In the southern part of Armenia, on the northern slopes of the Meghri Range, there is an exceptionally beautiful area of untouched nature: the Shikahogh Reserve. The World Fund of Wild Nature has classified Shikahogh as one of the unique areas in the region. The Reserve is protecting leaf-bearing trees, mainly oak-tree and hornbeam-tree forests, yew-tree and plane tree groves, as well as areas with particularly interesting and rare flora, populated by rare animals unique to Armenia and to the entire world.

High altitude of Zangezur Range, which stretches from the south to the north, is a natural hedge that blocks humid air streams from the Caspian Sea, while Meghri and other ranges block the penetration of hot air flows coming from the Iranian deserts. The arrangements of mountain ranges and hills create a large variety of climatic conditions. Here, as well as in the mountains of the southern Caucasus, each small gorge literally has its specific microclimate, where interesting plants (peculiar to that very same gorge) are found. There are many shallow mountainous streamlets and brooks, which flow into the blue artery of the region: the Tsav River. All the brooks in the Reserve are mountainous, rapid and stormy. In the Reserve there are many springs with waterlogged areas found around them. Surprisingly beautiful groves, caves, pictorial rocks and archeological monuments can be seen in the Reserve.

The Shikahogh Reserve was formed in 1959 on basis of local forest enterprise. The area of the Reserve is 10,000 hectares, where there are 1,074 varieties of plants. It is the only reserve, where luxuriant virgin forests with very interesting species are preserved. Very rare relic ferns (from the dinosaur era), common ophioglossum and Crimean bracken, Lambert’s bluebell, Egyptian willow, etc. live here. The Reserve provides a shelter to many disappearing and endemic plant varieties such as Transcaucasian and Artyushenko’s snowdrops, mixed tulip, Zangezur pear, and many varieties of orchids, Symphyandra zangezura, and Eleanor’s wort. Eighteen plant varieties are registered in the Red Book of the former USSR, and 70 varieties of plants from Shikahogh are listed in the Armenian Red Book.

Due to relatively mild climate and the abundance of small covered gorges, individual representatives of the past geological epochs have also been preserved; moreover some islands of the tertiary flora exist here. Among them is yew-tree grove, which is the only place in Armenia, where cord-rooted sedge, a species of the Mediterranean flora is found. In Shikahogh there is a small beech grove, which is the only one in southern Armenia. Ivy, persimmon, pomegranate, plane trees with walnuts, velvety euonymus, periclopa vulgaris, etc. live in Shikahogh. Chestnut and Zelcova carpinifolia are rare but can also be found in Shikahogh.

The Tsav plane tree grove (a state preserve) that is the largest in the Caucasus and has 3,000 exemplars of 200-250 year old, 30-35 meters high, and up to 3 meters in diameter plane trees of endemic varieties abuts to the territory of the Reserve. The grove stretches along the riverbed for 15km in the form of a narrow strip (100-150m). It occupies about 120ha in Armenia. Narrow gorges and surrounding forests make this place one of the most beautiful corners of Armenia, untouched by civilization. The grove, like other plantations of the plane tree, was planted in Pagan times, when ‘plane’ trees were considered to be sacred and when priests were guessing the future by the sounds of ‘plane’ tree leafs.

In the lower zone of the Shikahogh Reserve, extensive thin forests of the Araks oak, thickets of the trap-tree with mixture of the nettle-tree, pomegranate, maple, etc.

The leaf-bearing forests are predominant in the Reserve. There are mainly oak and oak-hornbeam forests, which occupy almost the entire middle zone of the forest area from 1,000 to 2,200 meters. Particularly notable are Oat and Poa hornbeam groves. On the right bank of the Tsav River, in the Mtnadzor gorge, an oak forest (almost untouched by humans) has been preserved because of its inaccessibility. It easily qualifies for one of the most outstanding monuments of nature in the entire world.

2,200m to 2,400m above sea level mountainous oaks form scanty forests. Even higher up are sub-alpine meadows with high grass and multitude of blooming bluebells, orchids, Chikhachev’s rare cephalaria, etc. The meadows are exceptionally beautiful during the blooming of their “pearl”, the endemic hybrid tulip, which can have a gorgeous lemon yellow and/or dark pink or red coloring. This is the only tulip with a delicate lemon fragrance. Fragments of alpine meadows are in the highest areas of the mountain ranges.

The Reserve preserves cultural artifacts such as burial grounds of the Bronze Age, ancient fortresses, monasteries, bridges, and medieval churches.

