For our last episode of this season, we visit Vahandukht Melkonyan, the last resident of Kharkov – a village in the buffer zone between Armenia and Turkey. At 88, she lives alone here and spends her days tending to her animals. This border carries the weight of millennia of history – empires have come crashing against it. But in Vahandukht’s yard, that all feels like scratches on ancient stones.

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Walk into the right basement on a Friday night, and you’ll see something that doesn’t happen anywhere else in Armenia - a drag show. Gigi Aries is a drag queen, and she and her friends have been busy. A few years ago, you couldn’t see drag anywhere, but now there are monthly shows with lines around the block. There’s still a huge divide between what you can do at these underground events, and what is acceptable on the streets of Yerevan. But Gigi believes that drag can change Armenia.

Click here to see Gigi Aries online.

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We first did an episode with Gayane Milonyan in 2023 - the day after she and her family were forced to flee Artsakh. But we wanted to talk with her again, to better understand her life in Artsakh and what she’s lived through since. Gayane sees a connection between struggles in her personal life, and those faced by her homeland: “Sometimes we think we love something, but it brings us only pain.”

If you haven’t listened to the first episode we did with Gayane, it’s called “Special Episode: My Land Feels so Sweet, but it’s Thirsty for Blood.” You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on our website.

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Growing up, Nane Harutyunyan would never have touched a rifle. But after Armenia was defeated in the 2020 war, she felt like she had to be prepared to defend her country.

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Hasmik Varderesyan was born in Armenia, but moved to Turkey when she was two years old. Now she’s a teenager, she's moving back, and she's on TikTok. But is Armenia ready to welcome her home?

Click here to check out Hasmik's Instagram. 

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Underneath an Armenian church in Istanbul, there’s a school that isn’t like any other. It’s a little slice of home for a group of migrant families from Armenia – a minority within a minority.

Click here for more information about Hrant Dink School

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This episode has a special companion video. 

An unexpected VHS in a Toronto basement leads to finding a branch of the family that has been lost for 60 years, and uncovering the last Armenian village still surviving in Turkey. A multi-generational story told by producer Nyree Abrahamian. 

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Our podcast tells the stories of how Armenia is changing, but in this episode, we sat down to talk about how Armenia has changed each of us.

Plus we have an announcement: We just launched a crowdfunding campaign for our second season! If you've enjoyed listening to our podcast so far, we'd really appreciate your support to keep making it happen. You can donate here:

igg.me/at/countryofdust

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Gayane Milonyan, a mother of two, has just been forced to flee her home in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), along with over 100,000 people – the entire indigenous Armenian population left in the region after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. We spoke to Gayane a day after her arrival in Armenia about what she lost, what she survived, and how she survived it.

Photo by Nanna Heitmann.

Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

If you’re looking for a place to donate to help alleviate the refugee crisis, here are some organizations that are working on the ground:

All for Armenia
https://allforarmenia.org/

World Central Kitchen
https://donate.wck.org/give/522197/

Kooyrigs
https://kooyrigs.org/

AGBU
https://agbu.org/

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Wine has been part of Armenia’s story since the beginning, and it can be a bridge from its ancient history, to the Soviet era, to today. In our final episode of the season, we talk to Mariam Saghatelyan, co-owner of In Vino wine bar, about the resurgence of wine culture in Armenia. And we delve into the unexpected ways that uncorking a bottle of wine can connect you to the pulse of the country. 

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