blazing, patriotic Armenian businessmen, led by the Knadjians and the Arslanians, who were among the world’s most promi-nent diamond dealers, proved instrumental in keeping the diamond industry alive in Armenia.

Throughout the evening, Vartkess repeated his invitation for me to visit Armenia with promises of in-troductions to key industry and government officials in Yerevan. The pilgrimage to Armenia, to see Ararat with my own eyes, meeting my aunt and cousins and assist-ing our compatriots in the sacred task of rebuilding our nation, were appealing incentives. But around this time I had just been elected president of the Canadian Jewel-lers’ Association, and with all my personal, business and travel commitments, a visit to Armenia in the near fu-ture didn’t seem likely.

The following morning over breakfast in the far-away land of the setting sun, I shared my thoughts with my best friend: could we not contribute toward building

a new and better Armenia by launching an Armenian Jewellers’ Association?

The rest is history.The very first recruited member of the AJA was

Pierre Hajjar, who figured among the world’s major pearl distributors from Japan. My brother and I had been regular visitors to the pearl capital of the world – Kobe, Japan – since 1979. Pierre and his uncle Rimon were instrumental in our foray into the pearl business. Their combined shipments constituted over 50 percent of all “Biwa” freshwater pearl exports from Japan. Pearl-hunt-ing expeditions to Kobe were always exciting, and I very much enjoyed my cousin Pierre and his wife’s hospital-ity when staying over and sharing family and business discussions at their spacious Kobe apartment. Pierre en-thusiastically endorsed the AJA concept, which gave me much hope. He promised to be in Yerevan if and when we launched the AJA.

The role of Armenia’s ambassador to Canada Garnik Nanagoulian can neither be underestimated nor under-

The AJA — 15 Years of History

AJA board members and the former president of republic of Armenia Mr. Robert Kocharyan

Sarkis KitsinianSecond AJA president

Ara BarmakianThird AJA president

Gagik AbrahamyanFourth AJA president

Vartkess KnadjianFifth AJA president

Gagik GevorkianSixth AJA president

Hayg ArslanyanFirst AJA president

The opening ceremony of Mr. Arslanyan's factory

10 AJA 05'11 05'11 AJA 11

About AJAAbout AJA

valued. As a member of Friends of the Embassy in Ot-tawa, I was closely acquainted with the ambassador.

“Creating specialized business Diaspora and home-land links is the most progressive idea ever,” he said. Soon after, Nanagoulian was appointed minister of in-dustry and commerce and he relentlessly worked to mo-bilize the full support of the government of Armenia in favor of making the AJA a reality. Nanagoulian assigned a mutual friend and colleague, Hratch Kaspar, to the task of helping us organize the first Armenian Jewellers’ Convention in Yerevan. A Montrealer educated in Italy, Hratch worked at the Ottawa embassy and played a piv-otal role in launching the AJA.

To give ourselves the necessary credibility, we decided to forward invitations to the Yerevan conven-tion from the Ottawa embassy. Vartkess also contacted an internationally-renowned rough diamond dealer in Antwerp, Haig Arslanian, to ask him to get involved and take the lead. Haig initially refused, but a call from the Embassy by Hratch with promises of lobbying sup-

port to his fledging factory in Armenia secured Haig’s participation, hence the leading and recognizable name was added beside ours on the invitation. There are an estimated 5,000 Armenian-owned jewellery companies in the world, but no data existed to invite the lead-ing jewellers to our planned get-together in Yerevan. Invitations were forwarded to a list composed of 50 haphazardly-gathered names from around the world. We received 22 positive responses. As the date of the convention drew nearer, more and more people backed off from their commitments. I telephoned Minister Nanagoulian and informed him that we were consid-ering canceling the convention due to lack of support and participation. “Even if only a handful of jewellers come, no matter how limited and timid, you must take the first steps,” he told us. Indeed, 11 jewellers from the Diaspora showed up in Yerevan, joined by two who just happened to be in Armenia at the time.

To our surprise, we were overwhelmed by the inter-est shown by Yerevan-based jewellery industry leaders.

More than two dozen participants joined us, most no-tably Gagik Abrahamian, the manager of Armenia’s re-cently-privatized diamond factory, and Emile Grigorian, the manager of Armenia’s recently-privatized jewellery-manufacturing company, who were generous hosts and have since become our eternal colleagues and friends. Gagik Yeghiazarian, director of the Armenian Develop-ment Agency, was our local liaison and organizer. Gagik was and to this day is an enthusiastic AJA supporter. He did a formidable job of organizing the convention, our meetings with then Prime Minister Robert Kocharian, and a dinner reception. We met Catholicos Karekin I and attended mass at Echmiadzin the next day. We were even invited to the independence celebration VIP party hosted by President Levon Ter-Petrosian. Gagik also rallied the media to promote our cause, as a re-sult of which we were featured daily in the country’s newspapers and TV reports. The AJA is a success story. Over a billion dollars of estimated trade has taken place between countless contacts and friendships that were

forged thanks to the AJA. In 2012 we will be celebrat-ing our 15th anniversary and I have never felt better knowing the organization is led by dedicated board members and headed by our energetic president, Gagik Gevorkian. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the newly-elected board members and our new president. I have no doubt Gagik’s dedication to the cause, consummate drive and proven business acu-men will transform the AJA into a truly global brand and networking powerhouse. The city of lights, Soviet Yerevan, was pitch-dark when I first arrived. At the crack of dawn, no words can describe my sentiments as I beheld Ararat from my hotel window for the first time, so close I could almost touch it. When we next meet in Yerevan in September 2011 the city will once more be flooded with lights, but nothing will surpass the glitter of the jewellery displayed by Armenian jew-ellers at the first International Yerevan Jewellery show. Come and touch Ararat and share our excitement cel-ebrating a beautiful experience called Armenia!

Special guests and the AJA leadership with the Presisent of Republic of Armenia Mr. Serzh Sargsyan, 2009

Mr. Gagik Gevorkian and Mr. Pierre Akkelian on the meeting with the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Vartan Oskanyan

12 AJA 05'11 05'11 AJA 13

News News

New AJA PresidentNew Ambitious Plans

Gagik Gevorkyan (Russia)

Arto Artinian(Thailand)

Krikor Yessayan (Lebanon)

Zohrab Keverian(Australia)

Hagob Bagdadlyan (USA, East Coast)

Shant-LevonHaytaian(USA, West Coast)

Varoujan Atamian(Belgium)

Shant-LevonHaytaian(USA, West Coast)

Habib Malo (Canada)

PierreSarkis Hajjar (Japan)

Nareg Arslanyan(Hong Kong)

Harry Kazanjian (Egypt)

Hakob Darbinyan(Armenia)

Berge Abajian (USA, East Coast)

Simon Ghanimian (USA, West Coast)

Hovel Chenhororkian (France)

Emil Grigoryan (Armenia)

All the board members had been earlier informed about the working process of the session. There were 18 can-didates, some of whom were new members, and there was one vacant chair. As a result, the following candi-dacies were nominated:

The AJA board meeting held in Basel on March 26 had the main aim of electing a new board and board chairman.

Vartkess Knadjian, who led the AJA for the past two years with honor, commenced his opening speech by raising a number of financial issues in relation to the AJA projects of the past year. Mr. Knadjian remarked that he had made a donation by investing 10,000 USD and had no expectations of getting the sum refunded. He explained this step in the following way: “The investment was vali-dated four years ago and I am donating it to the AJA to enable it commence the year without debts.”

Then the chairman of the board, Mr. Knadjian, passed on to the main subject on the agenda – the elec-

Elections to the Board of Directors

tion of the new board of directors, following which he was going to pass on his position to the newly-elected chairman of the board.

As the number of candidates corresponded to the number of members of the board as adopted by the char-ter of the organization, there was no need to hold an election, and thus all the nominated candidates were elected. Usually, as the rules of procedure provide, elec-tions to the board are held when the number of candi-dates exceed the number of chairs.

Emil Grigoryan from Armenia nominated the sec-ond candidacy from Armenia – Hakob Darbinyan — as two membership candidacies from Armenia are accept-able according to the rules of procedure.

The new president of the AJA Mr. Gagik Gevorkian and the vice-president of AJA Mr. Berge Abajian

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The board accepted Mr. Hakob Darbinyan’s candi-dacy. And as continuous participation is a key condition for board membership Emil Grigoryan took a pledge that Hakob Darbinyan will always be able to take part in board meetings. Pierre Akkelian from Canada nomi-nated Habib Malo’s candidacy. Mr. Malo is an Armenian by origin who is from Turkey. He is the owner of the best wedding ring manufacturer in Canada with more than 100 employees. He is also vice chair of the Quebec Ring Association.

