the same. Some pieces of the outer walls remain sitting next to the church with carvings on them. Ashtarak Walnut Festival The Ashtarak Walnut Festival is taking place every year during the month of October to promote the fame of the delicious walnut of Ashtarak. It was first celebrated in 2012. The festival is organized by the French-Armenian owners of the local Pascal & Diodato café. Transportation Ashtarak is a satellite of Yerevan and connected with the capital through the Ashtarak highway. The M-1 Motorway connects Ashtarak with northwestern Armenia, including the city of Gyumri, while the M-3 Motorway connects the town with northeastern Armenia up to the Georgian border. Taxi services are available in the town while public vans locally-known as marshrutka, operate regular trips between Ashtarak and Yerevan throughout the day. Economy Ashtarak is one of the major industrial centre of Aragatsotn Province. The industrial sector of the town is based on food-processing, dairy products and beverages, mainly processing the domestic raw materials and grapes. Ashtarak is home to the "Ashtarak-Kat" company (founded in 1995), the leading ice-cream and dairy products manufacturer in Armenia. The town is also home to the "Gourmet Dourme" chocolate factory founded in 2007, the "P & D Group Armenia" for plastic containers founded in 2007, as well as the "Milen Art" plant and the "Kharam Cooperative" for building materials production. With several restaurants and recreation areas, the valley of Kasagh river -locally known as Ashtaraki dzor- is a major destination for visitors from Yerevan and other areas. Education Ashtarak is home to 7 public education schools and 6 pre-school kindergartens. It is also home to the Ashtarak State Vocational School, which is an intermediate technical college. 2 major scientific research institutions of Armenia are based in Ashtarak: Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics: founded in 1960 as the research and development branch of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, in the fields of radio engineering, automatic control, theoretical physics, solid state physics, semiconductors and superconductivity. Mikael Ter-Mikaelian Institute for Physical Research: founded in 1967 as the physical research organization of the National Academy of Sciences, involved in the fields of laser physics, material science and related areas. Sport FC Mika was founded in 1999 on the basis of the merger of 2 football clubs: Mika Ashtarak and Kasagh Ashtarak Under the merger, the name of the new club became Mika-Kasagh Ashtarak. However, the merger