The fauna in the Shikahogh Reserve is also distinctively diverse. Here, in ravines and in glades, covered with high grass, live brown bears, including a very rare Transcaucasian/Syrian variety of the brown bear (registered in the CIS Red Book), and the wild boar. The roe, wildcat, badger and fox are also found in the Reserve. In the forests and open barren slopes, one can usually find weasel, forest, and stone martens.

The lynx and Asian leopard can be found in the upper boundary of the Reserve, both are listed in the Red Book of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 1st category), CIS, and Armenia. The leopard lives on mountains, in deep gorges, among bushes, and on steep mountain slopes. In the Reserve the Bezoar goat and the Armenian moufflon are also found, both are very rare and are registered in the Red Books of Armenia, CIS, and IUCN.

There are a great variety of birds living in the Reserve because of the diversity of biotopes. Black griffon and whitehead griffin inhabit the forests. The Caspian tetra Gallus, Caucasian heath-cock, and bearded vulture also live in this reserve and are included in the Armenian, CIS, and IUCN Red Books. These species are under the danger of complete extermination.

Caspian tetra Gallus inhabits the upper mountainous area with dissected relief and steep meadows. Usually, the tetra Gallus makes its nest on the northern slopes of mountains, where the snow stays for a long period. Usually, their nests are found hidden under rocks, stones or grass, while the pit of the nest is covered with dry grass, moss, and feathers.

The Caucasian heath-cock lives at the edge of forests, and in sub-alpine zone. The bearded vultures nest on inaccessible rocks, vertical cliffs and, unlike other birds, put nests separately from each other, with 10-15km between them.

People have intensively influenced natural ecosystems of the Shikahogh Reserve for many years. There was no large-scale forest logging in this area, but the grazing of agricultural animals on the sub-alpine meadows as well as the forestry sunshade has had immense effect on the vegetation. The negative influence of grazing animals was particularly intense from 1963 to 1975, when the Reserve was liquidated. It was also tense during the power crisis in the 1990s. In addition to all this, local forests have traditionally attracted people who like to hunt and relax in nature. The Government of Armenia and the Administration of the Syunik Province, with support of international donor organizations, currently undertake measures to improve the natural ecosystem of the Reserve.

Dr. Hovhannes Karpis Sarkavagyan - Thoracic surgeon, MD, PhD, Head of Department of Thoracic Surgery of the St. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR HOSPITAL, associate Professor at Yerevan State Medical University named after Mkhitar Heratsi, volunteer-medical doctor during the Artsakh Liberation War, saved more than 100 lives of Armenian soldiers and freedom fighters.

Dr. Hovhannes Sarkavagyan was born in 1955, in Yerevan. He graduated from the Yerevan State Medical Institute in 1977, and continued his post graduation study in Leningrad (present day Saint Petersburg) and later in Boston University, USA in 1993 and 1995.

Dr. Sarkavagyan started his medical practice in 1978, in the central regional hospitals of Aragats and Ararat provinces. Since 1982 Dr. Sarkavagyan worked in the Emergency Hospital of Yerevan city.

Currently Dr. Hovhannes Karpis Sarkavagyan is the Head of Department of Thoracic Surgery of the St. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR HOSPITAL. Meantime, Dr. Sarkavagyan teaches in the Yerevan State Medical University named after Mkhitar Heratsi as an associate professor in the Department of General and Thoracic Surgery, and in the National Institute of Health Named After Academician S. AVDALBEKYAN (NIH).  

Dr. Hovhannes Karpis Sarkavagyan was awarded with the 2nd degree Medal FOR SERVICES TO MOTHERLAND, in 2006, and MARSHAL BAGHRAMYAN medal in 2007. 

Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan – Oncologist / Chemotherapist, MD, PhD, Chief Oncologist of Yerevan city, Head of Department of Oncology of EREBOUNI MEDICAL CENTER.

Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan carries out treatment of patients with hard tumors of CNS, breast, maxillofacial region, respiration system, urinary-genital system, gastrointestinal tract, bone, neuroendocrine systems, melanomas, soft tissue, and gynecological oncologic diseases.

EDUCATION AND POST GRADUTION STUDIES

Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan graduated from the Yerevan State Medical University, the Department of General Medicine in 1994 (Diploma with Honor). Later, during the years of 1994-1996, she completed her internship in anesthesiology in the Children Hospital of the Republic.

Dr. Geokchyan-Kzhdryan successfully completed PhD Research Fellowship (post graduation study) in the Department of Chemotherapy, in 2006-2009. The topic of study: SUPPORTIVE CARE IN CANCER.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan started her medical practice as anesthesiologist in MURATSAN Hospial, in 1997. Later, in 2002, she became the Chief Medical doctor at the Department of Pediatric Oncology and Chemotherapy at the NATIONAL CENTER OF ONCOLOGY NAMED AFTER V.A. FANARJYAN, Yerevan, Armenia.

