Independent Armenia turned 25 in 2016. Pope Francis visited our country to serve a liturgy in Gyumri and offer an ecumenical ceremony in the capital city of Yerevan. We secured the long-anticipated gold at the Olympic Games in Rio after a 20-year interval. An armed group, known as Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) stormed a police headquarters in Yerevan this year: the siege lasted 14 days and ended with the gunmen’s surrender. Also in 2016, we showed the world we can organize amazing initiatives such as the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, whose jury was headed by George Clooney, and whose main prize with a $1 million fund went to charity. In 2016, Nobel Prize winners arrived in the country, Iveta Mukuchyan waved the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) flag at Eurovision Song Contest, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan became Armenia’s “ambassador to the world.” PAN Photo couldn’t but capture all this, at the same time managing to “seize” the hidden parts of Armenia, a ghetto in the United States, the unbelievably beautiful monuments in Persepolis and the daily routine of the Mechitarist congregation in Venice. But 2016 was first and foremost defined by the four-day war that broke out in early April. We suddenly realized that the issue hasn’t been solved yet and the war had never even ended. We had that feeling when we entered the recaptured village of Talish and witnessed how our selfless soldiers did everything humanly possible for every inch taken back from the rival. We also perceived the reality when many left their families behind to volunteer for the benefit of Karabakh. And this feeling was especially intense when our photographer, Areg Balayan, was mobilized to the northern section of the contact line. Several months after Areg returned, his feature story, MOB., outlined not just April, but the shape of the year.

PAN Photo:
Vahan Stepanyan, Davit Hakobyan, Sedrak Mkrtchyan, Areg Balayan, Tigran Mehrabyan, Ani Tager, Varo Rafayelyan, Hrant Khachatryan, Artashes Stamboltsyan, Karo Sahakyan, Davit Abrahamyan, Aram Kirakosyan

Contributors:
Hrayr Badalyan, Grigor Yepremyan, Armen Anmeghikyan