Armenian Patchwork

93rd Anniversary of Armenian Genocide, Armenians protest

anush — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:41:22 +0000

A day before the 24th of April, the day of mourning the victims of the Genocide, Armenians marched towards the memorial Tsitsernakaberd. The march with torches has become a tradition. I don’t remember whether it was also done last year, but the public burning of the Turkish flag was something that surprised me. Afterwards throughout the way I heard people shouting the most offensive things. Maybe this approach is normal and I’ve simply forgotten how nationalistic we can be, but I just don’t see what it leads to.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

People amused by presidents on Republic Square

anush — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:51:21 +0000

I’ve been entertaining myself too much today not to post some of the photos of the people being photographed at the presidents’ pictures stand. It was put on the Republic Square during the balloon festival today.
One of my friends said that all the festival and balloons were something that the government should have thought of earlier to distract people from all sorts of protests. Another friend, who is a supporter of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, said that the balloons don’t take people high enough. My dear friend of course would never get high enough to start liking our government.
Anyway… bottom-line, we are not yet in the danger of amusing ourselves to death. This is only the beginning.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

40 days since riots, Serzh Sargsyan’s inauguration, and the Colorful Sky festival

anush — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:47:58 +0000

Many things happened yesterday. Among those probably the most important was Serzh Sargsyan’s inauguration. For a lot of people though the important was that 40 days have passed since the deaths of 1 March riots.
While people lay flowers at the Myasnikyan monument, close to which the riots began, one could hear Jazz music coming from the Republic Square, where a balloon festival was going to happen later on.
Although I did not try to get a pass to photograph the inauguration ceremony I was told yesterday that even those who were allowed were led to a room where they saw everything on TV.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

A day in a theatre

anush — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:43:51 +0000

I’ve always been interested in life in theatre. Backstage, clothes and props are pretty mysterious to many people. Today, a day after the Day of Theatre, I finally got the chance to get backstage during a performance at the Mher Mkrtchyan Theatre.
The cast was playing The Little Prince, a performance for children. There was the usual rush of getting on stage and out, but generally things were pretty organized as the actors have been performing this play for a long time.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Activity after State of Emergency

anush — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:57:14 +0000

First day after the State of Emergency, and as it was expected, lots of people crowded the central streets of Yerevan. The silent protest with people standing in a line did not really happen, but you could see some people line up at different spots of streets. Many of the participants found their own ways of expression.
It was interesting that most of the active participants were women. Some of them quiet, others occasionally shouting at the policemen and being pretty angry in general. About ten times I was asked whether I was from Haylur of the Public TV and then kicked away because “there’s no use of the photographs, as you are not showing them to anyone”.
Young people were active and seemed to be actually the ones who were trying to begin and keep the row of people.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

State of Emergency makes no difference for some

anush — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:06:11 +0000

The State of Emergency continues, and right on Freedom Square Astral Club continues its parties. It seemed strange to me in the beginning, but the organizer of the Rock on Thursday parties Narek Bakhtamyan told me things for him continued just the same as before.
Also, this week a new pub The Beatles Blackbird opened, and I post some photos from the opening night.
The new Beatles pub opened a couple of days ago, and the Bambir band played at its opening. The pub is on Pushkin street in the centre of Yerevan and for me personally is a place I was waiting for, especially that the bloggers’ favorite place, the Shamrock pub, was closed these days for some reason.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Morning after 1 March riots in Yerevan

anush — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:29:16 +0000

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Women march for Ter-Petrosyan

anush — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:33:02 +0000

The women stepped out yesterday during Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s rally to express their discontent about Haylur of the Public TV. They marched towards the Haylur premises chanting “Levon, Levon!”.
As I came home in the evening Haylur did show Ter-Petrosyan’s rally but called the Freedom Square a “Theatrical Square” and showed only awkward moments of the rally speeches.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

More officials join Ter-Petrosyan, sit-in goes on

anush — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:27:37 +0000

Things are really getting pretty strange around Levon Ter-Petrosyan, what with deputy Prosecutor-General Gagik Jhangiryan, Head of the Heritage Party Raffi Hovhannisyan and several other officials joining him.

The sit-in continued today, and I will hopefully photograph it in the morning and post. They say that probably it will go on for another day or two. You can still find almost nothing about this and the rallies on TV, and all the news comes from independent agencies and websites. There’s also Gala from the second city Gyumri, and I can’t watch it in Yerevan. Did I miss anything? If not those sources, people would find out about things only by going to the rallies, like in the old times, which would increase the amount of people.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Serzh Sargsyan wins officially, opposition protests

anush — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:44:11 +0000

According to the Central Electoral Commission, Serzh Sargsyan has won the presidential election with 52 per cent. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was the second.
The rally organized by Ter-Petrosyan and the opposition leaders supporting him gathered a huge crowd once again, the number being around 30,000 if not more. Levon Ter-Petrosyan found the election “normal” and “outrageous”. After the rally the people marched around the centre and came to the Freedom Square for the second part of the rally.

(more…)

Bookmark to: