Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

Scottish Express, Scotland
May 23, 2012 Wednesday
Edition 1; Scotland

Shame of a Eurovision host

Azerbaijan’s spent millions on this weekend’s song contest, hoping to
banish its image of a corrupt, torturing dictatorship

by Simon Edge; DANIEL GOULD

TWO months ago a 24-year-old rapper called Jamal Ali performed at an
opposition rally in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The focus of the
rally was corruption and political prisoners but Ali upped the ante by
insulting the president’s late mother. After that he was dragged away
by police. He claims he was tortured for two days and his home was
demolished. He has since fled the country.

We’d probably never know of his plight were it not for the 57th annual
Eurovision Song Contest which is taking place in Baku all this week.
Culminating in a final on Saturday watched by an estimated 125 million
people, the competition is seen in Britain as an elaborate joke which
you either laugh with or at. But there is nothing funny about
Azerbaijan’s abysmal human rights record.
“It’s deeply ironic that so soon before Baku takes the world stage for
Eurovision, Azerbaijani authorities were using force to break up and
silence musicians performing at a peaceful protest on the city’s
streets,” says John Dalhuisen of Amnesty, which has called for the
immediate release of 17 political prisoners. “When viewers tune in for
the contest the most convincing way for Azerbaijan to present itself
as a modern, progressive nation will be for the authorities to end
their ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression.”

Located at the ancient crossroads of Europe and Asia, Azerbaijan is a
nation of nine million people bordered by the Caspian Sea, Russia,
Georgia, Armenia and Iran. It supplied almost half the world’s oil at
the start of the 20th century. It was the first modern parliamentary
republic in the Muslim world but was incorporated into the Soviet
Union in 1920. It only regained independence after the collapse of the
Eastern Bloc in 1991.

>From the late Sixties it was run by Soviet strongman Heydar Aliyev.
Shortly after independence he rose to power once more and ruled as
president until six weeks before his death in 2003. Power then passed
to his son Ilham who won an election with 76 per cent of the vote,
prompting allegations of rigging. His friends include Prince Andrew,
who has been goose shooting with him, and Tony Blair, who earned tens
of thousands of pounds for a speech praising him. But more often he is
accused of cronyism, corruption and authoritarianism.

He and his family have embraced Eurovision with enthusiasm. His wife
Mehriban is the head of the preparation committee and his son-in-law
Emin Agalarov, a would-be pop star, will perform during Saturday’s
interlude. There are allegations that the Aliyev family has benefited
financially from the construction of the Crystal Hall, a 25,000-seat
concert venue where the spectacular will take place.

Some 281 families are said to have been evicted from their homes to
make way for its construction, without adequate compensation. These
evictions follow the demolition of an estimated 4,000 other houses
razed as the country’s mineral revenues (it has a huge offshore gas
field as well as oil reserves) are spent on construction.

Eurovision fans arriving in Baku this week have been trying to judge
the place for themselves. “It’s actually a very grand city which I’d
describe as ‘Dubai meets Istanbul’,” says Daniel Gould, a professional
gambling tipster who specialises in Eurovision. “There are boulevards
framed by classical architecture that give it a Parisian feel and
there’s a nice old walled city in the middle. There’s obviously a lot
of money washing around and everything is beautifully manicured. You
get the impression it’s the kind of dictatorship where the president
shows his prestige and power by providing a superficial gloss of
prosperity and grandeur.”

He says the general consensus is that things were disorganised at
first but the final will go off well. “There are absolutely hundreds
of volunteers and security staff everywhere so they’re making sure
everything will be all right on the night.”
Dr Paul Jordan, a political scientist from Cardiff University, is also
a regular on the Eurovision circuit. Having completed his PhD on the
role of the contest in helping form national identity for the newly
independent countries of Eastern Europe, he knows how important it can
be to countries such as Azerbaijan.

HE SAYS: “From a security point of view the situation in Baku makes
Eurovision in Moscow three years ago look tame. There are sniffer dogs
and armed guards around the arena and there are warships on the
horizon in the Caspian Sea. I don’t feel threatened but I’ve never
seen so many guns in a Eurovision press centre.

“For Azerbaijan, which is bidding to host the 2020 Olympics, this is a
superb opportunity. They only joined Eurovision four years ago and
it’s a way of getting them on the map. But with that come some
questions that they don’t want highlighted and which I think need to
be.”

In the face of the criticisms, the Azerbaijani authorities have hired
a senior PR consultant – Rupert Murdoch’s son-in-law Matthew Freud –
to try to boost their image in Britain. They have also hit out at
claims made by Amnesty and another organisation,
Human Rights Watch.

“I want to say that if these organisations continue acting in the same
way they will risk losing the Azerbaijani people’s trust because the
Azerbaijani people see that the statements of these two organisations
have nothing in common with the actual situation in the country,” said
a senior government spokesman this week.

There was initially talk of calls for a boycott of the contest and
dissidents are divided as to whether it is good or bad. “It’s a joke
to have Eurovision in a country with a rights record like
Azerbaijan’s,” says one investigative reporter from Baku who has
experieinced government intimidation. “It would be really great to
hear some kind of message from the stage from some of the contestants
to remind the regime here that Europe is a set of values, not just a
song contest.”

Blogger Emin Milli, who spent two years in prison for YouTube videos
mocking the regime, is glad so many foreigners are there this week.

“Eurovision is an opportunity for the international community to focus
on what is happening in Azerbaijan,” he says. Arguing that a boycott
would have been counter-productive he adds: “The best way to
understand is to come and see it.”

SO WHO ARE THE FAVOURITES?

RUSSIA
A group of grannies in full ethnic clothing start their routine with
some wailing next to a stove in which they are baking pizza. A disco
beat kicks in, they jump up and cry: “Party for everybody! Dance!”
This is definitely the most memorable act.
ITALY
Nina Zilli looks and sounds like Amy Winehouse and is singing an
Amy-style song. Her fashionably retro sound and the attitude she
brings to her performance mean she’s one of the favourites and she
could well take the crown.
FRANCE
This act looks like the French gymnastics team are warming up for the
Olympics during this number, with muscle-bound athletes supporting
pretty singer Anggun. The French do not have a good recent record in
the contest. Could this gimmick turn things around for them?
SWEDEN
This is a tune you would more likely expect in a nightclub than on the
Eurovision stage. Loreen, with her hair often covering much of her
face, puts in some tai-chi and yoga moves as she sings. Snow starts
falling in the final chorus. Some viewers may find it all too weird.
UKRAINE
This is the unofficial theme tune for football’s European
Championships to be held in Poland and the Ukraine where singer
Gaitana is a big star. As she sings men in skirts pretend to play toy
trumpets.
UNITED KINGDOM
Engelbert Humperdinck, at 76 the oldest Eurovision contestant ever,
can certainly sing and his ballad isn’t half bad. We might even win.
IRELAND
Jedward are singing Waterline in an attempt to improve on the eighth
place they achieved last year.
DANIEL GOULD

From: Baghdasarian

Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Russia
May 22 2012

Upsetting the Balance. Tbilisi’s Inconsistency Is Fraught With the
Risk of A Regional Imbalance

Editorial
[translated from Russian]

The Cherkess Days [commemorative events around 21 May, the date on
which the Cherkess themselves mark as a Day of Mourning] began in the
Georgian town of Anaklia [Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region] yesterday. A
memorial was opened to the victims of the genocide of Cherkess under
the Russian Empire, which was recognized a year ago by the Georgian
parliament. A conference organized by the Jamestown Foundation was
held, and there was a concert, an exhibition etc.

The craving for justice that has awoken in Georgian deputies has not
met with understanding among all strata of Cherkess society. Other
prominent representatives of this society regard Tbilisi’s actions as
untimely, and as having been agreed only with a group of Cherkess
radicals. Others go even further, accusing the Georgian side of
exploiting a painful topic solely in order to pique Moscow. Its
actions, they believe, have made more difficult a fair solution to the
problem by the Russian Federation authorities, which is far more
important than the recognition of genocide by Georgia.

The Georgian authorities have encountered accusations also from their
opposition, which has begun to talk about the genocide of Armenians in
Turkey. Its logic is simple: If parliament has accommodated a group of
foreigners and recognized the genocide of Cherkess, on what basis does
it refuse to satisfy a similar request from its Armenian fellow
citizens? The inconsistency is obvious.

This inconsistency was the reason for the “Save David Gareja” march
held on Sunday: Azerbaijani border guards have blocked access to part
of the David Gareja complex [rock-hewn Georgian Orthodox monastery
complex located in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia]. But the
Georgian authorities, contrary to expectations, have declared that the
“closed” churches are on Azerbaijani territory – it is not pleasant,
they say, but there is nothing unlawful here. A counter question has
arisen: How is the fact to be explained that in some cases – for
example, regarding the restoration of mosques erected during the
period of Turkish rule or the Armenian churches that Tbilisi has
declared contested – difficult negotiations with the opposite side
have been going on for umpteen years, while in this case, by one
statement the authorities are giving up several dozen hectares of land
near the borders, and, to all intents and purposes, giving up Georgian
churches along with them, even though the process of delimitating and
demarcating the border with Azerbaijan has not been completed? Once
again, an inconsistency.

It seems that it is possible to kiss all this goodbye. In the final
analysis, to deem what should be given up and what should be clung
onto with a deadly grip, and what should be recognized and what should
be brushed aside, is Georgia’s internal affair. But in fact, the
situation is far more dangerous.

Georgia is entering a pre-election period. For the sake of votes,
politicians, whether they mean to do so or not, are drawing national
communities into “speculative operations.” Naturally, no elections
have ever passed off without attempts to secure their support. But
never before has a battle been waged on such “dangerously explosive
fields” as the one being started right now. Azeri deputies in the
Georgian parliament have protested the proposal to examine the
genocide of Armenians. Armenian deputies have begun to murmur against
their protest. Representatives of the Armenian diaspora have supported
the “Save David Gareja” movement, but representatives of the Azeri
diaspora have not been happy either with the movement, or with the
position of the Armenians.
The highly difficult relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have up
till now not resonated in Georgia. The diasporas have been continuing
their age-old peaceful coexistence. Now symptoms have appeared
suggesting that the ill-considered statements and actions of
politicians – no matter whether from the regime or the opposition camp
– could disturb the equilibrium. Which is fraught with the danger of a
conflict with a pronounced ethnic dimension creeping into a country
with diasporas several thousands strong of mutually hostile peoples
densely populating, apart from Tbilisi, Kvemo Kartli and Javakheti –
regions with a heightened risk of separatism, it goes without
saying… And after all, there is also a special relevance to the
Iranian question here. Or the strategic goal of turning Georgia into
the centre of a Greater Caucasus, which causes their selfish
neighbours to furrow their brows.

Meanwhile, the events in Anaklia have provoked questions from certain
North Caucasus peoples who suffered during the era of the Russian
Empire no less than did the Cherkess, and who feel hurt by the
“favouritism” displayed by Georgia. And this also testifies to the
fact that Tbilisi’s policies, which have points of contact with
problems affecting the whole of the Caucasus, are in need of greater
balance.

[translated from Russian]

From: Baghdasarian

Deutsche Welle Arts and Culture, Germany
May 25, 2012 Friday 4:20 PM EST

Pop and politics in Baku ahead of the ESC finale

Some can sing, some can dance, and some can do neither – but it’s all
fair game at the Eurovision contest. There are 26 candidates remaining
after the semi-finals in the competition to determine Europe’s best
song.

One thing is already clear: This year, Europe isn’t in the mood for
weird rhythms, heavy metal or party hip-hop tracks. Austria, Slovakia
and Montenegro have been voted out before the finale on Saturday. It’s
also not a good year for rock at the Eurovision Song Contest. The
Swiss duo Sinplus with their tune “Unbreakable” were about the only
ones doing indie rock, and they went home on Wednesday.

Ralph Siegel, the man who composed an ESC entry for the 20th time and
furnished the song for San Marino in the contest, was forced to say
goodbye on Tuesday.

But it should make at least a few people glad to hear that Dutch
singer Joan Franka with her country song “You and Me” got the boot
during the second semi-final. Her rather ridiculous feather headdress
was accompanied by vocals that could have easily won her the title
“Worst ESC Singer.”

Techno and soul riding high The Italians are doing something different
once again. Emboldened by their second place win last year with a jazz
musician, they have delivered another song that is anything but
typical ESC schlock. With “L’Amore e Femmina,” Nina Zilli sounds
suspiciously like Amy Winehouse at a few junctures, but the track
brings in some Memphis soul brass and 60s guitars. It has retro charm,
and betting agencies see it going far in the contest.

