Sirusho, Serge Sargsyan Pre-Election Campaign Rally, Komitas, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

It might be considered a little cheesy by most music lovers in Europe and beyond, but countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia take participation in the annual Eurovision song contest very seriously indeed. Not only does the competition represent the South Caucasus moving closer to Europe, but given that this year has proven to be a political turbulent one for all three countries it might also provide people here with a welcome break from rigged votes and post-election unrest.

Well, maybe that’s hoping a little too much. Spectacular Self-Indulgence, for example, already reports that the venue for yesterday’s national final in Armenia had to be changed because of the state of emergency currently in place following clashes between the opposition and security services last weekend.

[…] The government has imposed a 20 day “State of Emergency” after eight people died in street battles between riot police and citizens who were protesting the result of a presidential election. […]

[…]

There will be a backlash, however. Mark my words. It’s one thing to engage in unlawful surveillance of your political enemies. It’s quite a different matter to f*** with a pop music contest.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Komitas, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Today saw Serge Sargsyan pre-election campaign come to my doorstep — literally. Outside my apartment building, a stage erected the night before was having the final touches put to stacks of loud speakers as a huge banner depicting the prime minister and presidential election favorite was strung across above from one lamp post to another.

Security was also tighter than normal although it’s hard to tell whether that’s because of the shots fired first at the building housing the General Prosecutor’s Office and at two Sargsyan election campaign offices or not. Despite the extra concerns, however, security was still lighter than that surrounding the former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. As usual, a mob of people tried to approach Sargsyan as he arrived and also as he left. Pretty much they could too.

Some controversy has been raised by Sargsyan’s campaign, and actually that of Kocharian in 2003 as well as the Republican party a few months later, and also during last year’s parliamentary election. In all three previous parliamentary and presidential elections, Armenia’s top pop stars have been paraded out to perform for the candidate or party of power. Sargsyan’s Republican party have certainly proven adept at controlling youth.

Today was no exception. From Shiker and Hayko to Susan Margaryan and her daughter, Eurovision Song Contest contestant Sirusho, it was a lineup to make any Armenian pop fan happy.

The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.

YouTube has a video of Shakira performing Whenever, Wherever in Tbilisi, Georgia, two days ago. Didn’t even realize Shakira was performing there, but anyway. Reuters, however, posted a story about the pop star’s performance days earlier, but I didn’t realize until today. A pity as I would have considered venturing up there.

For most European capitals a Shakira concert is nothing special, but for tiny ex-Soviet Georgia the arrival of the hip-swiveling pop star may be a sign their economy is crawling back from the dead.

The Grammy award-winning singer from Colombia, known for her hit-single “Hips Don’t Lie,” is the biggest pop performer to play in Georgia, and local media report that her fee for Sunday’s show is between $1 and $3 million.

Shakira is coming to Tbilisi by invitation of a company building the city’s Park Hyatt hotel, part of a wave of foreign investment pouring into Georgia since reformist President Mikhail Saakashvili was elected in 2004.

“We have never dealt with such a big show before,” concert promoter Mikhail Giorgadze told Reuters. “None of the other entertainment projects that we have done before can even come close to this commercial scale,” he said.

Fans of Shakira will listen to her for free at an open square in the centre of Tbilisi on Sunday.

Tbilisi has hosted past concerts by the late Ray Charles and English pop band Simply Red, as well as artists from the Russian entertainment world, but never by a performer with Shakira’s mainstream commercial appeal.

Georgia’s economy imploded after the end of the Soviet Union as the country was pitched into civil war, separatist fighting and political chaos.

But foreign direct investment has been rising fast under Saakashvili and is forecast to reach $2 billion this year. Two years ago it was $700-$800 million. International hotel chains are among the investors attracted to Tbilisi.

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Yesterday a friend told me that I had too much politics on my blog even though not only is it election time in Armenia, but it’s also part of my work. Nevertheless, perhaps it’s time for a break if only for one post, and as music plays an important part in my life, what better a subject to cover and not least since in the past few months, the monotony of the type of music being produced in Armenia has really gotten to me.

With one or two exceptions, even the rock scene is mundane, predictable and lacking in any spirit. Music for the masses is just as bad, although many would argue that the same is true in the even more commercially-driven Western market. Still, what we do have in Europe and the U.S. is a more diverse selection and five decades of pop and rock music — some of which stands the test of time.

Of late, for example, I’ve rediscovered the Sex Pistols, England’s most notorious punk rock band of the 1970s. Arguably manufactured by music impresario Malcom McLaren, whatever people might think of the Sex Pistols, I remember that they turned the country upside down. Aged seven when they were formed, even now I can remember the shock and outrage that accompanied the very mention of their name in the British media.

Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. The band originally comprised vocalist Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock (later replaced by Sid Vicious). Although their initial career lasted only three years and produced only four singles and one studio album, the Sex Pistols have been described by the BBC as “the definitive English punk rock band.” The Pistols are widely credited with initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and creating the first generation gap within rock and roll.