Vardkess Knajdian nominated Varoujan Atamian from Belgium as a candidate for the board.

Mr. Atamian is a native French Armenian. His family has resided in Belgium for three generations. He speaks Armenian and French. He works for Thomas Far-ber. Ten years ago he actively took part in the process of establishing the AJA in France.

Thus, Mr. Knadjian closed his speech by declar-ing his resignation and passing on his authorities to the newly-elected president, and declared himself a former president. He thanked all the members of the board for their close cooperation and concluded by saying: «These two years have been hard, clouded by the crisis and other problems. Hopefully we are heading forward towards a better future. I am sure the AJA has great ambitions and I wish all the best to everybody. I wish AJA to be able to fulfill its projects.

In particular, I would like to thank Pierre for serv-ing as the AJA vice-chairman. He has not only been the vice-chairman, but he has been with the AJA ever since the very first days of its establishment. Let me express my gratitude on behalf of all of us.»

Pierre Akkelian, already as the vice-chairman of the board, referred to the board members with words of appreciation: “Thank you for believing in the success of the AJA - a dream for all of us. I hope that with the new leadership the future of the AJA is much better and richer. I hope that we will have a chance to see the ful-fillment of our dream. I am extremely happy that Mr. Gagik Gevorkian from Russia has joined us. He asked me to nominate his candidacy as president of the board, which I do with great pleasure. I would be very happy if Mr. Gevorkian took on the supervision of the AJA’s activities, which is not only in the interests of Armenian jewellery, but also in the national interest. From this moment on we consider ourselves members of the board and transfer the chairmanship to the next chairman.”

Shant Haytayan, as one of the authoritative board members, accepted the candidacy of Gagik Gevorkian and recommended that the board members elect Mr. Gevorkian as the chairman who would later choose a vice-chairman. His viewpoint was unanimously sup-ported and followed by congratulations to the newly-elected chairman of the board.

The newly-elected president shared his new ambi-tious plans for the forthcoming year with the AJA mem-bers present at the meeting.

Firstly he mentioned that the AJA website would be completely changed, becoming more interactive, func-tional and interesting for all, and also targeting the most important event to which all AJA members are looking forward — the AJA exhibition in Armenia, which is al-ready arranged to be held on September 21 during the festivities dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the inde-pendence of the Armenian Republic. At the same time, another exhibition is going to be held in Hong Kong. However, Mr. Gevorkian hopes that the board members pay special attention to the exhibition in Armenia.

The exhibition is going to be opened by the presi-dent of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. His Holiness Catholi-cos of All Armenians Garegin II will also bring his pa-triarchal blessings. The event is likely to be of national significance. The site of the exhibition will be finalized in May. At present there are two suggestions. One is the Hotel Marriott and the other the Philharmonic Hall.

The next remarkable project proposed by the new president was to establish a Trust Fund, run by Pierre

Future Plans of the New PresidentAkkelian. This fund would have two goals.

The first goal of the fund is to study the history of Armenian jewellery, and its paths of heritage, which could turn into an enormous academic research project. “The craft of jewellery was not only an art in Armenia, but also a means of survival for Armenians in the most challenging historical periods. Yet it did not lose its val-ue or image as a cultural factor. This is why we would like to study the history of Armenian jewellery within this fund,” Mr. Gevorkian said.

The second one is to fund an educational program. The AJA envisages organizing trainings and other capac-ity-building initiatives in order to improve the qualifica-tions of talented young Armenian jewellers. The most important precondition in jewellery is having a fine taste for design, and with the help of the Trust Fund the AJA plans to select five talented young designers from all over the world and send them to designer classes. Each of the local boards may present one talented young man. In the very near future members will receive the con-ditions of the competition. “Even if just a few of them become world-famous designers, we may consider our mission accomplished,” Mr. Gevorkian concluded.

News News

Left to rightExecutive director of the AJA — Mr. Artak Udumyan

Chairman of AJA Armenia — Mr. Emil Grigoryan Left to rightFormer vice-president of the AJA — Mr. Pierre Akkelian,

Newly-elected president of the AJA — Mr. Gagik GevorkianFormer president of the AJA — Mr. Vartkess Knadjian

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NewsNews

The AJA Creates a Trust Fund

The AJA is entering into a very exciting period of growth and development. At the board meeting in Basel it was decided to create an AJA foundation, a so-called Trust Fund – in

order to be able to promote the many AJA development programs. The idea was developed and proposed by Pierre Akkelian. AJA Magazine editor Gayane Manukyan interviewed the co-founder of the AJA. The following are excerpts from the interview.

What is the objective of the AJA Foundation?As jewellery enthusiasts, our goal for the Foundation

is to conduct research regarding the astounding heritage of jewellery-making and present it to members of the jew-ellery industry and the general public around the world. More specifically, we want to look at individual and group contributions to the art of jewellery-making from an Ar-menian perspective. The Foundation was also established to pass on age-old knowledge and help create the next gen-eration of world-renowned Armenian jewellers!

The heritage of jewellery-making of Armenians probably goes back to Noah or Haig — as far back as we can go. How far back in history does one have to go to find Armenian jewellers?

To the cradle of civilization!Contrary to the popular belief that civilization

began in ancient Egypt or Greece, the people who lived between the two rivers of Mesopotamia such as the Armenians, Assyrians, Sumerians and Baby-lonians, are known for being the first to settle and cultivate the land year round, invent the wheel and invent script writing to register bartered trade. As for facts pertaining to our industry, the first known mines were found in Armenia!

For close to 10,000 years the people of Mount Ara-rat have mined copper, and as a result the agricultural revolution, irrigation and urbanization were born, fol-lowed by metallurgical and smelting advances that pro-duced armaments and jewellery.

The Foundation will finance research to uncov-

er this rich history that has not yet been fully docu-mented. We will explore the extraordinary Armenian jewellery heritage throughout the ages to highlight landmark achievements and Armenia’s contribution to the history of the global jewellery trade from the Bronze Age to the present.

Where did the idea for the Armenian Jewellers’ Founda-tion come from?

In my 14 years of active involvement since the AJA was launched, information about Armenian jewel-lery in global history seemed to be a recurring subject. I would often meet people who would tell me interesting facts that placed Armenian jewellers at the forefront of the industry throughout the ages. For example, Arme-nians were the first to introduce diamonds to the Euro-peans. The most luxurious European throne imbedded with precious jewels and metals belonged to the tsar of Russia, compliments of New-Julfa (Iran) Armenians who had exclusive trading privileges with the empire. The great majority of jewels Ottoman Sultans present-

ed to European and other royalty, diplomats and men of influence were made by Armenian artisans! More recently, the invention of the invisible setting of gem-stones is attributed to a French Armenian working for one of the luxury brands.

Exploring and scientifically documenting the aston-ishing legacy of Armenian jewellers will undoubtedly unveil an interesting history and create national pride in our heritage. Most of the world knows little about Armenians and even less about our contribution to the advancement of the arts and culture of the world. The story has to be told for posterity, so launching the Foun-dation was an easy conclusion.

How will the project be financed?With the support and investment of patrons who

believe in the cause.The Foundation’s first fundraising effort has

been made possible thanks to the generous support of Mr. Vartan Sirmakes, the CEO of world-renowned

Diamond troneThe shape of the so-called ‘diamond

armchair’ of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the most elaborate of the royal thrones in the Armory collection, is reminiscent of the throne of Tsar Mikhail, his father. The throne was made by Persian craftsmen in 1659 and gifted to the tsar by merchants Ichto Modov-letov and Zakharia Saradarov from the Arme-nian Trading Company in 1660. The throne is made of sandalwood faced with gold and silver plates with foliate ornamentation. Its underside is decorated with a bold carved pattern depicting a procession of elephants and drivers on their backs. The back of the throne is covered with black velvet and em-broidered images of two genies supporting a crown over an inscription glorifying the tsar and his power.

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Franck Muller Watches. Sirmakes, working with Kn-adjian, offered to manufacture special limited-edition watches celebrating the 38 letters of the Armenian alphabet. These watches will be given as a memento to the Foundation’s patrons, whose contributions will provide start-up funds for the project. Other fundrais-ing projects will follow suit and we encourage anyone with good ideas to contact us.