But if you believe the bookies, one thing is already clear in 2012:
Sweden, the country that delivered Abba and the most popular
Eurovision song of all time, “Waterloo,” will take first prize again
this year. Loreen, the 28-year-old singer with Moroccan roots and a
wild mane, has delivered an infectious tune, “Euphoria,” located
somewhere between the modern and the mystic. It’s euro-trance-techno
with a hymn-like melody that could get plenty of clubbers’ hands in
the air.

For Roman Lob, Germany’s representative, the bookies see a finish just
above the middle of the pack. But the finale is always good for a few
surprises. Fans vs. jury?

The Eurovision winner will be decided partly by audiences voting via
telephone or text message and partly by a professional jury of
musicians and music experts. Conventional wisdom has it that the
public always votes for the garish and glitzy while the jury selects
musical quality. But whether that’s true remains a secret. The results
are added before going public.

One of the critics’ darlings is 25-year-old Kosovo-Albanian Rona
Nishliu from Pristina. With the lament “Suus,” Nishliu delivered an
impressive vocal performance during the first semi-final. She is
likely the best singer in the entire competition, but the song is not
danceable, and the melody isn’t likely to get stuck in people’s ears.
With dreadlocks draped like snakes around her neck and a gown
resembling a lit-up blue curtain, she stands out from the mass of pop
sing-and-dance routines.

But if it’s singing and dancing you’re after, the Buranovskiye
Babushki from Russia may be just the thing. They won over everyone
from the audience to the press as they performed their folksy “Party
for Everybody” in traditional dress – complete with an onstage cookie
baking routine. Maybe it was a result of Turkey’s geographical
proximity to Azerbaijan, or maybe the audience had just had enough of
post-Yugoslavian ballads and 120 beats per minute euro-dance music by
the end of the second semi-final. Whatever the reason, Turkish singer
Can Bonomo and his song “Love Me Back” unleashed nearly as much
enthusiasm from the audience as the Russian grannies had done during
the first semi-final. The pop song with traditional flair made people
in the press office get up and dance a conga line.

Below the surface Though the Azerbaijani government is presenting
itself as open and welcoming, the ESC has not remained free of
political implications. There has been no noticeable censorship in
terms of press reporting, but once the artists involved take a stance
on politics, the authorities step in. Swedish singer Loreen met with
human rights activists, which prompted an immediate complaint on
behalf of the government with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
that the artists should keep their distance from politics. The EBU
hosts Eurovision and has taken a similarly cautious stance. When
Loreen was asked at a press conference about meeting with activists,
the moderator passed on the question, saying the good mood shouldn’t
be diminished with topics like that. The state’s custodians seem to be
present everywhere, even if in small ways. In the Euroclub, the ESC’s
official party location, no music from Armenia is allowed. And there
are rumors that the short films to be played during the show, produced
by Cologne company Brainpool, were replaced a few hours before the
semi-finals with pro-government Russian productions.

The immense police presence coupled with a number of blockades have
contributed to a feeling of uneasiness. The government seems nervous,
and one can only hope that the finale on Saturday night does not lead
to violence between protestors and police.
Author: Matthias Klaus / gsw
Editor: Rick Fulker

From: Baghdasarian

The Australian
May 25, 2012 Friday
1 – All-round Country Edition

Even when the music stops, the batons take up the beat

by JAMES JEFFREY

Is Eurovision an unwitting cover for human rights abusers?

IN Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror,
murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da
Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love.
They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce?
The cuckoo clock.

IF only The Third Man had been made seven years later, Orson Welles’s
Harry Lime could have added Eurovision to Switzerland’s CV, though
whether as an endorsement or indictment would depend on which side of
the irony curtain he was on. For those who don’t recoil from this orgy
of kitsch, there are two main approaches: (a) with a tongue in cheek
and a drinking game in mind, or (b) genuine, rapturous love.

