Category: 2019

Protest action in support of Konstantin Orbelian is held outside the government building in Yerevan: Pashinyan listened to culture persons

Jirair Kafian
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Naira Badalian

ArmInfo.Employees of the Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Armenia. In the morning, Spendiaryan began a protest action outside the government building of the  republic. They demand that the order be canceled. Minister of Culture  of Armenia Nazeni Garibyan on the dismissal of the director of the  theater Konstantin Orbelian. Culture workers were received by Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

At the beginning of the protest, the protesters announced that they wanted to send a letter of appeal to the Prime Minister stating that the order to the Acting President.  Minister of Defense to relieve Konstantin Orbelian from the post of  Director of the Opera and Ballet Theater and the plan to “optimize”  the theaters filled the cup of patience of the theater world.

 The letter noted that the Ministry of Culture only hindered the  activities of theaters, as well as the law on GNCO. According to  theatrical figures, a person who believes that “opera is not a  theater,” and artistic director’s position is not creative, and so  on, cannot be headed by the Ministry of Culture. As a result, they  demand the resignation of Nazeni Gharibyan and adequate cultural  policies. The protesters point to the disrespectful attitude of  Garibyan towards culture and its leaders, which contradict the laws,  orders and orders signed by it. As one of the employees of the  theater said, they are not protesting against a particular person,  but only care about the prosperity of the theater, which in the past  year and a half has developed rapidly. “As for the explanations of  the Ministry of Culture that Orbelyan does not speak Armenian (which  is a violation of the law), I must say that it is even a shame to  talk about this, the music does not know the language,” he said.After  the meeting with the prime minister, the theater staff said that a  temporary decision was made. Namely, the obligations of the director  of the theater will be temporarily assigned to the deputy director,  and Konstantin Orbelian will perform the functions of artistic  director. During this period, artists will have to submit their  counter-arguments to the cabinet. 

According to opera singer Liparit Avetisyan, they are fighting  against the system, and not just a person.  “The question is that we  are fighting not against the face, but against the system according  to which all the controls are in the hands of the director. In the  theater, this interferes with creative life”,- he said.A spokesman  for the Prime Minister, Vladimir Karapetyan, in turn, said that the  demands of the staff of the Opera and Ballet Theater would be heard  and relevant decisions made on the spot. Recall that the Acting  Minister of Culture of Armenia, Nazeni Gharibyan, by decree of March  28 of this year. relieved Konstantin Orbelian of the post of Director  of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after A.   Spendiaryan. As the basis of K. Orbelyan’s release from office, the  Ministry of Culture cites article 15 of the Law of the Republic of  Armenia , which states:

“She offered me to quit myself, but I refused. My contract as  director of the Theater expires after 1.5 years, that is, very  weighty justifications are needed for my dismissal. I consider the  decision of Garibyan illegal and it will be appealed in court,”  Orbelian. On the same day, March 29, Garibyan announced that the name  of the new director of the Opera Theater will be known on April 1.  Orbelian himself stated that in this case he would leave the theater  altogether.Orbelyan, along with a brilliant pianist career, has also  developed a wide range of activities in the opera field as a  conductor and artistic director. In particular, in 1991-2009 he was  artistic director and chief conductor of the State Academic Chamber  Orchestra of Russia. In 2003, Orbelyan, the first foreigner who does  not have Russian citizenship, was awarded the honorary title of  Honored Artist of Russia. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of  Friendship for his great contribution to the popularization of  Russian culture outside Russia. 

Tigran Avinyan on dismissal of Konstantin Orbelyan: There can be no privileged in any field, including the cultural sector

Khoyetsian Rose
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Naira Badalian

ArmInfo.”Everyone is equal before the law,” Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said in an interview with journalists, referring to the release of Konstantin Orbelyan  from the post of Director of the National Academic Theatre of Opera  and Ballet after A. Spendiaryan.

“Respecting the merits of Mr. Orbelyan, nevertheless, privileged in  any sector, including the sector of culture, cannot be,” he said.

