CEE/Newsletter/October 2017/Contents/Armenia report

Armenia report: First artificial wiki-reef is in the Lake Sevan, Armenia

By Arminé Aghayan

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

September 29, 2017. Wikimedia Armenia office is full of excited Wikipedians discussing current projects, work being and to be done and, another excitement, Wikipedia logo, sculptured one year ago and opened during Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2016 in Dilijan, will find its place as an artificial reef at the bottom of Lake Sevan.

Last group photo with the Wikipedia globe still over ground

Another 1.5 hours of talks and discussions in the bus heading to Lake Sevan. As the door of the bus was open, the breeze of Sevan welcomed wikipedians. We walked some 200 meters to the shore of Sevan where the Wikipedia Logo with 2 meter height and 2 meter width was standing covered with Arm Diving poster. The idea of creating this logo and diving it into Sevan belongs to a member of the Board of Wikimedia Armenia, Tigran Azizbekyan, who is also President of the ArmDiving club.

Submerging the Wiki Logo Monument into the Lake Sevan

The lake and the waves were impatient to meet Wiki Logo Monument. We were lucky enough to see and talk to the sculptor – Ashot who created Wiki Logo Monument and divers who helped logo go deep into Sevan.

Susanna Mkrtchyan said that the initiative is of symbolic meaning. She joked with colleagues before the logo was submerged, “We developed Wikipedia, now we’re taking it deeper”, noting that not only the number of Wikipedia articles matters, but also the depth of information they provide.

I was bit more excited as I was accompanied by Fluffy (a hedgehog plushie) who will help me during different Wiki projects and events and Wiki Logo diving was his first event.