It’s been a while since I talked about Entertainment ( the original reason I joined Blogrel!) it seems there are always more important things happening.

The Armenian Public TV has started a new project called “2 Stars” It basically involves an established “star” the likes of Nune, Sirusho, and Aida Sargsyan…singing with “non singers” but celebrities in other fields ..such as acting, tv presenting, and even the Armenian Marxist party leader is taking part! It’s actually a pretty good show, the crazy singer Shprot, well known for her crazy themes and recent almost nakedness in her latest music video “I am your honey…come and eat me…”, decided to dress as a gothic rockstar and perform in front of a jury. Each week one pair of “stars” gets voted off.

Shushan Petrosyan makes an excellent host of this show, and although most of the singers are pretty good…some of them themselves are unable to perform well live, thats before they’ve even started teaching their partner! At least shows like this encourage a stray away from Armenia’s endemic habit of lipsyncing on tv shows. Well done to the public tv for pulling this off properly. Each day there are 5 minute “bulletins” about how the rehearsals are going and such like. Tonights show sees the pairs singing about their favourite cities, together with Armenia’s live Jazz Band!

It’s on tonight, at 21.25 Yerevan time!

In other news, Armen Gondrachyan ( or Armenchik) as he is well known, has released his long awaited album “Havatam Te Che”, again he has pulled off an upbeat treat for his fans, despite some people claiming his music is “rabiz” there are a lot of singers that could learn from his very refined vocal skills. This guy never performs badly. There is also an interesting shift taking place, traditionally, artists like Armen have been “blacklisted” from Armenian tv, as they left Armenia, and sing “rabiz”. Whilst Armen may in the past have been guilty have throwing a few “moghams” into his music, nowadays it is a lot less prominent. He has also written for Christine Pepelyan, her “che che che” song, and for the first time in years he was allowed to perform live on public tv as part of a comedy show. The other artists were not too happy, especially Alla Levonyan, who evidently seemed guilty for clapping to such “low brow” music…he got people dancing though. Good on the guy .

Armenia’s Eurovision entry is Hayko, singing “Anytime You Need”. Despite the fact that many feel this was a pre meditated decision, and Hayko wouldn’t have wasted his time writing the song, and having a video pre filmed, if he didnt know he would win , the song is nevertheless quite catchy. It has recieved mix reviews so far, with many claiming ( rightly so) that generally, ballads do not win the contest. Hayko promised he wouldn’t “betray” his style… There we are then.

Thats all for now , I’m out

As Matt posted, Screamers, the documentary directed by Carla Garapedian , following System of a Down and their struggle for Genocide recognition , was shown by BBC tonight.

It certainly is harrowing, there are references to the Armenian Genocide, USA’s refusal to acknowledge it, as well as their deliberate under-use of the word Genocide, to avoid taking action. What affected me most was Serj Tankian (the lead singer)’s personal struggle with the Genocide as an issue. I am not too familiar with his music, I will be honest, but I can honestly say the dedication and passion , yet with balance and sensibiltiy with which he pursues his cause is highly admirable, and an example for any diasporan Armenian. The film features interviews with his own grandfather, himself a Genocide survivor, and their relationship and interaction is a key part of bringing the personal elements of the story together.

The key to this film is that it is more than just another documentary film. System of a Down ( from personal experience ) are the favourite band of many many 18-25 year old’s , many of them students. It is these people who like to(and have time to) become accquainted with political and human rights issues, and are a highly influential demographic. If this film can be seen by even one in ten of those people, who already respect the band, then we will end up with a large number of the future generation being aware of this as FACT. It shouldn’t be underestimated, and for that reason soon (hopefully) Armenian youth groups around the world will be able to mobilise and ensure this film is seen by as many such people as possible.

YEREVAN, March 28. /ARKA/. Armenia ranks 96th among 122 countries in the Network Preparedness Index says the 2006-2007 IT Global Competitiveness Report prepared by the Economy and Values Research Center.

According to the report, the strong points of Armenia’s network preparedness are the companies’ capability to apply new technologies, availability of scientists and architects, as well as the number of patented inventions and discoveries per each million of residents.

Among the weak points are high prices for Internet communication, the number of subscribers and on-line services.