When asked whether it’s a violation of the law that Deputy Culture  Minister Nazeni Gharibyan herself (who signed the order for  Orbelyan’s release, Ed. note) has dual citizenship to France and  Armenia, and occupies a state post, Avinyan said that there should be  no violation of the law. “The post of minister does not allow you to  have dual citizenship, the deputy minister is allowed. In general,  the issue is very sensitive, and if we want to further involve  representatives of the diaspora in our public and political life,  then I am sure that this policy needs to be revised,” vice premier.

Earlier today, the staff of the National Academic Theatre of Opera  and Ballet after A. Spendiaryan held a protest outside the building  of the Government of the Republic, demanding the cancellation of the  order acting of Minister of Culture of Armenia Nazeni Gharibyan on  the dismissal of director of the theater Konstantin Orbelyan. Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan received culture workers. “At the moment we  are satisfied with the meeting with the Prime Minister of Armenia  Nikol Pashinyan,” said the conductor Harutyun Arzumanyan, who,  together with 6 other employees of the theater, met with the Prime  Minister. According to him, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers  guaranteed that no one would be appointed to the position of director  today before the theater staff studied the reasons for the dismissal  of Konstantin Orbelyan.

The duties of the director of the Opera will be assigned to the  deputy director, and Orbelyan will continue to perform the functions  of artistic director. “The guarantees are valid until the theater’s  staff refuted the arguments presented to the prime minister by the  ministry, on the basis of which Orbelyan was dismissed.  A number of  the ministry’s arguments be out of character to reality Mr Prime  Minister said that if at least one of the points presented by the  Ministry of Culture was false, the one who submitted them would  immediately be punished and released from work, “the conductor noted.

To recall, First Deputy Minister of Culture of Armenia, Nazeni  Gharibyan, by decree of March 28 of this year relieved Konstantin  Orbelyan of the post of Director of the National Academic Theatre of  Opera and Ballet after A. Spendiaryan. As the basis of K. Orbelyan’s  release from office, the Ministry of Culture cites article 15 of the  Law of the Republic of Armenia ,  which states:

Nikol Pashinyan Congratulated Assyrians of Armenia on National Holiday

Frangulian Shushan
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Tatevik Shahunyan

ArmInfo.Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated the Assyrians of Armenia on the National Holiday.  In the congratulatory message of the Prime Minister, in  particular, says:  

“Dear representatives of the Assyrian community of  Armenia I cordially congratulate you on the Assyrian New Year, Kha b’  Nisan (or Ha b’ Nisin, ED. note). Through destiny have the Armenian  and Assyrian peoples, who have cultural relations of many centuries,  withstood together numerous challenges, and shared each other’s both  sorrow and joy. A part of Assyrians scattered all around the world  have for a long time settled in Armenia, becoming an inseparable part  of our society. It has had its permanent and undeniable contribution  to the multilateral development and progress of our country. Let this  magnificent spring holiday of love and fertility symbolizing the  rebirth of nature be a beginning of new constructive plans and  realization of ideas for our brotherly people Assyrian people. I am  wishing you welfare and realization of all honest goals”. 

Bryza: Vienna meeting Aliyev-Pashinyan is a good sign from a diplomatic point of view towards the settlement of the Karabakh conflict

Emma Nadirian
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo. The Vienna meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is a good sign from a diplomatic point of view  towards the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This opinion  was expressed by former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, ex-co-chairman  of the OSCE Minsk Group (MG) Matthew Bryza.

“In fact, it is positive that both leaders reiterated their call to  strengthen the cease-fire along the line of contact of the troops and  create an environment conducive to peace,” he told Trend.Bryza noted  that these steps are encouraging signs that the two leaders are  building constructive personal relationships, step by step, which is  a prerequisite for making the difficult decisions necessary to  complete the development of a framework for a peace agreement.

Military Medical Faculty of YSMU is recognized as a center for training military medical personnel of the CSTO countries

Emma Jilavian
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Asya Balayan

ArmInfo.Rector of the State Medical University named after Heratsi Armen Muradyan met with military attache of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan,  Colonel Mukhtar Maykeev on April 1.

