Month: July 2008

Armenia's Mher takes the 5th place in "New Wave 2008" international music contest

Posted on by Artur Papyan

Watching the “New Wave” (Новая волна) music contest on Armenian Public TV yesterday got me swearing like a taxi driver – the whole contest seemed to be pre-decided! With two Georgians in the jury – the Meladze brothers, it’s no wonder the “Georgia” duet got the first place. Clearly, it was a Russian show-biz gig. That means really a cool show – but a show where nothing remotely resembling fair voting or considering the opinion…

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Isolated Armenia leans on Iran

Posted on by Artur Papyan

BBC has a very interesting article on Armenia-Iran relations. A highly recommended read. Here are a couple of interesting points: Iran does not have too many friends these days, but in a far corner of the Caucasus, on the edge of Europe, it is forming a special relationship. The story further goes on to tell about Omid Mojahed, a 28-year-old student and entrepreneur, who has started tourism business working in the Iranian market, as well…

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Armenian bloggers take part in Presidential press conference on equal terms with journalists

Posted on by Artur Papyan

On July 21 a news conference was held at the presidential office marking the 100th day of Serzh Sarkissian’s presidency. 2 bloggers were invited to the press conference on equal terms with 38 journalists, making the number of invitees a symbolic 40. 40 questions were asked to the president – and bloggers were given the chance to get answers to 1 question each, on equal terms with journalists. In fact, considering that some pro-opposition media…

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Wow! Armenia is a Banana Republic after all!

Posted on by Artur Papyan

A most incredible story was published by Hetq today: In 2006, Armenia imported 8,614 tons of bananas; 7,056 tons from Ecuador, 1,509 from Costa Rica, 38.2 from Guatemala, 3.2 from Thailand and .2 tons from Iran. In the same year Armenia exported 3,002.2 tons of bananas to the Bahamas and 90.7 tons to Georgia. (emphasis is mine) In 2007, Armenia imported some 17,198 tons of bananas, almost twice as much as in 2006. Armenia didn’t…

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Armenia-Turkey Relations: Where are we heading?

Posted on by Artur Papyan

Over the past three years there have been some initiatives by Turkish and Armenian authorities to start some type of dialogue. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Armenian President Robert Kocharyan to establish a joint commission on Armenian Genocide issue, which was met with cautions response of the official Yerevan. On a more recent example, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan has invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul to visit Armenia on September 6, 2008 to watch…

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Armenian opposition persists in holding protest-rallies

Posted on by Artur Papyan

While many people call the attempts of Armenian opposition to protest the results of February 19, 2008 Presidential elections by holding rallies as a pointless waste of time and efforts, it’s hard to imagine, what else the radical opposition could do at this point – their support is slowly declining, the government shows no genuine desire to engage in dialogue with them, international bodies seem to have exchanged their demands for Armenia’s democratisation with the…

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