Since April 2016 Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan is the Head of Department of Oncology of the EREBOUNI MEDICAL CENTER.

OTHER PUBLIC AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Chief Oncologist of Yerevan city, ARMENIA, 2016 - present

Vise-President of the Association of Armenian Oncologists, 2002 - present

Chief Medical Oncologist of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Armenia, 2014- 2016

Since 2002 Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan coordinated several anti-smoking / anti-cancer programs, local and international.

SCINTIFIC ACTIVITIES, PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS

Dr. Haykuhi Geokchyan-Kzhdryan has more than 43 scientific and relevant publications, and 4 books.

· Effectiveness Target Therapy in Metastatic Ovarian Cancer /original in Russian/ - VIII Congress Medical Oncology and Radiology, CIS Kazan, Russia 2014

· Tobacco Control at Patients with Cancer - 6th UICC World Cancer Congress. August 27-31, 2008, Geneva, Switzerland.

· Supportive Care in Pediatric Oncology Practice - 17th MASCC/ISOO International Symposium. Geneva, 2005

· Modified approaches of supportive care in pediatric oncological practice - 35th Congress of the SIOP, Cairo, 2003

MEMBERSHIP AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

· ESMO: European Society for Medical Oncology

· MASCC: Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer

· ASCO: American Society of Clinical Oncology

· ABC and other

Regular attendance of yearly meetings and international conferences

PRIZEWINNER

Armenian WOMAN of the Year 2016 - Yerevan, ARMENIA

Best medical doctor of the Year 2016 - Yerevan, ARMENIA

Languages

Armenian, Russian, English, German

Dr. Hasmik L. Ghazinyan – Hepatologist, MD., Ph.D., Chief Hepatologist of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Armenia; Head of Hepatology Department, NORK Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases, Yerevan, Armenia; President of Armenian Hepatological Association; Member of APASL Executive Council. 

EDUCATION

Dr. Hasmik L. Ghazinyan graduated from Yerevan State Medical University named after Mkhitar Heratsi, in 1978. Later, in 1987 she received specialization certificate from the Chair of Infections Disease of the National Institute of Health Named After Academician S. AVDALBEKYAN (NIH), Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Armenia.

Dr. Ghazinyan also completed a post-graduation study and Fellowship Program on infections Disease in Olbany Medical centre, NY, USA, 1996.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 

Dr. Hasmik Ghazinyan started her medical practice in 1979, in the Departament of Hepatology of the N1 Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases. Since 1986 she is the Head of Hepatology Department of NORK Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases, Yerevan, Armenia

SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES AND PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Hasmik Ghazinyan is the author of Methodical Recommendations: Management of HBV and HCV Infections in Onco/Oncoheamatological Patients in the Republic of Armenia, and she has more than 160 scientific and other publications in Armenia and international journals, magazines and other media.

MEMBERSHIPS 

• Member of EASL, APASL, IASL, CEVHAP
• President of Armenian Hepatological Forum - since 2007
• Member of Editorial Advisory council of scientific-practical journal Blood Armenia - since 2011
• Member of Editorial Advisory council of scintifice-practical journal Actual Infectology, Ukraine - since 2013