How will the Foundation be managed?Even though we are an integral part of the AJA, for

legal, financial and transparency reasons the Foundation will have a separate charter and board of trustees. I am the interim chair of the Foundation and co-founder Vart-kess Knadjian is the vice-chair. We have solicited and have the support of esteemed individuals from around the globe, and together we will form a board of trustees and set guidelines to oversee the management and the team of scholars and researchers who will explore and document our rich history.

What lies in store for the future?There is no future without a past, and there is no

guarantee for a prosperous future unless we invest in our youth today! Parallel to our research into the past we are looking into ways to facilitate the next generation of internationally-renowned Armenian jewellery design-ers, gemologists and jewellery crafters.

I encourage you to visit the AJA Foundation www.AJAfoundation.org or www.AJAinternational.com web-sites for more information on available scholarships to world-renowned European design schools made possible thanks to a generous donation by the AJA president and his wife Gagik and Madine Gevorkian.

To find out more about this exciting project, we urge everyone to visit our website, and, more importantly, we urge you to make a difference by getting involved and making the AJA Foundation your foundation!

- Mr. Akkelian, we wish you good luck in your en-deavors.

- Thank you.

A once in a lifetime opportunity for you to acquire this limited edition collectible Franck Muller watch!

To become the proud owner of one of these unique watches celebrating the Arme-nian Alphabet., please contact us by visiting www.ajafoundation.org

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NewsNews

A Message from AJA France

PrintOr is the major watch and jewellery show in France. For the last 19 years, with 600 brands and 12,000 m2 of exhibition space, PrintOr has brought together a unique exhibition of

jewellery and watches. This year PrintOr once again proved to be the undisputed leader in the industry. During the show PrintOr announces awards for watches and jewellery, chosen by a jury of professionals and well-known personalities. As prerequisites, the product had to meet the three criteria outlined by PrintOr.

It is interesting to note that the two awards went to:-The best jewellery award to Eric Jaghaspanian from

Herzo,-The best watch award to Mr. Hovel Chenorhokian

from Moog.Moog was among other nominees including Stark

and Seiko. The jury overwhelmingly chose Moog’s ‘Time To Change’ interchangeable straps watch concept as the winner of the award.

AJA Russia Elects New Chairman

Being very familiar with Kotanchyan, the Rus-sian wing of AJA was quite comfortable with his can-didacy and unanimously elected him as chairman of the board of AJA Russia.

A highly motivated and energetic person, Ruben Kotanchyan was born in the ancient Armenian city of Gandzak in 1949. An electrical engineer by educa-tion, he accidentally fell in love with jewellery during his first visit to the Yerevan Jewellery Factory in the late 1980s as a member of an expert Public Inspec-tion of Quality of Export Goods team conducting an audit. From that moment on he pursued a career in the jewellery industry. In 1991 he became the head of the State Inspection and Control Office of Armenia. From 1995 to 2006 he worked in Moscow as branch manager of the State Central Control and Supervision Inspectorate of Moscow. In 2007 he created his own brand — BRIZOL.

Mr. Ruben Kotanchyan

Award Trophy, designed by jeweller Lyon Philippe Tournaire

Mr. Hovel Chenorhokian

On April 22 the board of AJA Russia elected a new president. As the former president of the Russian board and as the newly-elected president of the

AJA Gagik Gevorkian put forward the candidacy of Ruben Kotanchyan for the presidency of AJA Russia. It was a warm and long-awaited meeting and AJA Russia members and guests enjoyed the get-together discussing the elections and sharing ideas and information over refreshments.

The meeting was opened by Gagik Gevorkian, who familiarized the participants with all the details of the international board meeting which took place on March 26 in the Swiss town of Basel, and presented the new plans and projects that AJA is going to imple-ment over the next two years.

Following some introductory words, Mr. Gev-orkian nominated Ruben Kotanchyan as a candidate for the chairmanship of AJA Russia, basing his choice on Mr. Kotanchyan’s excellent leadership and busi-ness qualities.

“When the question arose of whom we should nominate for the presidency of the Russian regional board of the AJA, I organized lots of consultations, above all with the members of the Russian board of the AJA, and came to the conclusion that it must be a person who is not only very knowledgeable about the local jewellery market, but also familiar with rep-resentatives of the Armenian jewellery industry in Russia, and closely communicates with them. Ruben has worked in the jewellery industry in Russia for more than 10 years and knows all the Armenians in the industry. And, of course, as a person he is a very modest, charming and very intelligent man. Based on these merchants, I have decided to offer his candida-ture, and I hope and believe he will justify the hopes of AJA Russia and AJA International as well.”

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Event

This year’s BASELWORLD, the World Watch and Jewellery Show held in Basel, a beautiful Swiss town close to the borders with France and Germany, went down in history as a spectacular highlight. The outstanding event, celebrating luxury and elegance, closed its doors after eight highly successful days. The exhibitors were particularly satisfied, with 103,200 visitors (+2.5% / 2010) and excellent sales. The innovations and trends presented underlined BASELWORLD’s key global position as the leading show for the watch and jewellery industry. At the 39th BASELWORLD Watch and Jewellery Show, a total of 1,892 watch and jewellery producers and representatives of the supplier industry, from no fewer than 45 nations, showcased their exclusive world innovations and sophisticated collections in Basel for eight days.It was particularly delightful and a great honor for AJA to have some brands of its members or brands of other native Armenians decorate the elegant halls of the Baselworld show. Among the Armenian expositions were such well- known brands of AJA members as Yessayan (Lebanon), Waskol (Paris), Belpearl (Japan), Tellus (Paris), Moog (Paris), GS (Lebanon), etc. During the show AJA Magazine had interviews with AJA members Cyril Waskol and Hovel Chenhorokian from Paris, Kevork Yessayan and George Sabounjian from Lebanon, Pierre Hajar from Japan, and others. They shared their impressions and expectations from the BASELWORLD show with us.

BASELWORLD

Event

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The sun shone down from a cloudless Basel sky for the opening of the 39th BASELWORLD 2011. Without doubt the AJA board members and the exhibitors saw the wonderful spring weather as

a positive sign for a successful show, and of course, for the elections of the AJA board of directors that took place in the Hotel Europe (Basel) on March 26. Together with the AJA’s exhibitors we spent several beautiful working days in Switzerland. More than 100,000 jewellery industry professionals from all over the world arrived in Basel, as every year, to show their innovations, astounding gems and jewellery, and, of course, have them compared with the products of other companies and designers. Leaving figures and statistics aside, one should acknowledge that the Swiss watch industry is in rude health. It was the right place for a marketing strategy not only for the AJA members, but for all the representatives of the jewellery and watch industry.

About 3,000 journalists came to Switzerland from March 24 to 31 to be the first to report about the latest trends, new designs and revolutionary technological in-novations. According to announcements from key watch-making brands, we should expect a lot of breakthroughs. This year’s exhibiting companies, which presented the

newest innovations and trends in the watch, jewellery and precious stone industries, are highly pleased with the outstanding sales they achieved at Baselworld 2011. After several years of recession caused by the global eco-nomic crisis, watchmakers announced a significant re-covery, presenting the very best we could expect from the world’s top brands. A few breakthroughs marked this year’s show in Basel, starting with Tag Heuer’s revolu-tionary concept – the Mikrotimer Flying 1000 Chrono-graph, the world’s first mechanical wrist chronograph, which counts and shows 1/1,000th of a second.

It was particularly delightful and a great honor for AJA to have some brands of its members or brands of other native Armenians decorate the elegant halls of the Baselworld show. Among the Armenian exposi-tions were such well-known brands of AJA members as Yessayan (Lebanon), Waskol (Paris), Belpearl (Ja-pan), Tellus (Paris), Moog (Paris), GS (Lebanon), etc. During the show AJA Magazine had interviews with AJA members Cyril Waskol and Hovel Chenhorokian from Paris, Kevork Yessayan and George Sabounjian from Lebanon, Pierre Hajar from Japan, and others. They shared their impressions and expectations from the BASELWORLD show with us.

Event Event

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EventEvent

Waskol, Paris “A Heart with Few Words, But a Lot of Love”, by

Cyril WaskolIt is already 20 years since Waskol was introduced

at the Baselworld show. Cyril Waskol, the president of the company, is very proud to be Armenian and to rep-resent the jewellery art as an Armenian jeweller here, at the Baselworld show. They are third-generation jewel-lers, and, as he says, they try to keep all the traditions they inherited from their Armenian jewellery roots.

“When you keep the soil of Armenia or Kharabakh in your hands, you can always find some artworks made of stone. We do the same, we have just changed the kind of stones, we work with diamonds, rubies and sapphires. I believe that all Armenians have art in their blood, no matter whether it is jewellery or sculpture, or anything else. And that is why we have several Armenian booths here, at one of the biggest jewellery shows in the world. And we are proud of this fact. All Armenians from all over the world - from Russia, France, the USA, Australia and other parts of the planet - have the same character - the character of the country they come from. The AJA gives us the opportunity to be in touch with each other. It gives the feeling that we all are together and from one

family.” Mr. Waskol showed us one of his favorite pieces of jewellery, that he made himself. It is a heart full of sapphires and with a poem written by him engraved on the back. The poem is about love, and it says: “…a heart with a few words, but a lot of love.”

Yessayan Jewellery, LebanonFancy Yellow Marvel of the East, by Krikor Yes-

sayan Among the millions of gems we found eastern and

really mysterious miracles at the booth of Yessayan Jew-ellery. Yessayan is one of the famous Armenian jewel-lery houses in Lebanon. We had a short interview with the president of the company, Krikor Yessayan.

“We are a very old manufacturing company from Lebanon. And we have lot of Armenians working in this field in Lebanon. The market now is not very dynamic because of the religious conflicts in our region, but was all understand that true art must be far from politics and religious conflicts. We try to stand strongly on our posi-tion. We are mostly popular for our expensive and gor-geous sets. We have jewels specially made for sheikhs and their princesses. Here at the Basel show we are introduc-ing some of them. We do everything to satisfy the needs

of the supplier. My favorite item is the ring with the big-gest fancy yellow diamond I have ever worked with. The lady who buys this will enjoy wearing it. And we, as the creators of this marvel, will be sad to part with it.”

Moog and Tellus, FranceFrench Elegance, by Hovel ChenorhokianHovel Chenorhokian has been in the watch in-

dustry since the 1930s. His father and grandfather were in the watch industry, and now he is continu-ing their mission.

“Before the 1970s watches were something just for telling the time. After the 1970s, watches became a fashionable part of our wardrobes. I create fashionable watches, but I never check the time. Life is too short to check the time. I have designed two watches. One for a Swiss company – the Tellus collection with very sophisticated technology. Tellus is a concept watch. An-other watch is the French Moog. This year Moog won the “Best Watch Design 2011” award at the Printor jew-ellery show in France. I have the patent for both these watches for their technical innovations and no one can repeat them. Ideas for new designs visit me often and I think it is because I am Armenian by origin and my

blood gives me new ideas. I think I was born to design.”

Belpearl, JapanThe Real Pearl of the Baselworld Show, by Pierre HajjarA real pearl of Baselworld for us was the booth of

Pierre Hajjar from Japan — Belpearl.“The pearl market is currently experiencing not

the best times, but we remain faithful to the traditional school of cultivating natural pearls, despite the fact that many in this situation are looking for different ways to circumvent the laws of nature. Nature can’t be deceived, as it leads to destruction. We are happy to be part of the big Armenian family of jewellers and to introduce here at the show what we – Armenians — are made of and what we can surprise the audience with.”

The AJA members presenting at the exposition found this year’s event to be one of the best of all time. They can look optimistically into the future, as they represented Armenian jewellery at this year’s show at a very high level. They promised to do their best to ensure excellent representations at top-level events of this kind, and especially during Baselworld, since this show will remain the most important and prestigious one for the international watch and jewellery industry.

30 AJA 05'11 05'11 AJA 31

thoughts about the interesting facts he had learned about Armenian jewellers.

Gaetano Cavalieri: “I know a lot about the Ar-menian heritage not only in jewellery, but also about many other things. The history of Armenia is very well known to me. I have visited the Armenian church in Jerusalem and was surprised to learn that the Arme-nian church is one of the three Christian churches in Jerusalem with jurisdictions over the holiest Christian sites. I am very close to the Armenian people through my Armenian friends from all over the world — from Canada to Russia, from California to Israel. They all are my good friends. With regard to Armenian jew-ellers, I would say that Armenian jewellers are open and genuine. They are able to adapt themselves to the environment where they are. It doesn’t make any dif-ference which latitude or longitude they are on, they adapt themselves and they are capable of establishing and doing business with a lot of people, even when there are obstacles. This is very characteristic of the majority of Armenian jewellers I know. I know they are very capable of doing business and reaching key positions in several fields. I also admire several traits of the Armenian character.”

15th annual dinner of AJA in Basel Shant Haytayan: «Today is one of those days when dreams come true. I am very excited that the AJA has achieved its goals so far. It’s been 15 years, and this year we are celebrating our 15th anniversary for the board of the AJA, and I am so happy and moved that we have a new election. It went so smoothly and so successfully. I am confident that the new board with the leadership of Gagik Gevorkian is going to do its best to bring pride and a great reputation to this or-ganization, so that we can all benefit from the AJA’s growing power and knowledge. I think the AJA’s duty is to bolster the prosperity of Armenia, and bring bal-ance into the jewellery industry in Armenia, as well as the entire world. And I believe that this organiza-tion is going to be very dynamic and fruitful to bring nothing but joy and pride to the family of Armenian jewellers. I also believe it will be more successful in-ternationally. And finally, I firmly believe that it will do a lot of good things for the people of Armenia, and for the families of jewellers from all over the world. I wish the AJA success and all the best.»

For former President Vartkess Knadjian who was going to take up the leadership of the AJA was very im-portant, so we very much wanted to hear his opinion.

Vartkess Knadjian: “I am absolutely delighted and satisfied with the results of today’s elections. I think that the AJA and all of us today have gained by acquiring a new vigorous president, who came to us only six years ago. However, he came to us full of visions about the future of the AJA, visions on uniting Armenian jewellers and working together to create an association for the common benefit of all the mem-bers. This is why I am truly happy for the AJA today. I think that once the structure of the AJA is finalized

and a platform is created where all the members can interact through the organization, the AJA will be-come even stronger under the next leadership and have a firm foundation to head for the future.”

At the annual meeting there were a lot of visitors from all over the world. Among them was Gaetano Cavalieri, the president of CIBJO (the world jewellery confederation). He answered AJA Magazine’s ques-tions with pleasure and shared his impressions and

Event Event

The 15th Annual General Meet-ing of the Armenian Jewellers’ As-sociation was held in Basel, Switzer-land on Sunday, March 26, 2011. The meeting was attended by over 100 members from all over the world. The main item on the agenda was the election of a new central board. There were honored guests from all over the world, such as Gaetano Cavalieri, the president of the world jewellery confederation, world-famous jewel-lery industry representatives, and, of course, AJA board members. It was a pleasant event and everybody was delighted to have an opportunity to speak about the aims of AJA Interna-tional. During the wonderful evening AJA Magazine had interviews with the board members and honorable guests, who shared their impressions about the elections and their views on the AJA’s future. Shant Haytayan kindly shared his thoughts with us.

Mr. Shant-Levon HaytayanUSA, West Coast

The newly-elected leadership of the AJAand Mr. Setrak Tokatzian — a special guest from Italy

Special guest of the annual meeting — the presidentof CIBJO (The world jewellery confederation) —

Mr Gaetano Cavalieri

Mr. Vartkess Knadjian

The jewel of the spring

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Jewel of the spring

32 AJA 05'11

- Vaagn, as far as I know, any religious object is usu-ally full of symbols that bear a very important conceptu-al burden. Did someone help you understand this theme when you were preparing the design?

- Of course. The Patriarchal Exarch in Russia Episcop Ezras told me a lot about what the Catholicos’s crozier should be like, what has to be on it, what symbols and what they mean. For example, he said that a snake or a dragon is an essential element. This is an ancient sym-bol known not only in Armenia, but everywhere in the world. A snake (actually a dragon is now more common) is present on these croziers as a reminder that the pontiff must be wise. The following words are in the New Testa-ment: “Be then as wise as snakes, and as gentle as doves.”

The eyes of the dragons on this crozier are made of rubies. The crozier is often associated with miracles – and in Biblical stories the crozier has a special power concen-trated in it, so we decided that the dragons had to have eyes, and that there should be tenacity in their gaze.

- Why are the dragons’ necks decorated with bands made of different stones?

- We put the stones of one of the planets around the head of each dragon. Every planet has a particular stone: pearl, ruby, emerald, diamond, blue sapphire, coral or yellow sapphire. Thus the dragons symbolize more than just earthly wisdom – it’s as if the dragons are talking to the planets.

- The dragons’ heads are depicted very realistically, the hand of the sculptor can be felt in this work.

- Absolutely, the 3D models were done by my brother Ervand Mkrtchian, he is a sculptor. It was he who made the emblem of the Armenian church and the double-headed eagle – the symbol of the Catholicos – for this crozier.

- There is an unusual design on the upper element of the crozier. What does this complex composition depict?

- Flames are bursting from the jaws of the big-gest dragon. The upper dragons also have wings and an enamel design on their bodies that looks like scales. Over the serpents there is a gold cross covered in enam-el and gold trim. We borrowed the pattern from the ancient Armenian books that are preserved at Echmi-adzin, and mainly used traditional church ornaments. At the center of the cross there is a ruby and diamonds, and on all the ends of the cross on the sides there are sapphires in cup-like sockets.

- Why does the cross stand on an amethyst ball?

- Encrusting the crozier with amethyst is, in essence, canonical. Amethyst is the stone of the high priests, it symbolizes open-heartedness, sincerity, inner harmony, purity and humility.

- The armenian letters Գ(G) and Բ(B) are on the crozier. What is their significance?

- Those are the initials of the Catholicos to whom the crozier belongs: Garegin (Գարեգին) and Բ(B) – the sec-ond letter of the alphabet, which is traditionally put in-stead of the number 2. Between the letters three amethyst stripes are visible: they symbolize the Holy Trinity.

- What can you say about the part of the crozier that he holds?

- On the handle there is an inscription and circles that are the Armenian version of the swastika, a symbol-ic depiction of light. In the sockets that are made of gold lattice there is ruby enamel with diamonds: the elements were deliberately raised so his hand doesn’t slip. There are more than 100 details in it.

Lower down the proportions of the pattern on the lattice are somewhat different, and under it there is a shaft. We used Indonesian rosewood – we carefully turned it and imbued it with special oils so that the color of the wood doesn’t change due to humidity or age. The violet wood goes with amethyst harmoniously.

Ultimately, we all worked on the creation of this cro-zier with enormous interest. The result also gives us plea-sure: when something really turns out well, any craftsman feels satisfaction with his work, and that’s a great joy. And I’m happy that the Catholicos liked the crozier.

Vaagn Mkrtchian

Author of the Catholicos’s crozier

A jeweller and designer, and the top craftsman working with enamel at Estet Jewellery House,

Vaagn Mkrtchian combines styles

and works with abstract images,

trying not to produce an object, but to express

emotion. He led the group of jewellers who worked on the creation

of a crozier for Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, and he told us why the crozier turned out the way it did.

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The study of crafts and their development plays a great role in the history of the material culture of any nation.

In the applied arts of the Armenian people the art of jewellery (gold and silver) has a significant place of its own, the sources of which go back to the ancient periods of our history. The Arme-nian highlands were rich in metal, and the natives were familiar with it since the beginning of the second millennium B.C. Moreover, they even knew how to work up and use gold and silver.

Golden roots Golden roots

5000-Year-Old

Heritage

jewelleryArmenian

In the 1st century B.C. Strabo mentions that Kharkhdic was especially rich in iron and silver and that the people living in the mountains there were not only engaged in agriculture, but were

able to exploit mines as well.Procopius of Caesaria in his ‘Persian Wars’ (6th cen-

tury A.D.) mentions the names of two fortresses: ‘Paran-dius’ and ‘Bolon’, which had gold mines in their sur-roundings exploited by an Armenian supervisor whose name was Simon.

Metal-working and the existence of gold and silver mines were just the material basis on which the art of jewellery in Armenia began to develop.

It is a well-known fact that Armenia had had mul-tiple commercial ties with neighboring and more distant

countries ever since ancient times and it used to import expensive goods of different types. But the rich of Ar-menia would order and buy ornaments, decorations and household articles mainly from their native goldsmiths .

Ancient historians give rich information on gold and silver ornamentations, guns, different types of ves-sels (jars, basins, cups etc.), containers, book frames and covers. Although we have a comparatively small amount of relics dating back to the ancient period and Middle Ages, the ornaments and decorations for Armenian cos-tumes of later periods are worthy of attention, the best specimens of which are kept in the Armenian State Mu-seum of History (ASMH), and in the State Ethnographic Museum of Armenia (SEM).

Armenia was one of the main centers of the craft

of jewellery, with a large number of goldsmith work-shops: the art of jewellery was so highly developed there that goldsmiths in different cities even special-ized in particular branches.

All this means that Armenia was a leading center of metalwork and gold wares in the ancient civiliza-tion of the Middle East. Along with the material basis, the Armenian masters attributed an inner mystery to precious metals and stones, seeing in them the symbol of the heavens, the gods and higher spiritual values. If you ever visit any of the Armenian historical museums, you can find thousands of unique discoveries there which were excavated from historical monuments in Armenia, really sumptuous examples of Armenian metalwork and jewellery from the 3rd millennium B.C.

to our days: miniature sculptures, ritual and worship objects, symbols of power, arms, seals, ornaments and items of gold-thread embroidery. Almost all issues of gold, silver and copper coins circulating in historical Armenia from the 5th century B.C. to the 11th cen-tury A.D.: coins of the Armenian Arsacid dynasty (Ti-granes the Great, Artavazdes II), also Greek, Hellenis-tic, Roman, Byzantine and other coins. Gold and silver were widely used in the Armenian highland beginning from the Copper and Stone Age (Eneolithic-V-VI mil. B.C.). We can find many facts testifying to the exis-tence of rich metal ores on the territory of Armenia in the works of Roman and Greek historians. As proof of this we can also note the archaeological excavation dis-coveries that were made on the Armenian highlands.

Tigran the Great with four Kings surrounding him

Procopius of Caesaria, «Persian Wars»

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Beginning from the Bronze Age (IV-II mil. B.C.), gold and silver began to be widely used among the people. Gold-smith and silversmith jewellery became the most popular branches of practical decorative art. Various samples of gold and silver jewellery, cups, plates and other findings are distinguished by their artistic compo-sitions and styles. The Armenian crafts of making jewel-lery out of gold and silver reached quite a high level of mastery in the Middle Ages. Many jewellers practiced in such Armenian cities as Dvin, Ani, Van, Karin, Artsn, etc., where they also founded their own trade unions. As a consequence of the division of labor in the trade unions, jewellery-making split to create more specialized branches. As a result, silver-making became a separate craft. However, despite this, many craftsmen continued

to work equally with both silver and gold at the same time. The ancient Armenian traditions in jewellery-making continued to be used in subsequent centuries and have eventually reached our days.

In terms of technical and decorative viewpoints and features, we can particularly note a few outstanding schools in Armenian jewellery-making: the schools of Van-Vaspurakan, Karin, Poqr Hayq, Cilicia, Parskahayq, Suniq-Artsakh and Yerevan. Armenian jewellery-makers were also quite popular in the Armenian communities of Constantinople, Tbilisi, Crimea, Poland, Astrakhan, New Jugha and others. Each school of jewellery-making was specialized and skilled at making certain items using par-ticular jewellery-making techniques. For example, the Karno school was popular for using grumous and gauze

ornaments in making decorative and practical objects such as napkin-holders, frontlets, necklaces, belts, handles for poniards, silver parts for rifles, etc. The Van-Vaspurakan school was popular for making enameled belts and adorn-ments, and the Suniq-Artsakh school was known for its decorative nielloed belts and adornments.

Armenian jewellery-makers used more than 15 techniques and technological methods in their work: molding in forms and models in wax or clay, ornamen-tation, forging and molding, beating out ornaments, preparing tin rolls, plaiting with silver and gold threads, engraving, trimming, gilding and silver-plating, niello, enameling, making alloys of gold or silver, and others.

Simultaneously with the gold-making crafts, other related crafts flourished as well; one of the most popular

was gem-working. The valuable decorative and artistic works of Armenian gem-workers were quite popular and they decorated the adornments and clothes of many no-bles of the East and the West. The Armenian gem-makers of India achieved great success working with semi-pre-cious and fake stones. In the 17th-19th centuries one of every two items of imitation jewelry and fake stones sold in Europe was the work of Armenian gem-makers. The best example of the art of Armenian gem-making is the diamond crown presented to Russian Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich. Precious items of Armenian jewellery-making are now kept in various museums of the world and in many private collections (the British Museum, the Louvre, the Hermitage and others). We will tell you the stories of these pieces every quarter in our magazine.

Medallion with a portrait of the Holy Virgin. An engraved image of a woman dressed luxuriously is portrayed on a thin plate of gold. Her hair is trimmed with leaves of grape. C II-I

B.C. village of Hatsarat, Sevan Basin, gold, weight: 7.40 g.

Cup made of gold slab by the techniques of pressing and mintage. On the body of the cup there is a row of three pairs of lions standing face to face. The depictions of the animals

were made by the method of stamping and mintage. CC XVII-XVI B. C. Vanadzor (Kirovakan) gold.


The famous Lake Sevan, Armenia

Modern view of the oldest capital of Armenia — Dvin

View of the destroyed capital of Armenia — Ani

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In every Armenian fam-ily, whether conservative or liberal, there is a compulsory tradition of lavishing gifts of gemstones and pre-cious metal upon grown siblings. The former are identified by a succinct and sonorous word – ‘zard’ (զարդ). The latter may have family signifi-cance, or be modern ones, specially ordered or bought. This tradition has two foundations. Firstly, Armenians are very practical, understanding that jewels only increase in value over time. Secondly, the Armenian jewellery school is one of the oldest in the world and its craftsmen have created real masterpieces since the dawn of time. The inhabitants of the Armenian highlands used silver back in the second millennium B.C. The unique Armenian art of jewelry emerged by virtue of the valuable combination of fine technique and the endless imagination of the crafts-men. The arts of gold and silver cast-ing, engraving, mintage, patterning, gemstone incrustation, burnishing and framing were demonstrated in astounding pieces of décor, religious and everyday items. Armenians’ se-rious approach to jewellery is also demonstrated by the fact that almost from the period when the Armenian alphabet was invented bookbinding out of gold and silver was done to preserve and decorate texts.

Inga&Anoush, singers.The photosession by Fresh-Art

ZARDArmenian ornaments


In the daily life of the Armenian population there had always been silver and gilded belts, buckles, ribbons, headpieces, collars, rings, and coffee and tea sets. Today some of them can be seen at the Armenian State Museum of History (in Yerevan), the Ethnographic Museum (in Sardarapat), and the Museum of Echmiadzin Cathedral.

Historical circumstances compelled Armenian jewellers to work overseas too, especially in the Cau-casus and the towns of the Mediterranean coast, which is why pieces of work by Armenian craftsmen may be found in museum exhibitions and private collections in many European countries, especially Poland and Ukraine. In the 15th century, pieces by Armenian jew-ellers were valued highly in Lvov. They created refined jewellery out of precious metals and gemstones such as turquoise, sapphire, jacinth, almandine, and olivine. Armenian jewelers were especially famous for their unique ability to decorate weapons with gemstones. Among the Armenian jewellers working in Lvov was an Armenian craftsman by the name of Tatsik.

On just one of the swords made by Tatsik 451 gem-stones of various sizes and shape were incrusted. The ability of Armenian jewellers to decorate weapons with a deep incrustation of gold, still unknown in Europe, was highly valued. The mastering of this technique had helped the Armenian Pedros Zakharevich become the palace jeweller of King Jan III Sobieski of Poland.

In Soviet times Armenia was also well known as a major center of jewellery. One of the leading enterprises of the Soviet Union engaged in the gemstone faceting of rough diamonds was in Armenia. There were numerous jewellery factories too. The traditions are preserved to this day, and Armenian craftsmen continue to create a wide variety of items of precious metals and gemstones. The works of many jewellers have links to the traditions of craftsmen from Mush, Bitlis and Van, for example, in Van an original technique of working with enamel was developed. The works of contemporary jewellers are based on the ancient school of jewellery of those years, and that is why their work is so highly valued.

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In the center of the pectoral made out of various beads is an oval pendant made of sardonyx with brownish-lacteous veins

(7 х 5 cm), on the right and left of which there are biconical beads made of sardion. They are followed by gold and sardion beads of

various configurations. The pectoral is finished on both edges with four rows of small biconical beads made of thin gold plate.

Among the components of the jewel, significant are two big hollow cylindrical beads made from a thin plate of gold minted

in sequenced rows of plaited and semi-spherical knobs.The two bead dividers are unique: these are squares with

a two-layer structure with three strips on the surfaces, fringed with twisted gold thread. The strips are decorated with rows of “running spirals” made of fine gold wires. The spiral coils are not

laid down but strung up, forming unique pyramided compositions with a core made of carnelian stones deeply inserted in square

eye-pits. On the back of the minted dividers there are 12 straws in four rows, through which the bead threads pass, composing

a section of the pectoral.CC XXII-XXI B.C. Karashamb, gold, agate, carnelian stone.

One of the cylindrical beads on the thread is drawn on an insert out of

gemstone (agate of the night).CC XV-XIV B.C. Lchashen, gold.

C VII B.C. Yerevan, Karmir Blur, gold.

A miniature figurine of a frogC XV B. C. Lchashen, gold.

Spherical, tubular finial of a crosier or a dagger in the form of three twisted snake-dragons. C I B. C.

Sisian, gold, metal.

A pectoral in the form of a moon-boat.CC VI-V B. C. Armavir, gold.

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Armenian signaturesArmenian signatures

Armenian Signatures in Watchland

The Franck Muller Group was founded in 1991 by Vartan Sirmakes and the legendary watchmaker Franck Muller, and in less than 15 years it became one of the most significant

Haute Horlogerie companies in the world. Its marvelous headquarters, named Watchland, located in the small village of Genthod just a few kilometers from Geneva, has spectacular views of Lake Leman and Mont Blanc.

Key figures: 43,000 Franck Muller watches pro-duced every year;

9 brands, 450 employees,7 production sites primarily placed in the canton of

Geneva and in the Jura and44 boutiques in the world.It would be too modest to call it just a signature,

because it is rather a deeper imprint on the development of the watch industry than it might seem at first sight.

AJA’s editor-in-chief, Gayane Manukyan, had an ex-clusive interview with Mr. Sirmakes at Watchland head-quarters, which we present to you with great pleasure.

While we were walking in the factory of Frank Muller, watching how graciously and passionately the professionals were doing their job, I fell in love with the process. And I couldn’t help asking Mr. Sirmakes: “Mr. Sirmakes, when did you fall in love with the watch industry?”

Vartan Sirmakes: When you live here, in Switzer-land, especially in the French-speaking part, there are two things surrounding you - watches and banking. I was 17 years old when I moved to Switzerland and went inside this world of watchmaking and banking. If I lived in Milan, maybe I would make clothes or shoes (laugh-ing). When I was young, I remember that in our fam-ily everyone was always talking about jewellery, art and painting. It was part of my life. My father made watches; my uncle was a famous jeweller. I was born inside this environment, and maybe this is the main reason why I chose this profession.

You are a great Armenian patriot, but you never like to talk about it, why?

Vartan Sirmakes: I am Armenian, I was born in Is-tanbul and now I live in Geneva. However, I try to visit and help Armenia as often as possible, as Armenia is my motherland.

As watchmaking is a part of jewellery-making and you are a prominent watchmaker of Armenian origin, it is very important for us to inquire about your expectations from the Armenian Jewellers’ Association. As you know, the AJA has elected a new board of directors and a new president here - on Swiss land. What expectations do you have from the new leadership?

Vartan Sirmakes: I am a little bit far from the art of jewellery, and only watches are my passion. Anyway, I hope that the new team elected on March will try to do its best to unify Armenian jewellers and watchmakers who are spread worldwide .

The story of Frank Muller is a story about one brand growing into seven brands. Everyone can recognize the watches made by Frank Muller in the huge market of differ-ent watch brands because oftheir unique design. You passed through the traditional school of watchmaking, but you also introduced a new art of watchmaking to the world. Wasn’t it hard to combine innovation with tradition, and how did you manage to achieve this?

Vartan Sirmakes: The first brand after Franck Muller was Pierre Kunz, and he was a watchmak-er at Watchland. I thought I had to give the tal-ented watchmakers a chance to make their own brands and to develop. If you look at the history of watchmaking, that is really how brands start.

If you have never been to Watchland, be sure to visit it, and then you will touch the miracle. In this quiet, peace-ful setting unique, exclusive and complicated, incredible watches are born, with a sophisticated design, that have won the hearts of millions.

The man behind the Franck Muller Group, Ar-menian-born Vartan Sirmakes, has created a unique formula for building a multi-brand house. The opera-tion now has 14 production sites throughout Switzer-land for its seven brands. The majority are in Geneva and employ more than 800 people. The Franck Muller brand alone has more than 50 patents registered. Vartan Sirmakes started making cases and diamond settings, cases for Cartier before Richmond and all the cases for Daniel Roth. He met Franck Muller, who was a watchmaker, and together they started the company and the brand, Franck Muller, in 1991.

The Father of “Tick-Tacks”

Vartan Sirmakes

Watchland, Geneva

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A watchmaker is born, he learns his craft, and if he is really a good one, he goes from the house he started to putting his own name on his own watches. And that’s how we grew. When you make your cre-ation, it is very important to compare every millime-ter, day by day; millimeter by millimeter you work it out. And along this long and difficult path you have to be very careful not to give too much freedom to your flights of fantasy. You are obliged to respect and accept the traditions of watchmaking. Therefore, sometimes it was hard. But we have the most adapted result now. A unique and recognizable design with all watchmaking traditions stored inside.

Mr. Sirmakes, you are the CEO of the group, but I would call you the father of a big family. And your lovely kids are your watches. I can imagine how difficult it is for you to let your kids join a new family – their new owners. Isn’t it so?

Vartan Sirmakes: Of course, we all put so much love and soul in every piece… It is not so easy. A good watch is born after long hours of work you are doing with tender care and love, and certainly it is difficult to part with it, but later you start taking it easier. I think it is more difficult for the craftsman who directly does the work, as he spends long hours on the masterpiece – his child - and then gives it away. Believe me, each piece re-quires a great deal of work, but the philosophy you need to follow is that one should focus on what you are doing, while doing it step by step. You just can’t rush things. The point is to make sure it is done right.

Today the markets got off to another bad start, and world finances are in turmoil. You have a very high-end

business. How is your business doing?Vartan Sirmakes: I think it is a big opportunity for

creators and brands to have a true story, a strong business base, and also be financially strong. For creative people who make a good product with a ratio of quality to price everything will be fine. It’s not like in 1929. Before 1929 we didn’t have the power of production that we do now. It was not a production society. There are things going on that don’t make sense. I’m not an economist, but I will give you one example. Today in Europe you give money to farmers to not produce. In 1929 you didn’t have enough butter, you didn’t have bread. Of course, somewhere today you still have this problem, but in the world, generally, we are paying money to stop farmers from producing.

It is always interesting to view fathers passing traditions to their sons - leaving them for generations. Your eldest son is involved in watchmaking. He created Cvistos. Did you en-courage him to get into the business?

Vartan Sirmakes: I think it is excellent. Of course, my son was born into watchmaking. He grew up inside watchmaking. And after he worked with me, some time later he decided to start his own business. He started making his own watches - Cvistos. It is a better experi-ence for him to produce and create, but also worry about the commercial aspect. He also comes into Watchland one day a week. The day I retire, my son will be much more prepared to take over the business when he has done it on his own.

The watchmaking business is also very interesting be-cause it produces sophisticated watches, for which it take

six months to a year. But you are in a commercial business, where you need to make a profit. How do you balance the need to be creative with the need to have efficient production and actually make money?

Vartan Sirmakes: In fact, it is very, very hard to work on complicated watches. It takes six months to one year to make the watch, but before that you need maybe two or three years of research and development. This requires a lot of patience, not counting the actual invest-ment. The secret is to succeed in the complication. If you finish your research and development in three years, and you finalize the project, you’re just fine. You don’t lose money. If you don’t finish, that’s the catastrophe.

If you hadn’t gone into the watch world, what would your career be?

Vartan Sirmakes: When I was a child, my dream was to become a footballer, of course. Today I would choose journalism. To become a journalist you need to have a unique vision of the world, and you have to see the world at 360 degrees. I would have been a political journalist.

Not a watchmaking journalist either?Vartan Sirmakes: No. Right now, with the world

changing so fast, it would be amazing to be a journalist covering it all. It’s a passionate career.

Do you agree that happy people never keep track of time?

Vartan Sirmakes: Maybe you are right, but it’s up to you. The secret is in your head. And in what you have in your constitution. Many people look at their watches all the time, others - never. Sometimes if you even don’t con-

sult your watch, you still know what time is it. I hope that one day people will be happy when they look at the time, especially if they look at the watches that we make.

You are Armenian. We know that the Armenian people have a long history and traditions in watchmaking dating from antiquity. Was it your ancestors’ voices that whispered to you to choose a career in watchmaking?

Vartan Sirmakes: I am Armenian, I was born in Is-tanbul and I live in Geneva. And I can say with confi-dence that the cultural traditions of these three nations left a deep impact on my life. However, choosing the profession of watchmaker was my own decision.

How often do you change your own watches?Vartan Sirmakes: I change them very often. And it

has very little relation to my mood. I change them often to make myself think about new ideas for creations. I look at them for a while during my spare time and fantasize about how I would like to see the next design, or some new ideas are born while I am looking at them. Watches must always be in front of me, even when I am driving a car.

Is there anything else that you’d like to tell our readers?Vartan Sirmakes: I wish courage for everybody. I

don’t worry about my business. In a few months, a few years, everything will be good. Don’t forget that 300 years before the invention of the train, the plane, and electricity, watchmaking existed. Imagine 300 years ahead of these you had this fantastic object - a pocket watch. It’s incredible.

Part of this interview was kindly provided from ‘Elite Traveler’- the private jet lifestyle magazine.

Armenian signaturesArmenian signatures

Left to rightVartan Sirmakes, Sassoun Sirmakes (Vartan’s son), Nazareth Sirmakes, (Vartan’s father), Sisvan Sirmakes (Vartan’s son)

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Faces and figuresFaces and figures

“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” a famous Russian song states. For many retailers and watch brands diamonds are their best friends as well, as diamond watches are here to stay as a segment of the market. In many cases diamond watches greatly outsell their unadorned counterparts. The success of boosting diamond watches is due to the Franck Muller Group, headed by Vartan Sirmakes, the CEO of the company, whose vision was to start a new watch brand with a legitimate history in dia-monds, the result of which was Backes & Strauss, a London watch brand introduced at WPHH for the first time in 2007.

“We’ve made a very encouraging start,” ac-knowledges Vartkess Knadjian, managing director of Backes & Strauss, London. “Without a doubt, our designs are what make us stand out. The designs showcase our diamonds very beautifully. For some-one who always likes to compare like products, we are offering something completely different.”

Vartkess Knadjian is Armenian, born in Ethiopia. However, his roots are in Aintab, in southeast Anato-lia. By 1910 there were already rumblings of trouble in Turkey, so his family emigrated to Addis Ababa.

The long journey that led Vartkess Knadjian to the helm of one the most exclusive diamond com-panies in the world begins with the career of his father, Antranig Knadjian, born in Addis in 1915. Knadjian senior was apprenticed as a watchmaker. Antranig returned to Addis after the Second World War, and Vartkess was born there to an Armenian mother from Jerusalem in 1955.

As purveyor of fine watches to the emperor for some 30 years, Antranig was a frequent and very welcome visitor to the imperial palaces, oc-casionally accompanied by his young son.

Coming from this environment, English boarding school must have been a shock to the sys-tem. Mr. Knadjian remembers: “I was only 12 years old, and in those days boarding schools were not like the five-star resorts they are today.” Vartkess polished his English, in addition to his Armenian mother tongue and Amharic, and left to study In-ternational Relations at the London School of Eco-nomics with the intention of returning to Addis to join his father’s company importing Swiss watches. The Marxists put an end to those plans; with the coup of 1974 he lost everything. His family re-trenched in Canada, while Vartkess accepted a six-month job at Backes & Strauss - the oldest diamond company in the world, established in 1794 - the year of the French Revolution, having links with London since 1812.

A short-term job, it lasted 37 years. Fast-forward to 2003, and a management buy-out has made Vartkess Knadjian the principal owner and CEO of the company.

VartkessKnadjian

The second Armenian signature

in Watchland

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Mr. Antranig Knadjian at watchmaking

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As Knadjian explains, Backes & Strauss started with the idea of designing a diamond watch, rather than de-signing a watch and then figuring out where to set the diamonds. “The design, from the start, was all about showcasing the diamonds,” he adds.

