Komitas, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Leaving my apartment this afternoon I feared the worst when I saw an overturned truck by my local kiosk with policemen and a crowd standing around it. As I got closer I took out my mobile phone to take a picture while first checking to see if there were any injured. Concern for casualties has to come first although I figured that as there appeared to be e a TV crew was on the scene, police had lightened up a bit and the accident wasn’t as serious as it at first looked.

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In continuing attempts to set a precedent for online media resources and blogs in Armenia to become self-sufficient and truly independent, Oneworld Multimedia has now become an Amazon affiliate. What this means is that items such as CDs, DVDs and books can be ordered online from Amazon.com through a newly established aStore.

All orders are handled via secure online transactions by Amazon.com.

Ordering through the Oneworld Multimedia / Amazon aStore won’t cost readers extra and might actually save them money on selected items, but a small referral fee will be paid by Amazon.com which will be used to fund new projects and coverage on issues that were first brought to light by Oneworld Multimedia or still remain ignored by the media here and in the Diaspora.

However, items sold through the Oneworld Multimedia / Amazon aStore will be relevant to this site and thus provide a service to its readers. From time to time, Oneworld Multimedia will also recommend certain items which it considers invaluable or especially relevant to the South Caucasus republics, and Armenia and Azerbaijan in particular.

Two such items are the excellent Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War by Thomas de Waal and Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic by Thomas Goltz. Coincidentally, Oneworld Multimedia accompanied de Waal for some of the research on Black Garden and the book also features photographs by yours truly. Reviews have been excellent so it’s probably appropriate to quote what EurasiaNet had to say about de Waal’s book.

On February 20, 1988, the local assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh issued a stunning, plainly-worded resolution that called for the transfer of their autonomous region from the republic of Azerbaijan to the republic of Armenia. “The dreary language of the resolution,” writes Thomas de Waal in his fine new book Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, “hid something truly revolutionary.”

The resolution helped trigger a cycle of events that sparked the first inter-ethnic war of the Perestroika era, Mikhail Gorbachev’s ill-fated attempt to reanimate the Soviet Union. The “hot” phase of the Karabakh conflict lasted six years, claiming an estimated 15,000 lives and creating a wrenching population “transfer.” The warfare displaced hundreds of thousands Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The two countries remain stalemated to this day on a political settlement.

[…]

De Waal goes on to debunk some of the conspiracy theories that helped drive the conflict, namely that the Kremlin orchestrated the conflict. Through presentation of papers from Soviet archives and interviews with key players, de Waal shows that Soviet leaders in Moscow were “running to keep pace with the dispute, rather than leading it.”

Perhaps most interestingly, de Waal argues that the conflict “cannot usefully be reduced to its socioeconomic components.” History and identity – or, rather misguided and dangerous ideas of history and identity – played a more important role. He writes: “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict makes sense only if we acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Azerbaijanis were driven to act by passionately held ideas about history, identity, and rights.”

“That the vast mass of these ideas were dangerous and delusory does not make them any less sincerely felt,” de Waal continues. “From 1990 and 1991, there were plenty of volunteers prepared to risk their lives for them… The darkest of these convictions, ’the hate narratives,’ have taken such deep root that unless they are addressed, nothing can change in Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

[…]

De Waal points out that the 1988 movement for Karabakh’s transfer to Armenia was organized chiefly by those who were, at the time, living outside of the enclave. As in many Diaspora communities, romantic nationalism has the power to erase historical memory: in this case, the confluence of cultural and personal ties between the two peoples on the ground.

[…]

De Waal does well to remind his readers of the eighteenth century Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova who wrote in Armenian, Georgian, and Azeri and “moved happily between the nations and regions of the Caucasus.” Sayat Nova, a revered poet in the region, represents the best of cosmopolitan Caucasus culture, a culture that is being choked by a conflict that locks Armenians and Azerbaijanis in “their self-destructive states of fear and defiance.”

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Artyom will be pleased. Finally, I managed to track down a copy of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on DVD in Yerevan. Up until now, shops only had it in Russian and it most definitely wasn’t shown at the cinema here.

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The BBC reports that Hollywood actor Johnny Depp is to produce a film on the life and death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by a radioactive substance in London in November last year. The film will be based on a book, Sasha’s Story: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy, written by Alan Cowell of the New York Times.

Friends of Mr Litvinenko believe he was poisoned by the Russian government because of his strong criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions it was involved in any way, and police in both the UK and Russia are investigating the death.

Under the terms of Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, the actor could both produce and star in the film.

Depp, star of Pirates of the Caribbean and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has been following Mr Litvinenko’s case closely, Variety reported.

To make this related to Armenia, I wonder if the film will include any references to Litvinenko’s allegations that the Russian special service were involved in the 27 October 1999 assassinations in the Armenian National Assembly? Will be interesting if it does. Although it doesn’t include any details about the film itself, the full BBC report is here.

Blogian carries news that the BBC Russian site says Borat’s Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan will not be shown in Russia. Unfortunately, Simon thinks Armenia will follow suit and I guess he’s right. However, I live in hope that it will at least make it here on DVD and earn itself an underground following like South Park.

The decision comes after Kazakhstani, Jewish, Muslim (Azerbaijanis too?) and Gypsy groups and officials have talked against the movie. At least Armenians are not against, according to the report (since there is no mention of them).

I assume they will not show “Borat” in Armenia either. If they do, they will most likely (and I think they should) mute some Armenian words (at least one phrase) that are really offensive in the Armenian culture.

