Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARMENIAN, RWANDAN GENOCIDES JUXTAPOSED IN NEW PLAY

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 21, 2012 – 16:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Playwright Rahul Varma’s decision to juxtapose the
Armenian and the Rwandan genocides n his new play, State of Denial,
makes for a doubly sobering evening of educational drama, Montreal
Gazette reports.

“Although many films have been made about the genocide, including Atom
Egoyan’s 2002 movie Ararat, this is the first play I have seen on the
subject. (A quick Internet search turned up Joyce Van Dyke’s Deported
/a dream play, now playing in Boston.),” the author of the article,
Pat Donnelly, writes.

“The current Turkish government remains in a state of official denial
about the massacre of the Armenians, which Hitler once boasted no
one would remember. In contrast, news of the Rwandan genocide spread
quickly around the world once the killing began, along with horrifying
images on television screens.”

In order to bring both tragedies into his story, Varma shows a young
Rwandan-born Canadian documentary filmmaker named Odette (played by
Helen Koya) pursuing the life story of a Muslim woman named Sahana
(Rachelle Glait). Sahana has devoted her life to helping female
Armenian massacre survivors in Turkey overcome the aftermath of the
genocide. On her deathbed, she reveals a hidden past, leaving Odette
to connect the dots of the diaspora to Sahana’s Canadian granddaughter
(portrayed by Natalie Tannous).

Odette is clearly pursuing this story as part of her own healing
process after losing family members in the Rwandan massacre.

The Armenian ambassador to Canada, Armen Yeganian, attended opening
night and said a few words, remarking that the play spoke for itself.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about State of Denial is that it
was written by a playwright born in India and features a multicultural
cast, none of whom are of Armenian background.

There will be panel discussions on Sunday and April 1, following the
2 p.m. matinees. The play runs two hours, including intermission.

DEFENDERS OF MASHTOTS PARK ARE GOING TO MARK 40 DAYS OF THEIR STRUGGLE

arminfo
Wednesday, March 21, 15:42

The defenders of Mashtots Park are going to mark the 40 days of their
struggle against the Yerevan Municipality’s project to build trade
pavilions there.

They are planning to hold different events, like an hour of the
guitar, chess and backgammon tournaments as well as photo and best
cake competitions.

6 ARMENIAN PLAYERS WIN INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 21, 2012 – 10:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The 1st round of European Individual Men’s Chess
Championship was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, resulting in 6 victories,
3 draws and one defeat by Armenian players.

Sergei Movsesian gained a victory over Miodrag Perunovic (Serbia),
Robert Hovhannesyan beat Marco Codenotti from Italy, while Samvel
Ter-Sahakyan defeated Russia’s Alexander Chudinovskikh .

Hrant Melkumyan beat Gil Popilsky (Israel), Arman Pashikian won over
Christian Braun (Germany), and Zaven Andreasian defeated Georgi Filev
(Bulgaria).

Vladimir Akopian tied the game against Andreas Hagen (Denmark),
Gabriel Sargissian played a draw with Hovhannes Gabuzyan, and Tigran
L. Petrosian tied the game with Burak Firat (Turkey).

Vladimir Poghosian was the only Armenian representative to lose to
Bulgaria’s Papp Gabor.

WITNESS IN ARTAK NAZARYAN CASE DIDN’T AGREE TO SIGNING ANY PRE-TRIAL STATEMENTS

epress.am
03.21.2012

Two witnesses were examined in a Tavush regional court on Tuesday
in the case of rifle platoon commander Artak Nazaryan, who died
on a military base on Jul. 27, 2010 – Artak Hovhannisyan, who said
that he wasn’t involved in the investigation, and Rafayel Evoyan,
who described incidents that had nothing to do with his pre-trial
testimony. This news was conveyed to Epress.am by Helsinki Association
for Human Rights representative Ruben Martirosyan (pictured, right),
who is also representing the victim’s legal successor in the case.

“Artak Hovhannisyan refused to sign off on six statements in the
criminal case. In one of these it says he was an assistant; in another
it says that he participated in handing over Artak Nazaryan’s things,
his mobile phone; and in another, it says that he participated in
handing over the mobile phones of other soldiers. But as he said in
the court, he didn’t participate in any aspect of the investigation,
he doesn’t know what the investigator wrote about, and he doesn’t
know the investigator who wrote up those reports,” said Martirosyan.

As described by the human rights lawyer, the other witness, Rafayel
Evoyan, testified that he described something else, but investigator
Levon Poghosyan told him, “Write that you’ve read it, sign it and go
to the service.”

The witness said in court that which is written in his pre-trial
statement is untrue and those are not his words.

According to Martirosyan, state prosecutor Harutyun Harutyunyan,
in response, said the witness was under pre-trial detention for
three months and is becoming criminal-like, explaining this is why
he’s lying.

In court, the witness, Rafayel Evoyan, also said the victim had killed
himself. When asked how he knows this, Evoyan said the investigator,
Levon Poghosyan, told him, while showing him photos of the corpse
and saying Artak Nazaryan committed suicide.

Taking all this as a basis, the victim’s party made a motion for the
judge to withdraw on the grounds that he is not impartial. Judge Samvel
Mardanyan will state his ruling on the motion at the next court date,
set for Mar. 27 at 12 pm.