During the visit, training opportunities in the field of military  medicine were discussed. According to Muradyan, the military medical  faculty continues to remain the center of military medical education  for the CIS countries.

The Military Attache of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of  Kazakhstan presented to the Rector of YSMU the heads of the surgical  departments of the Military Medical Hospital of Almaty and Astana,  who are going to undergo a one month retraining in YSMU hospitals and  military hospitals of the Ministry of Defense. “It is joyful that  military cooperation between Armenia and Kazakhstan continues in the  framework of military medical education,” said Maykeev, stressing  Armenia’s rich experience in military medicine.

It should be noted that the military medical faculty of YSMU is  recognized as a center for training military medical personnel of the  CSTO countries. 

Turkish inspectors will inspect Armenia

Tambiyan Samvel
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo.A multinational group of inspectors from Turkey will visit Armenia on April 1-4.

The visit will take place within the framework of the Vienna Document  of 2011, the Ministry of Defense told ArmInfo. The purpose of the  visit of the Turkish inspectors is to carry out the inspection of the  “specified area” in the territory of Armenia.

Aram I visited the Armenian humanitarian mission in Aleppo

Nahapetian Samvel
Arminfo, Armenia
April 1 2019
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo. The Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, Aram I, who is on a visit to Syria, visited the representatives of the Armed Forces of Armenia, carrying out a  humanitarian mission in Syria. This was reported on the page of the  Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia on Facebook.

“Aram I just visited the Armenian group carrying out a humanitarian  mission in Syria, which consists of sappers, doctors and Armenian  specialists, ensuring their immediate security,” the source informed  To note, Aram I went to Syria on March 29 of this year. The purpose  of the visit is to re-illuminate the Church of the Forty Martyrs in  Aleppo.

To recall, the humanitarian mission of the Armed Forces of Armenia  consisting of 83 people left for Syrian Aleppo on February 8 of this  year. The goal is to carry out demining work in the  Armenian-populated Aleppo, to ensure security, and also to provide  them with medical assistance. 

Protesting Yerevan Opera Theater staff ‘satisfied’ with outcomes of meeting with PM

Maral Takmazian
Panorama, Armenia
April 1 2019

The artists at the Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after Alexander Spendiaryan protesting the theater director’s dismissal are at the moment satisfied with the outcomes of a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, conductor Harutyun Arzumanyan told reporters outside the government HQ.

The Opera House staff gathered outside the government building on Monday morning to protest the 28 March decision of Acting Minister of Culture Nazeni Gharibyan on firing Director General of the theater Constantine Orbelian and to demand the minister’s resignation for ‘disrespect’ towards culture and cultural figures and her decisions contradicting the law.

Gharibyan justified her decision with the fact that Orbelian, who is also the theater’s artistic director, cannot hold both offices simultaneously by law.

Arzumanyan, who met with the PM together with six other artists of the Opera House earlier on Monday, says Pashinyan has guaranteed that no one will assume the theater director’s duties, except for the Opera House’s deputy director until the theater staff receives arguments of the ministry over Orbelian’s dismissal, after which they will submit their counterarguments.

The PM vowed that if the dismissal order of the ministry turns to be unlawful, those responsible will be immediately fired, the conductor said.

He also added the acting culture minister was not present at the meeting.

Orbelian, a three-time Grammy-nominated conductor, was appointed Artistic Director of the Yerevan Opera Theater in 2016. A year later, he also started serving as General Director of the theater. 

March-Flash Mob featuring famous monuments of Francophone countries held in Yerevan

Eduard Nalbandian
Panorama, Armenia
April 1 2019
19:23 01/04/2019 Armenia

Within the framework of Francophonie events, the Service for Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum-reservations NCSO along with volunteers, students of French college marched in the streets of capital Yerevan on Monday, holding posters of the most memorable monuments in the territory of Francophone countries. The young people wore coats with the image of francophone country’s historical-cultural monument.

The flash-mob started from the Republic square, then proceeded to Charles Aznavour square, France, Azatutyun squares and was back to Republic square. The participants of the event were accompanied by “Yerevan drums” group.
The march attracted the passers-by and especially tourists in Yerevan streets who took photos with participants.

