Archive Page 2
The presidential election in Armenia ended an hour ago. Haylur of the Public TV reports that 69 per cent of the electorate in Armenia have participated in the election, and 69 per cent of Yerevan’s eligible voters have participated.
Haylur also reports the results of the exit poll of the British Populus company. According to this poll Serzh Sargsyan has 57.1 per cent of votes, Levon Ter-Petrosyan has 17.4 per cent, 14.6 per cent voted for Artur Baghdasaryan, and 5.9 per cent for Vahan Hovhannisyan.
On the other hand, A1+ reports that Levon Ter-petrosyan is in the lead. According to the exit poll of a “Alfa-GA” Company, Levon Ter-petrosyan has 54.2 per cent of votes, Serzh Sargsyan has 24.4 per cent, Vahan Hovhannisyan 8.4 per cent, and Artur Baghdasaryan has 8.2 per cent.
Sorry for all these numbers, but they looked all too different not to write. Below are some photos of the election process in Yerevan.
Continue reading ‘Presidential election ends, leader still unclear’
While in Gyumri this week, I passed by the theatre in the centre, where Levon Ter-Petrosyan was holding a rally on 10 Feb. The rally gathered a lot of people here too, filling up the whole square.
On the next day while in the theatre I took a shot of a meeting of the Georgian-Armenian Union (last photo), in support of Serzh Sargsyan.
Continue reading ‘Levon Ter-Petrosyan holds rally in Gyumri’
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s rally on 9 Feb gathered a lot more people on Freedom Square this time than it usually did. This was the first time I saw people sitting on the head of Tumanyan’s monument. Ter-Petrosyan had promised some surprises during his rally, and as I came late I suppose this was concerning the Karabakh land. Right now it is probably too early and I cannot find a report on his speech. The crowd marched around Yerevan’s central streets after the rally and returned once again to the Square.
Continue reading ‘Ter-Petrosyan’s rally gathers more people’
Presidential candidate Vahan Hovhannisyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation- Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D), was also among the candidates to gather a rally on Freedom Square. Hovhannisyan’s speech on 8 Feb was short and concrete, and the rally was the most colorful of all.
What is always peculiar about ARF-D is the number of young Dashnaks, and another thing was that the rally was well organized and easy going. There were no body-guards pushing you away from the stage. Before the rally began Hovhannisyan was walking freely around the Square and even made sure to walk into a nearby café to invite people to the rally.
Continue reading ‘Dashnaktsutyun rallies on Freedom Square’
I’ve been taking some photos of the posters of the presidential candidates around the town these days and want to share them. I’ve got here Serzh Sargsyan’s posters, which are on nearly every store in town. Then Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s poster, torn in this artsy manner, and the last and my favorite, Vahan Hovhannisyan’s posters, saying “We drink only Mango!”.
Continue reading ‘On political posters’
So the last story for this month is about my little trip to the circus. Leaving the political circus behind I came to the real one.
The last time I was at the circus was some 14 years ago, and it really hasn’t changed much since then, except the building has gotten older. During its performance a horse stumbled on the half broken edge of the arena and revealed all stones sloppily piled on one another. It didn’t bother the kids or anybody too much, but was kind of sad. Actually the place was so full with kids and their parents that no free place was left. The circus is now organizing free performances sending out invitations.
Continue reading ‘Trip to long forgotten Yerevan circus’
A month or so ago I went looking for a tattoo artist whom I could photograph at work, because I needed a close-up picture of that. I photographed the process, the beginning of it, and want to show it to you now. Gago, who is 20, makes a tattoo of a crying woman on Erik’s back.
To me at that point, maybe now too, tattoo artists seemed people who should be approached with great seriousness, because they are people who change other people for ever. I asked Gago how he felt about that. “Yes, there is a level of responsibility,” Gago said to me, and looked calm enough for me not to worry too much any more.
Continue reading ‘The making of a tattoo, to worry or not’
It turns into an obsession for me to cover Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s rallies, but this time it was an unpleasant one, too cold, although warmer than it’s been these days. Probably that’s why there were mostly men there, and much less of the little old ladies that seemed to be half of the supporters during previous rallies. The number of people was pretty much the same as before, but before almost all the people were from Yerevan, and this time most of them came from regions.
Continue reading ‘Second day of presidential campaign, Ter-Petrosyan’s rally’
Attention towards the Caucasus is focused these days at the Georgian presidential election, which Mikheil Saakashvili has just won.
However, this almost in no way interferes with the heavy snow and Christmas here in Armenia.
Continue reading ‘Mass in church marks Armenian Christmas’
This is something that I’ve wanted to post for a long time, portraits of people I’ve been photographing. They are from different occasions, made during the last three months.
Continue reading ‘Portraits of some Armenians’