PUBLIC DEMANDS THAT DEFENSE MINISTRY STOP PRESSURE ON THE MEDIA COVERING THE ARMY’S PROBLEMS

ARMINFO
Tuesday, March 20, 16:30

The Army In Reality NGO demands that Armenia’s Defense Ministry stop
its pressure on the media covering the army’s problems.

The NGO says that it has become a tradition to summon journalists
reporting incidents in the army to the Defense Ministry and to force
them to say who their sources were.

“This is a psychological pressure, aimed at distracting the public’s
attention from the problems in the army. Despite the Defense Minister’s
assurances that they control the situation in the army, the violence
against servicemen continues, while the pressure on the journalists
reporting such instances is growing. We demand that this policy be
stopped, the crimes be solved and those guilty be punished,” the
NGO says.

Earlier Armenia’s Military Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan said that
the Government was considering the possibility of legally obliging
journalists to name their sources. He said that several journalists
had already been summoned to the Defense Ministry and asked to give
explanations. “If a journalist publishes a report about some tragic
event in the army, we will ask the court to force him to disclose
his source,” Kostanyan said.

Some 36 servicemen were killed in the Armenian army in 2011 against
60 in 2010, 30 of them as a result of military hazing.

HEAD OF YEREVAN PRESS CLUB: MASS MEDIA MUST SHOW EQUAL ATTITUDE TO ALL PARTIES BUT STILL HAVE THEIR PREFERENCES

arminfo
Tuesday, March 20, 16:26

Even though the ruling Republican Party is still in the spotlight,
the TV coverage of Armenia’s political parties has become more equal
since Dec 2011, Head of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan said
on Wednesday while familiarizing journalists with the preliminary
results of the club’s monitoring.

The percentage of positive news has dropped from 10% to 7.2%.

The most active in covering the election campaign was Knetron TV
channel, the least active – Shant, but the latter made no single biased
statement in March, which is quite good, according to Navasardyan.

He believes that mass media must show equal attitude towards political
parties but the point is that each TV channel has its owner, who has
his political preferences.

He noted that 29 of 30 positive comments made on TY in March were about
the Republican Party, while most of the negative comments concerned
the Armenian National Congress. “Our goal is to prevent not only this
but also the practice of hidden advertising,” Navasardyan said.

“In general the survey has shown that we are moving towards the
equality of our parties,” he concluded.

The OSCE has allocated almost 55,000 EUR for coverage of the
forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia and
monitoring of the local mass media.

ZEMFIRA’S BAKU CONCERT CANCELLED

epress.am
03.20.2012

Well-known Russian rock artist of Bashkir descent Zemfira, who was
to have a concert in Baku on Mar. 23, won’t be performing before her
Azeri fans due to “the failure of the organizer to fulfill contractual
obligations,” according to the singer’s official website.

This statement, however, has stunned concert organizers, who insist
that those authorized to act on Zemira’s behalf requested to postpone
the concert due to the singer’s health. This request, according to
concert organizer BUTA Production, had been met, but now Zemfira’s
site reports something completely different.

“We were told about Zemfira’s worsening health and asked to postpone
the concert. We then took the necessary measures. We were simply
stunned when we read on Zemfira’s site the statement about us not
fulfilling certain contractual obligations,” said BUTA Production
manager Nasib Piriyev.

ARMENIA’S ECONOMY REGISTERS 6.3% GROWTH

ARMENPRESS
MARCH 20, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenia”s economy has registered
growth in all the branches in February of the running year: as
compared with the same span of the past year the GDP registered 6.3%
growth. National Statistical Service of Armenia told Armenpress that
according to the March 20 information the volume of the industrial
product in the same period made 77 billion 341.6 million AMD, which
is 16.2% more as compared with the February 2011.

The agricultural GDP in February made 22 billion 174.3 million AMD.

The index is the same as compared with the same span of 2011 but as
compared with the January 2012 it has gone up by 42.6%.

TAX LEGISLATION IS APPLIED SELECTIVELY IN ARMENIA – HOTEL DIRECTOR

NEWS.AM
March 20, 2012 | 01:04

YEREVAN. – Tax legislation is not applied equally to all the hotels
in Armenia. French enterpriser with Armenian origins, the director of
Europe Hotel in Yerevan Nubar Tatikian told the reporter of Armenian
News-NEWS.am.

According to him, inequality creates more favorable conditions for
a number of hotels-competitors.

“When the time for paying taxes comes, we pay 100%. However, a number
of hotels-competitors do not register all their guests, due to which
they are able to offer lower prices. But the law must equal to all,”
Tatikian said.

Commenting on profitability of the hotel business in Armenia, Tatikian
mentioned that compared to neighboring countries, hotel and flight
tickets are more expensive in Armenia. According to him that is
because of high taxes in Armenia – VAT, as well as customs services.

“There are 6-7 different types of taxes and that affects the prices,”
he added.

FIVE SYRIAN ARMENIANS INJURED IN DAMASCUS BLAST

news.am
March 19, 2012 | 15:28

Five Syrian Armenians were injured in the terrorist attack in Damascus,
Nouvelles d`Arménie reports referring to its sources. The magazine
says their lives are not in danger.

Earlier it was reported that an Armenian woman Araxie Bedrossian
was among the fatalities of the terrorist act that occurred in the
Christian section of Aleppo, Syria, on March 18.