I personally take it as a failure for a country which announces IT as a strategic aspect of economy, to be on the 96th place.

The BBC will be airing Screamers on Thursday night about System of a Down and their efforts to increase awareness of the Genocide.

Film maker Garapedian goes on tour with the hugely successful heavy metal band System of a Down, three of whom are of Armenian descent. Follow them on their quest to rock their fans - and to raise awareness of the Armenian massacre of 1915.

You can view the Screamers website here.

Today Armenia lost a major political figure - Prime Minister of the Republic, Andranik Margaryan. He passed away from a heart attack. He will leave behind a family of two daughters and grand children.

He was seen as one of Armenia’s (few) respected politicians.

This will spell changes in Armenia’s political scene and will leave the post of Prime Minister open to another, Margaryan was head of the Republican Party - of which Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan is also a member. It is too early to speculate who will take over but things will soon become clear.

There is not much more information around , and state television h1 is showing a changed schedule of programming as it usually does during national mourning.

R [name witheld] has asked me to post this letter:

My name is R. I was born in Yerevan. At the age of 25 (appr. 5 years ago) I immigrated to USA.
I want to make Armenia a better place to live. I wonder if You could address few issues about life in Yerevan, maybe it’ll help and people around will start paying more attention.
Five years ago on the streets of Yerevan one could find a lot of homeless people, who would roam around, hungry, dirty and, at times, drunk. Some of them had psych.abnormalities. I suspect they weren’t really treated or were released too early from psychiatric hospital in Nork. It tears my heart to remeber the way people who were passing by treated the homeless, some were abusing them verbally, some-assaulting physically.
more…

So here it is, the long awaited Armenian language pack for Windows XP. If it can be implemented correctly, as has been planned in Armenian schools and government institutions, we should see an acceleration in development of software in the Armenian language.

It is quite a novelty to see desktop being called a “Seghan”, and “Meknarkel” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “start”. I think “Sksel” would have been better But I guess we should be using refined Armenian…

Why not have a go at installing it? It only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s easily removable. It’s here.

Firstly, please accept my apologies for not posting in a while. Things have been very busy.

While one of the hottest topics at the moment seems to be the new Armenian Eurovision Song Contest entry, there is a rather more important event due to take place in May - that is the parliamentary elections. I have made a few observations, and whilst I don’t consider myself a political analyst in any sense of the word, I’d be interested to hear our readers’ opinions also.

The Justice alliance of the key opposition parties has broken down. Armenialiberty reported on March 2nd about the key parties headed by Stepan Demirchyan and Aram Sarkisian. It seems each party is interested in seeing their own candidate fronted for the presidential elections, scheduled for 2008. It is dissappointing that the members of the alliance cannot see past their own individual aspirations - however, it is also true to speculate whether an alliance that could barely keep itself together, could ever work collectively as a governmental force. Either way, it seems clear to me that there we can expect little change in Armenia’s political climate , based on a couple of strikingly obvious factors:

The Bargavach Hayastan party, headed by Gagik Tsarukyan, has ( in political terms) become an overnight success story. I remember just months after it’s launch last year , Yerevan and the regions were littered with the friendly Bargavach Hayastan logo, representing a huge array of party presence, much more than any other party. There is also the factor of the so called “vote buying” allegations - the party has been distributing seeds and other donations to the poorest villagers through Tsarukyan’s “charitable fund”. They claim this is fine, it technically is, what Tsarukyan does with his wealth is up to him - but what is unavoidable is that people will associate his name with the party, and subsequently engage in votes for him. He is widely regarded as a popular person.

It is all very, very well thought out.

So the Europeans are saying “Hey, don’t fix the elections this year please!” , and the USA is saying “Hey, we wont give you money if you fix the elections…”

So it seems the best option is to create a force that cannot be reckoned with. It’s widely known that President Kocharyan is a strong supporter of Bargavach Hayastan, and its huge popularity may well cause an upsurge of votes from the regions and Yerevan alike - the result being a landslide victory, that didn’t even need to be fixed. That way everyone is happy - and Kocharyan is likely to retain some form of power within the government.

The opposition alliance disbansion has quashed any hope for a victory of the traditional opposition parties. The only contender I could see would be the Heritage party headed by Raffi Hovhanessian. Interestingly, I saw him for the first time ever on Armenian public television this month. Obviously, he wasn’t given a voice, he was just paraphrased by the voice over. He was prevented from running in the presidential election due to problems with his citizenship. Despite his popularity, this western educated guy still hasn’t been running around the villages giving out grain to desperate citizens , and what I think this boils down to is people in desperate need of a way to keep their families together. It is absurd to speak of a true election when the population are still relying so heavily on potato seeds given by a well wisher.

It is an extreme example, but I think the only chance of huge jolt in power may be the advent of a reason for people to come together and unite against the current regime. Times of natural disaster,(God Forbid ) times of extreme need, and suchlike. The fact is, Armenia is quite happily cruising along. Perhaps when Bargavach Hayastan are in power, they can improve the situation of those people who accepted the handouts, and make them comfortable enough to vote based on policy, not charity.

I came across a major article about Armenia in the Sunday Telegraph, under the Travel section today. Although there was a factual mistake on the very first page, [“…having adopted Christianity in AD 310, a decade before Rome…” - this should be 301, Not 310] the article is definitely worth a read, it is written from a tourism perspective, and talks a lot about how diaspora Armenians are investing in the economy of the country. Here are a couple of extracts:

It is surrounded by Muslim countries on three sides - Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan - and war-torn Georgia to its north. In 1915 Armenia suffered its own holocaust: the slaughter of 1.5 million people by the Turks, a genocide the Turkish government still refuses to acknowledge.
[…]
And yet, partly as a result of this tragic past, Armenia, more than any other country in the Caucasus, is now finding its feet fast. The Diaspora, descendents of those who escaped the genocide, now number three times the 2.5 million population of Armenia itself, and they not only dominate the country’s fledgling tourist industry, but the wealthiest of them, men such as Vahak Hovnanian and Kirk Kirkorian, the owner of MGM studios in LA, invest US$1 billion a year in Armenia, funding everything from airports, roads and radio stations, to universities, museums and hotels.
[…]
Yet, sweep away the dust, and Yerevan, an eighth-century fortress town, reveals itself like a lost icon. On the wide expanse of Opera Square in the centre, opposite a new Marriott hotel, the National Opera House had been restored and the Yerevan Philharmonic was performing works by the great Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian.
[…]
Armenia’s countryside is a virtual museum of religious sites, many dating back as far as the fourth century and most neglected under Soviet rule. Some, like the spectacular Geghard Monastery set in a canyon west of Yerevan, have been well maintained, but Sanahin, the holiest site in northern Armenia, was a mess: grass grew on its roof, its frescos were fading and the vast root of a tree buckled its foundations.
[…]
Armenia is about the size of Belgium and its roads are surprisingly good. From Yerevan the following morning it took us only two hours to get to the third stop on the cultural triangle: Lake Sevan, north-east of the capital. At 6,230ft, one of the highest lakes in the world, Sevan was a popular resort for the Soviet elite, and when its silvery-blue water came into view, I could see a number of sturdy stone dachas on its banks, shaded by forests of red and yellow aspen.

The full article is here.

Imitation has been the main working style of Armenia’s current administration: imitation of democracy, imitation of electoral process, imitation of coalition, imitation of free market, imitation of anti-corruption strategy… The news from Transparency Armenia about resigning from the RA Anti-Corruption Strategy Monitoring Commission comes to prove just that - after a conversation with fellow-blogger Onnik Krikoryan I am convinced, that Transparency Armenia have decided to quit playing along the imitation game with the government.

The Chairwoman of the Center for Regional Development /Transparency International Armenia resigned from RA Anti-Corruption Strategy Monitoring Commission under RA Anti-Corruption Council on February 20 this year, and hereby informed the heads of both the abovementioned structures, namely RA Prime Minister A. Margaryan and Assistant to RA President G. Mheryan. Via Transparency.am

The worst part of the whole story is that even this “imitation politics” is an imitation! These guys couldn’t think of it themselves, so they imitated the “imitation politics” in Russia… Looking at the video below, from Transparency International, marking Global Anti-Corruption Day 2006 - I ask to myself again and again: so what are we going to to about it?

Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producer: Tim Francis
Production: Media Trust
Coordinator: Jesse Garcia