Armenian Bloggers Protest Against "Week of Azerbaijan" in Armenia

A group of Armenian Bloggers, including: Uzogh, Pigh, Aerial_vortex and Akunamatata_ser carried out an incredible public campaign yesterday, protesting against the implementation of the “Week of Azerbaijan” in Yerevan, organized by Caucasus Center of Peace-Making Initiatives (CCPMI) with the support of the UK Embassy in Armenia. At the opening ceremony of the event, which took place in the Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational complex headed by Former Minister of Education Ashot Bleyan, the group of mentioned Bloggers rushed to the speaker – head of the Caucasus Center of Peace-Making Initiatives (CCPMI) Georgi Vanyan and presented him with pieces of soap. This symbolic gesture, which is highly offensive and contains elements of bitter sarcasm, was carried out as a form of protest, for implementing this action, which according to blogger Pigh – posted in the video below, is quite untimely, doesn’t contribute to the promotion of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in any way, and is only seen by the Bloggers as a way for Mr. Vanyan, to launder grant money – even at the price of hurting his country’s interests.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/v/4sZDKFnDmeA&rel=1″]
It has to be noted, that the announcement last week about the implementation of the “Week of Azerbaijan” in Armenia stirred a lot of emotions, and was seen mostly as a highly negative and useless initiative.
I have already stated my position somewhere on Uzogh‘s blog – and I want to reaffirm again, that I am fully supportive of the views expressed by Mr. Pigh, that this initiative is pointless, does not promote anything, except the interests of ‘earning grant money’, and that the UK Embassy in Armenia should give careful consideration, of what exact type of activities to support, and what is the point, after which the activities become counter productive.
On a related note I have to state, that this has been the most widely publicised initiative so far, which brought massive media attention to the understanding of blogging, and promotion of blogging – as a form of civil activity in Armenia.

Video via Uzogh: