Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Azeri Film Fest Causes Storm In Armenia

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Azeri Film Fest Causes Storm In Armenia

    AZERI FILM FEST CAUSES STORM IN ARMENIA
    By Sara Khojoyan

    Institute for War & Peace Reporting
    CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 638
    April 25, 2012
    UK

    Attempt to build cultural bridges sparks anger, though it's unclear
    whether protests were genuine or stage-managed.

    A controversial festival of Azerbaijani films has finally taken place
    in Armenia, but not before the venue had to be switched following
    angry protests.

    The Caucasus Centre of Peacemaking Initiatives, CCPI, an Armenian
    organisation, was planning to show the films in several towns in the
    north of the country on April 12 and 17.

    CCPI director Giorgy Vanyan said the screenings were intended to
    promote tolerance and peace.

    Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been consistently poor
    since the war over Nagorny Karabakh, which ended in 1994 with a truce
    but no lasting peace deal.

    Feelings of mistrust and resentment run so high in both countries
    that most forms of engagement with the neighbouring state are seen
    as akin to treason.

    The four short films included in the festival were made in 2007-08 by
    different directors, and did not touch on the Karabakh conflict. "The
    films address social problems and human rights issues in Azerbaijan,"
    Vanyan said.

    After the screenings were announced, however, protesters took to the
    streets of Gyumri and then Vanadzor.

    In Gyumri, Vanyan was forced to cancel the April 12 showing at the
    Asparez Press Club, to get the crowds outside to disperse. Video
    footage posted on YouTube showed him surrounded by heated protesters.

    One man tries to attack him but is dragged away by others.

    In Vanadzor, some 200 people held a march against the April 17
    screening and its hosts, the Helsinki Civil Assembly, HCA, throwing
    eggs and stones at the proposed venues.

    Demonstrators and other opponents of the festival accused its
    organisers of betraying Armenia by showing films from Azerbaijan.

    "I believe that no normal Armenian with a sense of decency and clear
    view of things will want to see a festival of Azeri films in our
    country," Yury Ghulyan, a lecturer at Vanadzor's teacher training
    institute, said. "In Azerbaijan, they abuse and slander our country
    and our good name. So it's just pointless bringing Azeri films to
    show them here."

    Karen Vrtanesyan, who blogs on Azeri-Armenian relations, has
    long opposed the festival. On his Facebook page, he claimed that
    peacebuilding events of this kind were unilateral, and that in
    Azerbaijan, "hate propaganda" directed at Armenians was on the
    increase.

    Referring to events in the village of Maraga during the Karabakh
    war in April 1992, he said that "on the eve of the 20th anniversary
    of mass killings of civilians, no country would allow a 'cultural
    event' by the side that conducted these pogroms. The issue here is
    not tolerance, but a premeditated assault on the public's feelings."

    The reactions were to be predicted. This film festival was supposed to
    have taken place in late 2010, but the strength of public opposition
    meant no venue could be persuaded to host the screenings. (See Azeri
    Film Festival Cancelled in Armenia .)

    CCPI eventually succeeding in rescheduling the Gyumri screening,
    holding it before a small audience in a restaurant outside town.

    After the April 16 scuffles in Vanadzor, the New York-based advocacy
    group Human Rights Watch urged the Armenian authorities to investigate
    the "mob attack" on HCA's office.

    The CCPI said it had been the victim of a "campaign of intimidation,
    slander and disinformation", and said the protests were not
    spontaneous, but staged by local government officials.

    "This public opposition was incited," Vanyan told IWPR. "There is no
    constitutional order in Armenia - it has been replaced by a 'patriotic'
    court martial."

    Artur Sakunts of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, who took the decision
    to call the Vanadzor screening, said police had been notably absent
    when his office was besieged by protesters.

    "Although we called them, police took no action to prevent threats
    to our employees' safety, or to stop the incitement to violence
    and public disorder, despite the fact that we called them," said a
    statement from his office.

    Sakunts said that in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, "the regimes use
    cheap populist devices to divert public attention away from the real
    problems facing their countries".

    Officials in the two towns denied any connection to that protests.

    Gagik Simonian of the Vanadzor municipality said the local authorities
    were only informed of the planned protest on the morning of April 16,
    shortly before it took place.

    "They were acting in line with the law, so there wasn't anything we
    could do about it," he said. "But we are in no way connected with
    these events."

    Opponents of the festival insisted they were acting on their own.

    Tigran Kocharyan, a blogger, said Azerbaijanis "at the highest level"
    insulted Armenians with no come-back, whereas "tolerance is demanded
    only from the Armenians".

    "You need two sides to hold a dialogue," he added, noting that in the
    last two decades, Azerbaijan had never held an analogous festival of
    Armenian films.

    Since making concessions would be seen as a sign of weakness in
    Azerbaijan, he said, then "yes, we must give an appropriate response
    to everything they do."

    Levon Barseghyan of the Asparez Press Club said the protesters may
    well have had genuine concerns about the festival, but he pointed
    out inconsistencies in the level of outrage.

    "These same people who were protesting, shouting, and punching Vanyan
    never complained about the Turkish and Azeri films that were shown
    in Armenia as part of the Golden Apricot festival, or indeed other
    screenings. Nor did they protest against cultural exchanges," he said.

    Sara Khojoyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com.




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X