Notes from the Armenian Blogosphere
Alex over at Cilicia.com’s Life in Armenia says he caught one of the tourism ads being run on CNN by all three of the South Caucasus Republics. I knew that Georgia and Armenia were running ads, but didn’t know Azerbaijan was. Anyway, haven’t seen those, but the Azerbaijan ad isn’t bad.
Raffi had logged about the tourism Armenia ads that are now running on CNN International. The other night, I was watching a program on CNN, and this ad came on, and my friend and I were trying to figure out from the get go what country it was, because the images/dances/landscapes were oddly familiar. There was an Iranian tea cup scene (well made), dancers (very Armenian circle dance like), and you can’t tell what country it is or who it is–except the music is reminiscent of Kurdish string music–you get the point–and all of a sudden at the very end of the commercial, as the images are fading away, the words Azerbaijan appear on the screen. No voice over, nothing…I guessed Turkey, before Azerbaijan appeared on the screen. They’ve done well, presenting a collection of regional tastes and cultures under the banner Azerbaijan.
There’s some interesting comments as well, including one from someone who I guess is Azerbaijani. He or she says that the rather pretty girl in the ad is none other than Ilham Aliyev’s daughter. Well, it all kind of runs in the family over there, more than it does even here, and one guesses that nepotism is not yet a dirty word.
As someone who has lived in Azerbaijan, I believe the ad is well made and gives a nice glimpse of the country (though I wish they showed more of Baku). Interestingly, the girl in the ad is actually Aliyev’s daughter.
[…] well there are definitely many more places to visit, but like the rest of the region, tourism infrastructure is (practically) none-existent, so remote areas are hard to reach. Otherwise, Baku is quite large, and you’d need more than a few days to explore. Unfortunately, many of the places are either unknown or overlooked by visitors. Certainly, the old town of Baku that you mention is only tiny fraction of the city.
Personally, I’ve only been to Armenia once (at 9 years old) during the Soviet days, and haven’t been able to visit again…since the current conflict makes it really difficult for people from either side to travel. Hopefully that changes in the near future.
Anyway, can’t find the Armenian or Georgian ads online, but the Azerbaijani one is. It’s embedded below, and the music is quite nice too although it doesn’t sound Kurdish to me. Anyway, would like to say that the future of tourism in this region is precisely that — tourism to this region rather than one specific country on its own.
All three countries have absorbed the same regional influences, albeit in sometimes different ways and to differing extents, while offering something of their own. Taken as whole this makes the region more interesting — if only all the damn borders were open.
can anyone record the armenian ad and put it on youtube? please? cnn here does not run the ads.
Comment by artyom — November 11, 2006 @ 10:38 am
Yeah, I’d second that as well — and I’d also like to see the Georgian CNN ad uploaded to YouTube too.
Comment by Onnik — November 11, 2006 @ 11:20 am
Hey Onnik, this is phyek, the Azeri who posted on the other blog. Not sure why my last comment wasn’t approved there (or maybe no one was able to yet), but I couldn’t agree more with you when it comes to borders opening and travel targeted for the whole region rather than one country alone. Anyway, I check your blog often, so you’ve got a loyal reader here!
Comment by phyek — November 11, 2006 @ 12:36 pm
Hi Phyek, thanks for the comment. As to your comment on Cilicia.com it’s quite possible that Raffi hasn’t gotten round to approving it yet, especially as your other ones were. Anyway, would love to visit Azerbaijan one day in both a personal and professional capacity. Actually, I’d like to do something on refugees there although, of course, it’s not really possible at present.
Anyway, re. the ad, it just occurred to me that if we’ve gone to all the trouble of producing an ad on Armenia for CNN, the least that could be done is also make it available on http://www.armeniainfo.am. I’m also interested in seeing the Georgian ad too.
Comment by Onnik — November 11, 2006 @ 12:51 pm