As the Head of the Service Ara Tarverdyan informed, the aim of the initiative is to familiarize the Yerevan residents and the guests of the capital city with the culture of Francophone countries to encourage the knowledge exchange. In the scope of the Francophone events, an exhibition and dance performance is scheduled for April 5 at Zvartnots Historical-Cultural Museum-Reserve

In the future a similar flash mob will be held in one of Armenia’s regions, Tarverdyan noted.

‘Holocaust fatigue’ a risk at British schools because pupils are not taught anything else about anti-Semitism, says Sir Simon Schama

Garnik Zakarian
The Telegraph, UK
‘Holocaust fatigue’ a risk at British schools because pupils are not taught anything else about anti-Semitism, says Sir Simon Schama

By Nic Brunetti


Schools must teach pupils more about Jewish history in order to avoid ‘Holocaust fatigue’, Cambridge historian and broadcaster, Simon Schama, has said.  

Sir Simon, who is himself Jewish, said Jewish history currently taught in UK schools consisted mainly of the Holocaust, with little appreciation of their full ‘epic, extraordinary’ story. 

He said education was ‘absolutely essential’ to countering growing antisemitism on the left and the right in the country. 

Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph at the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival, Sir Simon, 74, who presented BBC Two’s Civilisations programme, also called for more money to be ploughed into teaching history as schools were too focused on addressing STEM-based subjects due to recent austerity cuts from the Government. 

Sir Simon, now a professor of history at Columbia University in the USA, said teaching also had to be adapted for the modern age without ‘dumbing down’ so children could actively learn using digital tools. 

He said: “The challenge is to do it in a way which the kids on the receiving end don’t get Holocaust fatigue, somehow to make a real creative effort without dumbing it down at all, to actually do it in the kind of zone of their understanding and the liveliness of their wiring and age, and even for better or worse, with Instagram or Twitter. 

“You think the horror of the Holocaust is so self-evident  but it isn’t really self-evident – and it is when one knows everything there is to know about Auschwitz  that it’s easy to forget a million Jews were shot before anyone had dreamed up the gas chambers – the so called ‘Holocaust of the bullets’. 

“But one also wants education about what happened to the Armenians and what happened in Rwanda.”

Sir Simon said ‘a really bitter kind of exterminating antisemitism’ went back hundreds, if not thousands of years before the Second World War and it was time students knew about this, including the Dreyfus case in France at the turn of the twentieth century, which was mired in anti-Jewish sentiment.  

He said: “This horrible prejudice which goes from words to actual killing goes back so long and is so deep rooted, like slavery and prejudice against blacks and people of different skin colour, that education is very important.” 

However, he ruled out supporting a so called ‘Jewish history month’, similar to Black history month, claiming it risked ‘ghettoising’ the learning of history. 

He said: “I’m very torn about it. 

“I want people to be engaged in women’s history and black history but if you just stick it in a month it does ghettoise it, it says you can then forget it for the rest of the year …so I’m sort of against monthly-fication – I want it to happen all of the time.”

Sir Simon famously criticised Michael Gove MP back in 2013, when he was education secretary, over proposed changes to the history curriculum in schools. He initially acted as an adviser to Gove but when he saw the finished product he branded it ‘offensive and insulting’ and Gove was forced to backtrack amid claims the curriculum had become too narrow.

Sir Simon told The Telegraph Mr Gove had been willing to listen again following his criticism. 

But at the literary festival, he still said resources for teachers were lacking.

He said: “The teachers are heroic, they do what they can. 

“There is just not enough time to teach history but history isn’t just a stroll down memory lane, you cannot do it actually without seeing what has happened to lead you to this point.

“I also think you need more classroom time in state schools especially – private/independent schools manage to do this – but state schools are at a terrible pressure and some headteachers complain to me ‘well we just don’t have the resources and therefore we have to have the gym teacher do history’ – they would never say that if the gym teacher was doing maths or something like that. 

“So there has to be more money and more time and more resources set aside for specialist training of history teachers to be thought of something active – it is not an add on part of costume decoration, it is essential to functioning now and in the future.”