“The team from Watchland worked with us. We briefed them about the brand, we brought them to Lon-don, we took them around the city showing them the key elements of historic London, and we derived the in-spiration from the Britishness of London.” As England was the center of horology, they decided to give their diamond watches a London provenance.

Backes & Strauss was established in 1789, and from the start the company was a jewellery manufacturer, then became a serious diamond broker in the 1900s, and then moved into diamond polishing and cutting. The company still does diamond polishing and cutting, through a differ-ent division of the company called B&S Diamonds.

Reflecting Backes & Strauss’ history in London, the brand’s first three collections – the Berkeley, the Pic-cadilly and the Regent – were inspired by London’s Regency architecture, notably the work of John Nash. “Perfection and attention to detail are the hallmarks of Backes & Strauss watches,” Knadjian insists. “We are go-ing to focus on these collections for the time being. Ev-ery year we will come up with an innovation that will be introduced to the press at the end of the year. We will do complicated diamond settings, we will introduce horological complications, but always emphasizing that we are going to be focusing on diamond watches.”

Unlike many other watch companies, Backes & Strauss only uses the best diamonds possible, and the company has the best suppliers in the industry.

“All the round diamonds we use are of ideal cut and proportion,” Knadjian details. “This is a diamond polished to perfection - all the angles and all the fac-ets match each other. They are perfectly symmetrical. That’s why when you view it from the top you see ar-rows, and from the bottom you see hearts. If one facet is out of symmetry, you won’t get that effect. It’s a master cutter who polishes these diamonds to perfection - you lose carat weight, but the sparkle and brilliance is second to none. That’s why when you have a watch set with these diamonds, they look stunning.”

Not many companies use this ‘hearts and dia-monds’ cut because it is more expensive than a regu-larly finely-cut diamond, resulting in more loss and less carat weight. Backes & Strauss, however, insists on using it because of its perfection.

Source: Europa Star Magazine Issue


Piccadilly Prince Piccadilly Princess

The collection

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Natural resources — The age-old process of volcanic and tectonic activity that took place on the Armenian plateau created an unusual geological museum in its depths. The rocks

composing the earth’s crust are also embedded there. Armenia has iron, copper, molybdenum and polymetallic ores containing rare earth elements and gold, silver, lead and zinc. There are deposits of nephelin that are used as raw material in the production of aluminum and manganese deposits.

Jewellery and diamonds – Jewellery-making and diamond-processing are considered a very attractive field for investment in Armenia, based on the existence of skillful diamond cutters with competitive wage rates, modern equipment and tax privileges (no taxes on the import of raw materials or on the export of finished products) in Armenia. A large proportion of Armenia’s exports is polished diamonds, imported into Armenia in their rough state for finishing, thus taking advantage of Armenia’s skilled jewellers with competitive labor costs. Today 27 companies with 5,000 employees (2,500 in diamond-processing) are operating in this sector, not counting individual jewellers. The largest companies are the Yerevan Jewellery Plant (2,000 employees), Sapphire Plant (520 employees), Lori Company (420 employees), Shoghakn Plant (408 employees) and the Diamond Company of Armenia (DCA, 350).

BusinessBusiness

ARMENIA — Interesting Facts

Gold and diamond production in Armenia is consid-ered of the most attractive spheres for investment based on the qualified workforce, favorable conditions for wag-es, new technologies and tax privileges (the import of raw materials and export of ready-made goods are not taxed).

Years ago cardinal gems and semi-precious gem-stones were considered to be leading products for ex-port. Treated cardinal gemstones imported as raw mate-rials make up a large proportion of exports.

The Russian government establishes quotas for the annual export of raw diamonds for Armenia. Annually, 30,000 karats of untreated diamonds and 1 million kar-ats of industrial diamonds are exported for further re-finement. Industrial diamonds are imported by the State Committee of Gemstones and Metals of Yakutia through the company Almazuvelirexport.

There are a number of other western companies im-porting raw diamonds, the best known of which are Ar-slanyan Cutting Works and Tashe companies (Belgium).

Arslanyan Cutting Works is the first foreign com-pany to have invested in this field. It belongs to Arme-nians from Belgium. In 1992 Arslanyan Cutting Works also established Lori LLC.

Foreign Trade of Republic of Armenia 2010 according to Statistical Handbook

Product Group Name Export Import

Diamonds, not mounted or set 79,240.6 karats US $59,754.900 193,997.1 karats US $65,455,400

Product Group Amount

Diamond 2,632,780,000 AMD(7,300,000 $US)

Mounted precious or semi-precious stones, not diamonds 106,984,000AMD (300,000 US$)

Jewellery ornaments 1,887,502,000 AMD (5,225,000 US$)

Precious stones and metals 4,627,266,000 AMD (12,850.000 US$)

Diamond Production

Volcanic type of Armenian semi-precious stone

Volcanic type of Armenian agate

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The Diamond Company of Armenia, which was purchased by the British company Ferfano for 5.5 million USD in 1998, is one of the largest Ar-menian diamond-processing companies, refining 8,000 karats of raw diamonds per month supplied by South Africa’s De Beers company. Another distinguished diamond company, Shoghakn, was bought by an Israeli company in July of 2000 for 370,000 USD. The company envisages processing 30,000 karats per month.

Diamond-refining is one of the priority areas of this sphere. Meanwhile, the manufacture of jewellery products, including the production of gold pieces, gold watches and the refining of semi-precious gemstones, is developing rapidly, preserving the traditions of Arme-nian jewellery.

Yerevan Gold Factory OSC is the main producer of gold jewellery in Armenia. It was established in 1950 and has around 2,000 employees. Its outputs are mainly exported to the USA, the Middle East and CIS countries. The factory has been fully renovated, which has contributed to a growth in production vol-umes and expansion of product diversity (currently tens of thousands of various kinds of gold products are being manufactured).

58 AJA 05'11

Business

The Gem & Jewellery Show is the 14th annual in-ternational event, exclusively focused on the fashion jewellery and accessories industry. The show presents an extensive range of beautiful gemstones, the latest and trendy jewellery, watches and much more.

The Gem & Jewellery Show will provide a wonder-ful chance to meet with the representatives of top U.S. gem and jewellery companies. Hundreds of exhibitors are expected to attend this event from across the world to showcase their latest products. The targeted visitors at Gem & Jewelry Show 2011 Las Vegas are: jewellery wholesalers, jewellery designers, jewellery, watch or clock retailers, agents/distributors, jewellery manufac-turers, jewellery retailers, department store buyers, stu-dents and others related to the jewellery industry.

The AJA plans to hold an exhibition in Yerevan, Armenia on September 22 during the festivities dedicat-ed to the 20th anniversary of the Independence of the Armenian Republic. One of the major goals of this big event is to introduce the AJA to international partners and clients as an international brand. On the eve of In-dependence Day prominent Armenians from all over the world are going to be in Yerevan. And on this occasion everyone will have an opportunity to get to know Ar-menian jewellers. The exhibition in Yerevan organized by the AJA will become the best jewel decorating the holiday. However, business is not going to a priority for the first AJA exhibition, although it is still an indispen-sible part of the activities. With this exhibition the AJA is rather making a spiritual and cultural investment.

The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair’s 28-year track record of excellence has made it a prominent fixture in the global jewellery trade’s events calendar. Jewellers, traders and connoisseurs will troop en masse to this important industry gath-ering, helping to make it the world ’s number one fine jewellery event in 2011 and also the largest fair ever in terms of exhibition space – in any industry – in Hong Kong. The September fair, which previously occupied two world-class venues, further expanded in 2011 from eight halls to nine halls in AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE), bringing the total exhibition space in AWE to 60,000 square meters.

Forthcoming Jewellery Shows

JCK Las Vegas: June 3 – 6, 2011AGTA GemFair™ at JCK: June 2 – 7, 2011

Equipment, Technology & Supplies (ETS): June 3 – 7, 2011

Las Vegas Gem & Jewellery Show 2011

YEREVAN JEWELLERY SHOW 2011 (September 22)

September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair 2011

05'11 AJA 59

12 Daniel Rd #301Fairfield, NJ, USA 07004

Phone.: +1(973) 227 32 30

4 Vetkina Street, Moscow, Russia, 127521

Phone: +7 (985) 181 07 79

AJA magazine 1st issue (1)

Documents

Transcript of AJA magazine 1st issue (1)