Why do they come? It can’t be for the output. Yes, Eurovision gave the
world ABBA. But that was in 1974 and it’s coughed up few winners of
note since, unless you want to aid the case for the prosecution by
mentioning Celine Dion. (She won for Switzerland; one more for Lime’s
charge sheet, though he might let it slide on the grounds that
Switzerland’s entrant in 1979 was a bloke coaxing music out of a
watering can.) The Eurovision effect can perhaps be best gauged by
Britain. A country renowned for the richness of its pop and rock
culture, its Eurovision champions have included Brotherhood of Man and
Bucks Fizz. It’s a bit like the way socialism harnessed the German
genius for automotive engineering to crank out Trabants. (That said,
it’s suggested Cliff Richard would have won in 1968 if General Franco
hadn’t rigged it.) But why complain the edam doesn’t taste like
chocolate? Eurovision is something else, to be measured by the
indicators peculiar to Euro pop: kitsch outfits, quasi-national
costumes and splendidly flimsy lyrics mixed with a dash of mild
nationalism and a dollop of cheese, all adding up to a gleefully,
fantastically camp parallel universe that feels like being smashed
over the head with a mirror ball stuffed with fairy floss. And, of
course, viewers cast votes.

This weekend the Azerbaijani capital of Baku will deliver that in
spades, and it will all be delightful and hilarious. Then, when it’s
all over, the Azerbaijani government will presumably go back to being
hideous to its own people, or at least those who fail to see eye to
eye with it.

With human rights protesters being beaten and arrested in Baku as
recently as Monday, it’s as good a time as any to ponder how far
Eurovision has drifted from its original purpose. When the song
contest started out in Lugano in 1956, it was meant — in the words of
SBS documentary The Secret History of Eurovision — to “symbolise the
fun and freedom of the West”. Not an unreasonable aim, given the
alternative was demonstrated a few months later when Soviet tanks
smashed Budapest.

But now, with the Iron Curtain long gone, Eurovision is being embraced
in places where the freedom element is patchy at best, and where such
unrestrained campery provokes what could be diplomatically described
as a mixed reaction. When Moscow so lavishly hosted Eurovision in
2009, one of the most memorable aspects turned out to be police
roughing up gay rights activists outside the venue. As Norwegian
winner Alexander Rybak (who won with a tune called Fairytale) asked at
the time, “Why did they spend all their energy stopping the gays in
Moscow when the biggest gay parade was in here tonight?”

And if it wasn’t the Moscow police that year, it was the Eurovision
organisers, the European Broadcasters Union, snuffing out Georgia’s
original entry, We Don’t Wanna Put In, an unsubtle kick at Vladimir
Putin’s regime for its recent invasion of South Ossetia. But with rare
exceptions — Israel’s transsexual winner in 1998, and a Bosnian band
fleeing the siege of Sarajevo to perform in 1993 — Eurovision shies
away from anything that might give the event a spine or, as the EBU
prefers to term it, bring the competition into disrepute. Georgia had
to rethink its entry; neutrality is the name of the game.

As it is again this year in host nation Azerbaijan, whose regime is
less than happy about being known as being an enthusiastic violator of
human rights, endowed with a mindset that hasn’t evolved much since
its days as a Soviet republic. A dozen prisoners of conscience
languish in jail, protesters are routinely harassed and journalists
arrested and-or beaten.

As if to vary the program, the sex life of one problematic journalist
was even covertly filmed, then not so covertly posted online. Out of
179 countries on the Reporters Without Borders press-freedom index,
Azerbaijan came in at No 162 last year. The government in turn blames
anti-Azerbaijani propaganda and lambasts the likes of Amnesty
International.

Even closer to home on the Eurovision front, there have been claims in
previous years of Azeris hauled in for questioning after using their
phones to vote for neighbouring Armenia. (Armenia is pointedly not
attending this year.) Then there are allegations people were still
living inside the apartments when the bulldozers arrived to knock them
down to make way for the venue, the $134 million Crystal Hall, a vast
edifice that looks a cross between a shellfish and a handcuff.

Britain’s entrant, Engelbert Humperdinck — whose breakout song was
1967’s Release Me — was displeased this week when a BBC journalist
had the temerity to seek his view on Azerbaijan’s human rights record.
For good measure, the singer was given a T-shirt bearing the message
“Please release them”.

EBU head Ingrid Deltenre reiterated Eurovision’s neutrality during an
interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, before administering a hearty
pat on the EBU’s back: “We have the Eurovision Song Contest to thank
for the fact that we are now doing this interview and that you are
interested in human rights in Azerbaijan and in the EBU.”

What lurks in the back of some minds is the possibility of Eurovision
being won by Belarus, the bleakest corner of European democracy’s
badlands. This year, the former Soviet republic has sent Litesound,
whose presence in Baku is thanks in no small part to authoritarian
President Alexander Lukashenko, who personally investigated fraud in
the national televote that initially put Litesound in second place.
Anyone wanting to guess how Eurovision’s roving gay fanbase would go
in Minsk could take as a guide this declaration from Lukashenko in
March: “It’s better to be a dictator than to be gay.” Even Putin has
expressed reservations about him.

Back to Der Spiegel:

Spiegel: “So the Eurovision Song Contest can then take place in any
country, regardless of its political system?”

Deltenre: “Yes. In any member country.”

Spiegel: “Even in Belarus.”

Deltenre: “This is definitely the Union’s position today.”

German politician Volker Beck has taken a contrasting stance, telling
Radio Free Europe in Baku, “We cannot tolerate that journalists and
bloggers are pressured, that political prisoners sit in jail, that
protesters are beaten up, while we keep silent and simply applaud the
musicians.”

But many will. Yes, there will be fun tonight and over the weekend.
There’ll be glitz, there’ll be cheese, there’ll be glee. There’ll be a
troupe of singing babushkas from Russia and Austrian group
Trackshittaz delivering “tractor gangster party rap”.
But it will be fleeting. The Eurovision caravan will move on, eyes
buried in its sequined cloak of neutrality, perhaps hoping as it moves
ever further from the cuckoo clocks that it’s entering the realm of
the modern Borgias.
______________________________
>> Eurovision semi-finals screen on SBS1 tonight and Saturday, and the final on Sunday.

From: Baghdasarian

Paper: Syunik administration head to be appointed as Minister of Mines?

May 26, 2012 – 13:49 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – According to Zhoghovurd daily, the Ministry of
Energy and Natural Resources will be divided into 2 separate
structures.`Most probably, current minister Armen Movsisyan will be
appointed as Energy Minister. The new ministry, to be renamed into a
Ministry of Mines, will be headed by Syunik administration chief Suren
Khachaturyan,’ sources told the daily.

Asked to comment on the information above, Khachaturyan said he never
received such an offer and is unaware of ministry restructuring, the
daily said.

From: Baghdasarian

Prosperous Armenia’s decision influenced by external force, expert says

tert.am
18:13 – 26.05.12

Foreign force, possibly Russia, influenced on the decision of the
Prosperous Armenia party (PAP) against formation of a coalition
government with the ruling Republican party, political analyst Edgar
Vardanyan said, speaking to Tert.am.

`I think the impact of an external force is obvious here. It is
difficult to prove it but I suppose it is so,’ the political analyst
said.

He stressed that what Tsarukyan’s statement reads was clear from the
very beginning, thus it is interesting what the PAP and the ruling
Republican were negotiating for two weeks. The expert supposes that
the PAP forwarded claims Serzh Sargsyan considered it impossible to
satisfy, otherwise the PAP would not have taken such a risk as for the
party’s businessmen it is important not to have problems with
authorities.

`I do not think it was an issue of a portfolio. I think an attempt was
made to seize some resources, have greater participation in the
powers. Probably, the ruling coalition has felt that in case it
satisfies the PAP’s demand it will suffer serious losses till the loss
of the full power. It may either be prime minister’s post or other
thing,’ Vardanyan said.

In his opinion the formation of a coalition was beneficial both for
the PAP and the RPA. President Serzh Sargsyan would have won much
easily in the coming elections in case of PAP’s support.

He considered it difficult to predict PAP’s future conduct, saying
everything depends on external factors.

From: Baghdasarian

East of Byzantium – comics about Armenian history (PHOTOS)

January 31, 2012 | 00:01

Comics depicting one of the most famous chapters of the Armenian
history have become popular among comics fans in U.S. The idea of
comics showing the Armenian history belongs to Roger Kupelian, famous
Hollywood producer, writer and matte artist. He was making visual
effects for such films as `Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’,
`The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’, `Constantine’, `Terminator
Salvation’ and others. Roger agreed to answer questions of the
Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter and told about his East of Byzantium
project.

Are you currently working on any film projects or you are mainly
engaged in the East of Byzantium?

I have developed other projects but put them on hold as the impetus is
to put East of Byzantium onto the fast track. People also forget I am
a very busy participant in the Hollywood Visual Effects industry. I
have to pay bills too.

How did the idea of East of Byzantium come into your head? When did
you launch the project and do you have any ideas how to present the
Armenian history through comics or other means?

The Vartan Mamigonian and Armenian Wars Mythology has always played a
part in my upbringing. You can thank my parents for that. Once the
tools presented themselves, the imagery began to flow. The point of
the Graphic Novels(online comics etc) were to serve as a foundation
for televised or cinematic projects, a kind of ‘bible’ if you will.
But at the very least the goal is to provide an exciting and sublime
experience for young (and young at heart) readers. The secondary goal
was to reach beyond the Armenian world and make this an
internationally appreciated story (which is why I simplified the
approach and focused more on the visuals). My goal is to reinvent and
reinforce a mythology for our modern age we can draw strength from.
You have recently cooperated with Serj Tankian and prepared
illustrations for his `Glaring Through Oblivion’ collection of poems.
Do you plan to launch other joint projects with Tankian or other
Armenian celebrities?

Serj and I have discussed other projects but we are both quite busy
with our current roster of upcoming releases. Who knows. There are
always ideas. Both of us serve on the advisory board for TUMO, for
example. As far as other Armenian celebrities, I am sure the future
holds the answer to that.

From: Baghdasarian

Toilets

Friday, May 25th, 2012 | Posted by Garen Yegparian Share Print

asbarez
Garen Yegparian

Bathroom, boys’/girls’/men’s/women’s room, can, crapper, head, john,
latrine, lavatory, loo, outhouse, potty, powder room, washroom, WC,
ardaknotz, bedkaran, cordzaran, lvatzaran, zookaran… with so many
words for it, you’d think these places would be ubiquitous, easily
available.

It turns out, they’re not. At least not in the Republic of Armenia,
and not where they’re most needed.

This stinky situation came up last night at a program with Edik
Baghdasaryan, of Hetq.am – the investigative journalism publication in
Armenia.

An expert in tourism, a man who has been in the travel industry for
decades, broached this subject. He noted that he’d raised this issue
with the relevant authorities, and his entreaties and proposals had
gone unheeded.

Tellingly, Edik cringed as he described dreading `the question’ when
he had visiting friends with him at touristic sites in Armenia. He
noted that neither our greatest churches nor other touristic
attractions have conveniently located facilities for when his guests
needed to go. He also said they’d addressed this issue at Hetq.
Finally, he suggested starting a campaign for toilets in Armenia.

So here it is… the first odoriferous salvo in the great toilet war.
Please, start telling the Armenia Fund, church leaders, enemies,
friends, government officials, hosts, hotels, organizations,
parliamentarians, political parties, relatives, and basically anybody
else that will listen `we want toilets’.

For a country that is betting on tourism as one of the drivers of its
economic growth, the absence of toilets is inconceivable. It’s high
time the Front for Armenia’s Respectable Toilets (FART) was
established!

Of course we all know that every joke has its kernel of seriousness,
so despite the humorous way this piece is written in (hopefully you
agree), I am very serious that we must act on this issue and bring it
to a positive, beneficial, bathroom-building conclusion.

Let’s do this folks, let’s embarrass the Armenia’s leaders into doing
the right thing for the country, its tourist industry’s visitors, and
all our bowels and bladders.

From: Baghdasarian

FREEDOM OF SPEECH LIMITATION SIGNIFICANT HUMAN RIGHTS PROBLEM IN ARMENIA, US DEPARTMENT OF STATE REPORTS

tert.am
25.05.12

US Department of State has published the annual report on Human Rights
Practices for 2011.

In a section relating to Armenia, the report registers that in 2008
Serzh Sargsian became president after a significantly flawed election.
The ruling coalition, led by Sargsian’s Republican Party of Armenia,
continued to dominate the political system. Security forces reported
to civilian authorities.

According to the report, the most significant human rights problems
were limitations on citizens’ right to change their government,
freedom of speech and press, and the independence of the judiciary.
“The government released the remaining six opposition members detained
in connection with the 2008 clashes between security forces and
protesters disputing the outcome of the 2008 presidential election.
Since April 28 the government began permitting demonstrations and
opposition rallies in previously restricted areas of the capital
city, and all were held without incident, although demonstrators from
outside of Yerevan at times were impeded in their attempts to travel
to rallies,” the report registers.

