Yerevan, Armenia
April 24 is the Remembrance day in Armenia, when the whole country remembers the one to one-and-a-half million Armenian people who were deliberately killed on grand scale by the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian genocide as these events are known today, took place in 1915 and was the first genocide of the 20th century. Victims included ethnic Assyrians and Greeks. Turkey (now as a result a 99 %-muslim country) denies that any organized genocide took place at that time.
Armenia is a small country in terms of geography today but it has a vibrant spirit to overcome its past and face potential threats (it is said to have the best spetsnaz in the region). Its diaspora is particularly dense in France and the United States.
Volgograd is the new name of what was Stalingrad, a city where an important battle of WW2 took place. Here are a few pictures of that large Russian city.
These pictures were shot in an abandonned pioneer summer camp somewhere in the Kuban region in Russia. In these empty building and playgrounds you could hear long time ago the voices of happy children spending there deserved vacations. These children are now grownups and their memories of the soviet times owe something to these happy few weeks where they shared good time together
Here are a few pictures shot in the immense taïga forest of central Russia. This is a gold mine for all sorts of delicacies, small red or black fruits and countless varieties of mushrooms in particular. All you need is trust the knowledgeable local paerson whom you trust for finding the way back to the village. I must admit that I wasn't always confident that we would find the right direction to the civilization...