Rafael Papayan
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Rafael Papayan
Rafael Aramashoti Papayan (; December 22, 1942 – October 5, 2010) was a philologist, political prisoner, human rights activist, writer and a judge on the Constitutional Court of Armenia. Early life Rafael Papayan was born on December 22, 1942, in Soviet Armenia in the city of Yerevan. He is the son of Aramashot and Yeva Papayan. His father was an Armenian playwright and actor. In 1964 he was removed from the Young Communist Union of Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences due to a published article in the "Brusovets" student newspaper. He married Arpine Papayan in January 1970, whom he had met in 1967 at a poetry theatre. Together they had two children, Vahagn and Anahit Papayan. Education In 1965 he graduated from the Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences as a philologist. He continued his studies in the University of Tartu from 1969 to 1972 under the guidance of the literary historian and semiotician, Juri Lotman. H ...
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Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country, as its primate city. It has been the Historical capitals of Armenia, capital since 1918, the Historical capitals of Armenia, fourteenth in the history of Armenia and the seventh located in or around the Ararat Plain. The city also serves as the seat of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, which is the largest diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and one of the oldest dioceses in the world. The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the fortress of Erebuni Fortress, Erebuni in 782 BC by King Argishti I of Urartu, Argishti I of Urartu at the western extreme of the Ararat Plain. Erebuni was "designed as a great administrative and reli ...
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Samizdat
Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because printed texts could be traced back to the source. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship. Name origin and variations Etymologically, the word ''samizdat'' derives from ''sam'' ( 'self, by oneself') and ''izdat'' (, an abbreviation of , 'publishing house'), and thus means 'self-published'. Ukrainian has a similar term: ''samvydav'' (самвидав), from ''sam'' 'self' and ''vydavnytstvo'' 'publishing house'. The Russian poet Nikolay Glazkov coined a version of the term as a pun in the 1940s when he typed copies of his poems and included the note ''Samsebyaizdat'' (Самсебяиздат, "Myself by Myself Publishers") on the front page. ''Tamizdat'' refers to lit ...
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Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the Capital city, capital, largest city and Economy of Armenia, financial center. The Armenian Highlands has been home to the Hayasa-Azzi, Shupria and Nairi. By at least 600 BC, an archaic form of Proto-Armenian language, Proto-Armenian, an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, had diffused into the Armenian Highlands.Robert Drews (2017). ''Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe''. Routledge. . p. 228: "The vernacular of the Great Kingdom of Biainili was quite certainly Armenian. The Armenian language was obviously the region's vernacular in the fifth century BC, when Persian commanders and Greek writers ...
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Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established rules, rights, and freedoms, among other things. History Before establishment of independent constitutional court Prior to 1919, the United States, Canada and Australia had adopted the concept of judicial review by their courts, following shared principles of their similar common law legal systems, which they, in turn, had inherited from British colonial law. The Parthenopean Republic's constitution of 1799, written by Mario Pagano, envisaged an organ of magistrates reviewing constitutional law, the ''eforato'', but lasted only 6 months. The 1776 Constitution of Pennsylvania and 1777 Constitution of Vermont both establish a "Council of Censors" separate from the other branches of government, with the task of "recommending to the l ...
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National Assembly (Armenia)
The National Assembly of Armenia (, ''Hayastani Hanrapetyut'yan Azgayin zhoghov'' or simply Ազգային ժողով, ԱԺ, ''Azgayin Zhoghov'', ''AZh''), also informally referred to as the Parliament of Armenia (խորհրդարան, ''khorhrdaran'') is the legislative branch of the government of Armenia. Overview The National Assembly was originally established in 1918 as the Khorhurd () by the Armenian National Council following their declaration of independence. Acting as the nation's provisional legislative body, the Armenian National Council tripled its membership, forming an interim coalition government composed of Dashnaks and Populists. Following the Armenian parliamentary elections of 1919, the National Assembly's membership increased again up to 80 deputies including several minority representatives. The Khorhurd continued to function with an overwhelming Dashnak majority through four Prime Ministers in the span of two years, until the Sovietisation of Armen ...
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Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaijanis until their expulsion during the 1990s. The Nagorno-Karabakh region was entirely claimed by and partially controlled by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh, but was recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan gradually re-established control over Nagorno-Karabakh region and the seven surrounding districts. Throughout the Soviet period, Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast were heavily discriminated against. The Soviet Azerbaijani authorities worked to suppress Armenian culture and identity in Nagorno-Karabakh, pressured Armenians to leave the region and encouraged Azerbaijanis to settle within it, although Armenians remained the majority population. During the ''glasnost'' period, a 1988 Nagorno-Karabak ...
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United Nations Commission On Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the United Nations System, overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was also assisted in its work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR). It was the UN's principal mechanism and international forum concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights. The UNCHR successfully introduced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The body's reputation became controversial over time, as many observers saw it as highly politicized and vulnerable to outside pressure. Scholars have found that states with a poor human rights record were more likely to be elected to the body than countries with good records. On March 15, 2006, the United Nations ...
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Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s. Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, North Caucasus Krai, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state. Studying at Moscow State University, ...
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Millerovo
Millerovo () is the name of several inhabited localities in Rostov Oblast, Russia. ;Urban localities *Millerovo, Millerovsky District, Rostov Oblast Millerovo (, Ukrainian: Міллерово) is a town and the administrative center of Millerovsky District in Rostov Oblast, Russia, close to the border with Ukraine. Population History It was founded in 1786 and named after its founder, the ..., a town in Millerovsky District ;Rural localities * Millerovo, Kuybyshevsky District, Rostov Oblast, a '' selo'' in Krinichno-Lugskoye Rural Settlement of Kuybyshevsky District ;Airbase * Millerovo (air base), Millerovsky District, Rostov Oblast See also * Millerovsky (other) {{Set index article, populated places in Russia ...
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Solitary Confinement
Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to discipline or separate incarcerated individuals who are considered to be security risks to other incarcerated individuals or prison staff, as well as those who violate facility rules or are deemed disruptive. However, it can also be used as protective custody for incarcerated individuals whose safety is threatened by other prisoners. This is employed to separate them from the general prison population and prevent injury or death. A robust body of research has shown that solitary confinement has profound negative psychological, physical, and neurological effects on those who experience it, often lasting well beyond one's time in solitary. While corrections officials have stated that solitary confinement is a necessary tool for maintaining t ...
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Hunger Strikes
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are named dry hunger strikers. In cases where an entity (usually the state) has or is able to obtain custody of the hunger striker (such as a prisoner), the hunger strike is often terminated by the custodial entity through the use of force-feeding. Early history Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as ''Troscadh'' or ''Cealachan''. Detailed in the contemporary civic codes, it had specific rules by which it could be used, and the fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender. Scholars speculate that this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which one was accused, was considered ...
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Levan Berdzenishvili
Levan Valerianis dze Berdzenishvili ( ka, ლევან ვალერიანის ძე ბერძენიშვილი) is a Georgia (country), Georgian politician, Soviet dissidents, dissident and academic, who served as the director of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia from 1998 until 2004. Biography Berdzenishvili was born in Batumi in 1953, and is the older brother of David Berdzenisvhili, also a politician. On May 21, 1978, Berdzenishvili and his brother David, together with Vakhtang Dzabiradze and Vakhtang Shonia, founded the Republican Party of Georgia. In June 1983, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities and served several years in prison, as a dissident. Berdzenishvili has described his experiences in an autobiographical novel, Sacred Darkness: The Last Days of the GULAG, published in English in 2019. In the book, Berdzenishvili describes the years in prison as his "best years" because of the "people that surrounded me, people the KGB had so ...
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