What interesting facts you know about Armenia and Armenians?

[Tsovinar]

Can you help me gather some interesting facts and figures about Armenia to introduce it more closely to SAP Community?

Here comes my list of favorites… What's yours?

• Armenia was considered to be the Silicon Valley of Soviet Union and with just 1,5% of USSR population it produced 30% of Innovation of all military electronics
• Armenia leads in % of graduates from Natural Sciences, Maths and Statistics and is ahead of USA and Estonia
• Armenia has one of the best tech education centers in the world - the TUMO Labs, which exports the model to other countries like France, Germany, Russia, South Africa, etc.
• Throughout all of the 1980-s and 90-s the percentage of women in CS never fell below 75%
• Following companies have been (co)founded by Armenians- Reddit, Moderna, PicsArt, ServiceTitan, Krisp, Joomag, etc.
• Some famous people with Armenian origins: Charles Aznavour, Aram Khachaturian, Ivan Aivazovsky, Arshil Gorky, George Gurdjieff, Garry Kasparov, Andre Agassi, Cher, Raffi(children's songwriter), System of a Down members
• The famous MVRDV has revealed the plans of building 'visionary valley of eden' in Armenia. The project will turn 5 villages into a “future-proof” and “self-sustaining valley” with a mosaic of 10,000 plant species. Below is an image from its ambitious masterplan.

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/armenia-launches-12000-home-self-sufficient-neighbourhood-in-gagarin-valley/

[TammyPowlas]

I didn't realize that Armenia was once part of the USSR.   It's good to read that crime is low in Armenia

Re: Cher I always thought she was part Native American too

I am looking forward to learning more.

[Tsovinar]

yes, unfortunately eastern part of historical Armenia (current Republic of Armenia) was occupied for 70 years by USSR. In 1991 Armenia was one of the first countries to break away from Soviet Union  and btw. here's a photo of Cher(Cherilyn Sarkisian) in those years sitting on the fallen statue of Lenin in Yerevan - https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/5k4wim/cher_with_monument_of_lenin_1993_yerevan/ 

[karina_B]

Another famous brand has connection to Armenia. Giorgio Armani is expressing has Armenian roots. A few years ago, it was discovered that the legendary fashion designer has a connection to Armenia as his parents fled the Genocide in 1915 and settled in Italy.

[sveabecker]

André Agassi and Cher? Really wasn't aware of it either. One more thing I learnt. Thanks for sharing these insights, Tsovinar 😊

[karina_B]

DUDUK - The soft wood of the apricot tree is the ideal material for the body of the instrument. UNESCO proclaimed the Armenian duduk and its music as a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005. The sound of duduk was used in movies - Gladiator, Duna, The Passion of the Christ.

[former_member7444]

Some techies who played a notable role @ Apple :

• Avedis Tevanian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avie_Tevanian) was behind the mach micro-kernel which still serves as the basis for various operating systems by Apple (macOS, iOS, watchOS...). He led software engineering there for a number of years.
• Sal Soghoian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Soghoian), an early AppleScript adopter, played an important role in shaping macOS automation tools (he was behind automator among other things).

[former_member7444]

Wine was produced in the land of Ararat in ancient times. Multiple traditions/sources point to a wine tradition there: Noah getting drunk after stepping out of the Ark, Persepolis bas-relief showing Armenians bringing their wine as tribute to the king... Archeological evidence was found recently providing solid evidence for such claims (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areni-1_winery)