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With the Armenian President scheduled to make an official visit to Kazakhstan tomorrow, PanArmenian.net says that it will coincide with the second meeting of the Kazakh-Armenian Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. However, Artyom at iArarat jokes that all might not be as it seems.

And so the rumor has it, that after meeting Premier George Walter Bush and complaining about the Borat phenomenon and the adverse effects thereof, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev is planning a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Robot Robert Kocharyan to raise the issue of Azamat Bagatov’s Armenian background and find out whether they can jointly execute the guy.

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Now that Artyom is back from Armenia and Karabakh, he’s posted news of an Armenian connection in the controversy that is Borat. The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper reports that as everyone’s favourite Kazakh journalist made his way around the U.S. for the mockumentry, Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, his sidekick, Azamat, was played by ethnic Armenian actor Ken Davitian.

The film involves Borat leaving his home in Kazakhstan to come to the United States and record a documentary at the behest of the Kazakh Ministry of Information. He leaves behind his mother, wife and the town rapist, bringing along his obese producer Azamat. While in America he watches an episode of Baywatch and falls in love with Pamela Anderson, so he buys a dilapidated ice cream truck and drives from New York to Los Angeles to have her vagin and make her his wife. Through the course of his trip he interviews people from across the country. Most of the movie is not staged; rather, Cohen, in character as Borat, interviews and interacts with people who do not know they are being filmed for a movie (they later sign releases allowing the footage to be used). In one scene, which rather worryingly is not staged, Borat goes into a gun shop and asks the man behind the counter: “Which gun would be best to shoot the Jews?” The man recommends to Borat a 9mm handgun without flinching. Some other comedic highlights include a naked wrestling match between Borat and Azamat which spills over into a crowded business seminar, and Borat’s appearance on a crowded beach wearing only a tiny green wrestling thong which stretches from his crotch over his shoulders. Also throwing a decorative bag over Pamela Anderson’s head to try to capture her to marry her. For the movie, Borat made a song called “You, Be My Wife” with spectacular and bizarre Croatian keytar player Belinda.

According to Wikipedia, while Borat, played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen from Da Ali G Show speaks Hebrew, Polish and Czech to Americans who can’t differentiate it from Kazakh, Davitian speaks Armenian. Anyway, as a big Ali G and Borat fan, I’m really looking forwards to seeing this film if it ever makes it to Armenia. The film’s official site here.

Nothing to do with Armenia yet again, but as with music I like pointing local Armenians in the direction of those things that have defined my life entertainment wise. So, after being pleasantly surprised at the albeit small underground popularity of Da Ali G Show, and especially Kazakh journalist Borat, as well as the highly controversial and totally wicked South Park, now comes the turn of English comedy veterans Monty Python.

Monty Python casts a considerable shadow over modern comedy. As such, the term ‘pythonesque’ has become a byword in surreal humour. However, this is perhaps somewhat misleading, since the humour of Monty Python, whilst certainly nonsensical and surreal, is still strongly characterised by a preoccupation with the British social class system — most notably with British working class stereotypes. These themes cannot be said to be essential to surrealist comedy as a whole.

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Via Cilicia.com, news of a documentary film on Jews in Armenia is being shown in Georgetown although no dates are given. Regardless, it sounds very interesting and the film is also available on DVD. There are stills from the documentary here and a main web site here.

Documenting for the first time the existence of the Jewish community in Armenia , the film presents a journey never taken before. While breaking on its way many myths about the relations between Jews and Armenians and discovering many new realities from the past and the present, the film looks at the traces of a 13th century Jewish community of Armenia; listens to the story of perseverance of a tiny, yet devoted group of Subbotniks living on the shores of Lake Sevan; and follows the personal journeys of the younger generations of Jews of Armenia. It is a story about the harmonious and sincere coexistence of two cultures, who at times, had to find refuge in each other’s lands.

Wow, one of the greatest films ever made has been translated and dubbed into Armenian. Apocalypse Now is showing on Armenian Public TV as I type this post. Given Armenian TV’s obsession with garbage, who’d have thunk it?

Apocalypse Now is a thematically rich film. The primary motif is the same as in Heart of Darkness, i.e., an Odyssey in the epic tradition of Homer and the Orpheus myth into the dark side of the human soul. The secondary motif of the duality of man is illustrated by the conflict between Kurtz and Willard, and is made explicit in the Redux cut through the added line “You are both: one that kills and one that loves.”

[…]

Today, the film is regarded by many as a masterpiece of the New Hollywood era. It is on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies list at number 28. Kilgore’s quote “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” was number 12 on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes list. In 2002, Sight and Sound magazine polled several critics to name the best film of the last 25 years and Apocalypse Now was named number 1. The film is also ranked number 37 on imdb.com’s Top 250 movies list, with an overall rating of 8.4 out of 10.

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As 24 April, the date when Armenians worldwide remember the 1915-1917 Genocide, approaches, some startling news. A film by Canadian-Armenian Atom Egoyan based around the massacre and deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire has been broadcast in Turkey. The English-language Turkish Daily News has more and says in particular that the taboo placed upon discussion of this event in Armenia’s estranged neighbor has now been broken.

In my view, Tuncay Özkan’s Kanal Türk brought down a taboo on Thursday night. It aired ‘Ararat,’ the best-known propaganda film promoting the Armenian genocide allegations at the level of international public opinion.

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