‘CNN Traveller’ Introduces

[Semetoja]

‘CNN Traveller’ Introduces

Armenia to a Vast Audience

(LONDON) CNN Traveller magazine, one of the world’s leading travel magazines with a worldwide readership of more than 800,000, features Armenia’s ecology in its current (April) issue.

This is the highest-circulation travel magazine to ever feature Armenia in its pages, and it is the most widely-circulated magazine feature on Armenia in the United Kingdom, where CNN Traveller is published. The story thus introduces Armenia to a vast audience.

The feature describes the current state of the environment in Armenia, as measured by the health and biological diversity of its bird population—a marker that scientists believe is one reliable measure of a region’s ecological health.

Armenia has a “disproportionately large number of bird species within its modest geographic area,” write the story’s authors Robert Kurkjian and Matthew Karanian, and this explains part of the attraction that the country has to ornithologists and other scientists, they say.

Kurkjian and Karanian are experts on the Armenian environment. Kurkjian is an environmental scientist with a Ph D from the University of California. Karanian is an attorney who teaches environmental law at the American University of Armenia. They are also professional photographers, and their images illustrate the CNN story, as well as dozens of other magazine stories they have co-authored about Armenia and Karabagh.

Their CNN story is an account of a birding expedition that had been organized by the American University of Armenia’s “Birds of Armenia” research project. The project, which is funded by the Armenian-American philanthropist and conservationist Sarkis Acopian, has been working for the past decade to raise environmental awareness in Armenia.

The magazine story’s authors, Karanian and Kurkjian, are also the authors and photographers who created the recently-released country guide, “The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and Karabagh.” Their book includes a chapter on Armenia’s conservation efforts.

The editors of CNN Traveller write that it is “the first stand-alone guide to this often forgotten part of the world.” At 304-pages, “The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and Karabagh” is also the most comprehensive country guide for the region, and it features 75 stunning color photographs and 25 detailed maps.

The book is available directly from Amazon.com and from independent Armenian booksellers. To order the book directly from the publisher, send a check or money order for $32 (postpaid) to Stone Garden Productions; PO Box 7758; Northridge, CA 91327.

Sample pages of the book, and the full text and images of the CNN magazine story, can be viewed at www.StoneGardenProductions.com. The photographs that appear in the magazine, as well as hundreds of others, can be viewed at www.ArmenianPhotography.com.