CONFERENCES 

• 2007 - Hepatoschool of CIS in Sharm el Sheikh
• 2007 - Second Hepatoschool of CIS in Yevpatory, Ukraine
• 2008 - Hepatoschool of CIS in Hurgada, Egypt
• 2008 - Yalta, Ukraine
• 2009 - Hepatology days in Crime
• 2009 - Hepatoschool of CIS in Riga, Latvia
• 2009 - Hepatoschool of CIS in Istanbul, Turkey
• 2010 - Hepatoschool of CIS in Tel-Aviv, Israel
• 2011 - Central Asia Gastroenterology Week, Kazakhstan, Almaty
• 2012 - Faculty of 3-rd APASL Single Topic Conference on Hepatitis B, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
• 2012 - 1stCongres of Hepatologists of Kazakhstan, Astana
• 2013 - EASL Endorsed Liver Symposia Georgia, Tbilisi
• 2013 - Chief of Organizing Committee, Co-chair of 2nd Biannual conference of Armenian Hepatological Forum
• 2013 - Central Asia Gastroenterology Week (EASL Endorsed) Kazakhstan, Almaty
• 2013 - 3rd APASL Single Topic Conference HCC IN 3D Cebu City, Philippines
• 2014 - Member of AARC working group, APASL ACLF. Research Consortium New-Dehli, India
• 2014 - APASL Annual Meeting Australia, Brisbane
• 2014 - EASL Annual Meeting London, UK
• 2014 - Speaker of 1st Symposium on Viral Hepatitis Varadero, Cuba. Invited speaker of 1st Symposium on Viral Hepatitis Varadero,Cuba
• 2014 - Single Topic Conference of Liver Fibrosis with and without HBV and HCV. Cairo, Egypt. Invited speaker in Consensus Congress of Fibrosis and moderator of Conference
• 2014 - 1stTranscacausian International Conference Current Problems of Liver Disease. Tbilisi, Georgia. Member of Scientific Committee and Organizing Committee
• 2014 - Invited speaker of Single Topic Conference of APASL on HCV Karachi, Pakistan
• 2015 - Invited speaker of 24th Annual conference of APASL Istanbul Turkey
• 2015 - Single Topic Conference of APASL on HBV Yerevan, Armenia. Chairman of STC
• 2015 - Invited speaker of Indian STC in New Delhi
• 2016 - Invited speaker of 25th Conference of the APASL
• 2016 - Moderator of 25th Conference of the APASL
• 2017 - Invited speaker of APASL Annual Conference

On the left-hand side of the Sisian-Goris Highway and on the north of Vaghatin village, at the foot of Mount Mets Ishkhanasar is the basalt boulder commonly known as Portakar (phallus). In its center the boulder has a conic convexity. Very interesting ceremonies were held here in the past, and a number of legends have been preserved up to date. According to one, this was a pilgrimage destination for barren women. These women would go there, hold ceremonies and lie on the conic convexity with their belly faced down, and turn around on the boulder for some time. After all the ceremonies were completed, they were healed both psychologically and physically.

Thanks to progressive science and technology, these diseases are healed with other means today; however there are women and girls who stay faithful to the traditions of their ancestors and do the Portakar (phallus) ceremonies, maintaining the belief that they heal and have their own miracles. 

The mysterious, unexplainable, and legendary settlement called Zorats Karer is remarkable and valuable in the milieu of world archeology. Zorats Karer is also known as Tsits Karer (prominent rocks), Dig-dig Karer (towering rocks) and Karahunj. Zorats Karer is one of the few megalithic monuments preserved in the world. It dates back to the III-II millennium B.C. It was built 6000 years ago, and was used for 4000 years up to the adoption of Christianity. A younger example of a building similar to Karahunj is the Stonehenge, preserved in England. The name Karahunj is pronounced similar to Stonehange and it means “Singing rocks” or “Sounding rocks”. Zorats Karer is 3km from Sisian City and it serves as evidence of ancient Armenian astronomical culture. There are dug out refuges, burial grounds (dolmens), cromlechs, menhirs and other cult structures, which are preserved here under а cover of hard rocks.

Remains from walls of strongholds have been preserved here and there. In the center of the settlement is the only two-room dwelling, which apparently belonged to the head of the tribe. It is surrounded by hundreds of large vertical rocks with orderly holes on them. The rocks cover an area of 3 hectares and are placed in a certain order. Holes were made to observe the movement of stars. It may be hard to believe that Karahunj was an astronomical observatory used by primitive men; however, on the other hand it is very probable that primitive men needed to study the movement of stars, which eventually became objects of warship, to find their bearings in time and space. The results of two expeditions conducted in 1994 and 1995 and led by academician Paris Heruni, the director of the Institute of Radio-physical Surveys, led to the conclusion that the cyclopean structure served as a temple, dedicated to the God of Sun. Karahunj was a very precise ancient astronomical observatory. 

The deepest part of the Vorotan gorge is between Tatev and Arzhis (700-800m). Here, the gorge is so narrow that sunrays do not even reach the bottom of it. The “Devil’s Bridge”, the most beautiful and amazing natural miracle of Vorotan gorge, is in one of the deepest parts of it. This natural bridge is 30m long and 50-60m wide and it is a short, yet significant part of the road from Goris to Tatev. The mineral water that spills from sources inside of the rocks, has painted the walls of the Vorotan gorge with rose and yellow colors. Throughout the past, the lime from healing travertine springs was thrown from one wall to the other, creating a great rocky arch over a furious river.  The sides of the bridge have interesting stalactites and the rocky slopes are dribbling cascades. In some parts where there are hot springs, natural baths have arisen by nature’s grace, which can be used for medical purposes. The area underneath the bridge resembles a huge stalactite cave.