Referring to the media, the report states that the media, in particular
television, continued to lack diversity of political opinion and
objective reporting. The government decriminalized libel and defamation
but established high new civil fines that encouraged journalists and
media outlets to practice self-censorship. The process used to switch
from analog to digital television reduced media pluralism.

As to the courts, the report claims that they remained subject to
political pressure from the executive branch, and judges operated in
a judicial culture that expected courts to find the accused guilty
in almost every case. “During the year suspicious deaths occurred
in the military under noncombat conditions, while hazing and other
mistreatment of conscripts by officers and fellow soldiers, and a
lack of accountability for such actions, continued,” the report runs.

The report says many prisons were overcrowded, unsanitary, and
lacking in medical services for inmates. “Police reportedly beat
citizens during arrest and interrogation. Authorities continued to
arrest and detain criminal suspects without reasonable suspicion and
to detain individuals arbitrarily due to their opposition political
affiliations or political activities. Authorities and laws restricted
religious freedom for certain groups. Corruption remained a problem,
with authorities taking limited measures to curb it. Domestic violence
remained a problem but largely went unreported to authorities,”
the report states.

The full text of the report is available here.

From: Baghdasarian

Belgique : l’extreme-droite turque tient son Congres a Liege

Publie le : 25-05-2012

Info Collectif VAN – – Après avoir vu son Congrès
interdit a Namur, l’extreme-droite turque – representee par le parti
MHP (proche des Loups Gris) – a finalement reussi a obtenir une
salle de reunion a Liège ce dimanche 20 mai 2012. Une satisfaction
pour le leader Devlet Bahceli qui y a attaque ” le lobby armenien
” en ces termes : “Il est evident que nos paroles en France ont
derange la conspiration du genocide. Ils ont ramene leur campagne
de calomnies en Belgique. La mentalite armenienne a encore rate sa
cible.” Bahceli, lui, a perdu une occasion de se taire et de se faire
discret. Le Collectif VAN vous propose la traduction de cet article
en turc paru sur TRT Haber.

TRT Haber

La reaction de Bahceli au lobby armenien au sujet du problème de la
“salle”

Le leader de MHP a dit “la mentalite armenienne a encore rate sa
cible”.

Le president du MHP, Devlet Bahceli, a attaque le lobby armenien
qui avait empeche d’obtenir une salle de reunion pour le Congrès de
son parti en Belgique. Il a precise qu’ils [le MHP] avaient gagne
le procès ouvert contre la municipalite, il a ajoute “la mentalite
armenienne a encore rate sa cible”. Bahceli a repondu egalement aux
allegations du genocide.

Il a commente la crise autour de la salle a Liège

Devlet Bahceli, qui participait au congrès turc organise en Belgique
dans la ville de Liège, a commente la crise autour de la salle quelques
jours avant le congrès.

“D’après leur calculs, ils comptaient se venger ”

Bahceli a attaque le lobby armenien qui avait ete influent sur la
decision de la municipalite de Namur qui n’avait pas voulu donner
la salle : “Il est evident que nos paroles en France ont derange la
conspiration du genocide. Ils ont ramene leur campagne de calomnies
en Belgique. Ils ont ainsi cru pourvoir se venger, en utilisant les
moyens dont ils disposent. Ils ont essaye de dresser des obstacles
devant nous.”

“Encore une fois, ils ont rate leur cible”

Bahceli a commente la decision de jugement qui leur a donne la salle
suite a leur plainte.

Le leader du MHP a dit : “La mentalite armenienne a encore une fois
rate sa cible, elle a fourni des efforts inutiles. Les paroles
exprimees a mon egard et a l’egard de mes camarades (de la cause
politique) ont ete suivies de près. ”

A l’accusation de “fasciste” la reponse “regardez-vous dans le miroir”

Bahceli a interpelle la diaspora armenienne qui l’avait qualifie de
“fasciste ” et il a dit “regardez-vous dans un miroir”. “Si vous
voulez savoir qui est raciste et voir a quoi ressemblent les traits
d’un raciste, vous devez vite vous mettre devant un miroir et vous
observer vous-meme de la tete au pied”.

Bahceli a egalement ajoute: ” le peuple turc n’a rien dans son
passe qu’il ne puisse affronter et rien dont il ne puisse rendre
des comptes”.

Traduction du turc : S.C. pour le Collectif VAN – 24 mai 2012 –
07:15 –

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : TRT Haber

From: Baghdasarian