The Sex Pistols emerged as a response to what was perceived to be the “increasingly safe and bloated” progressive rock and manufactured pop music of the mid-1970s. The band created various controversies during their brief career which captivated Britain, but often eclipsed their music. Their shows and tours repeatedly faced difficulties from authorities, and public appearances often ended in disaster and riot. Their 1977 single, “God Save the Queen”, was widely regarded as an attack on the British monarchy and British nationalism.

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As mentioned in the comments section of my own post on Sksela’s Rock for Freedom event, Anush at Transitions Online’s The Armenian Patchwork has posted some of my photographs from the event there.

This time photographs from Onnik Krikorian of the latest rock event, organized by Sksela movement. The event was generally enjoyed as rock gatherings always are, but raised some controversial opinions because of its security. Several photos here, and more can be viewed in Onnik’s post.

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Sksela Rock for Freedom, Moscow Cinema Summer House, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Well, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt despite their known HHSh links and support for the radical opposition, but it has to be said that tonight’s Sksela Rock for Freedom was anything but. First off, the security was tight with a dozen “rent-a-thug” security guards hired by the supposedly pro-freedom, pro-democracy movement called in to separate the audience from the bands that played. Intimidating is not the word.

According to the organizers, the hired muscle, a few of which were dressed in military fatigues, was to prevent any trouble, but as larger rock concerts have been staged in Yerevan without such security, some serious questions have to be raised. In a sense, now that many diplomatic missions in Yerevan want to fund Armenia’s revolutionary-wannabes, it seems as though Sksela are getting too big for their own boots. Arrogant and egotistical, I’d say.

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As already posted, but just to remind anyone interested, Sksela has its Rock for Freedom event planned for tonight in central Yerevan. For those of you on Facebook, there are even Sksela and Rock for Freedom groups set up.

Bands playing include Empyray, Roxygen, Oaksenham, Strife, Sakvoyage, Mher Manukyan & Friends, Army of God, and others.

Sunday, October 7, 2007
7:00pm - 11:00pm
Moscow Cinema Summer Hall
Entrance is Free

Via The Armenian Observer, Tirami Su and Bekaisa, and as mentioned here, the Sksela youth movement will be staging its Rock for Freedom concert on 7 October at 7pm in the Moscow Cinema’s Summer Hall. Bands playing include Empyray, Roxygen, Oaksenham and Impeachment-activist and former Lav Eli guitarist Mher Manukian.

As mentioned in the article I wrote on Sksela in April for EurasiaNet, the concert has been postponed until now because the Yerevan municipality refused to grant permission for it to be held.

Citing previously scheduled outdoor events, Yerevan’s city hall has refused permission for the group to hold an April 14 open-air rock concert, funded, like the February march, by the British Embassy.

Like other observers, Sksel a organizer Kharatian is concerned that such decisions are directly related to the election and attempts by the authorities to prevent alternative groups from holding meetings or staging rallies.

If so, Kharatian argues, the decision is misplaced. “I wouldn’t say that we’re directly concerned with the election as we’ve existed informally as a group since 2003, ” he commented, “but there’s no doubt that the country is about to face a major challenge which is why we’ve become so active now.”

The group has applied for an alternative date, but has yet to receive a response, he added. A fresh refusal would demonstrate whether or not blocking Sksel a events is “official policy,” he continued.

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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 at iArarat sent me an email yesterday with a link to the web site of jazz guitarist Al di Meola which details two concerts he is set to give in Yerevan in a week’s time. I haven’t seen any posters in Yerevan, but there must be some as a forum has posted one. What’s unclear, however, is whether the first date is a solo concert or not. One post on the forum says Al di Meola will be a guest performer implying that he will play as part of a much larger concert.

However, the prominence given to his name on the poster suggests that it is a proper concert by Al di Meola and Arto Tuncboyacian.

He will also be taking part in another concert in Republic Square which will also feature Tuncboyacian and the Armenian Navy Band. Interestingly, Al di Meola already has links with jazz in the South Caucasus. In 1995 he played guitar on Azerbaijani jazz artist Aziza Mustafa Zadeh’s Dance of Fire, and Tuncboyacian has performed and recorded with him in the past, including on World Sinfonia: The Grande Passion. Last year, Al di Meola performed in Baku as part of his European tour.

What’s confusing, however, is that the Al di Meola web site says he will be preforming in Yerevan on 12-13 September, while the forum and the uploaded poster says 12 and 14 September. Does anyone have any more information on any of this? If so, please post a comment.

The Turkish Daily News reports that world-renowned Armenian duduk player Djivan Gasparian will perform today in Istanbul, Turkey, alongside saz player and vocalist Yavuz Bingöl to mark the International Day of Peace. Reconciliation and looking forwards seems to be the point of the event.

“My instrument is the voice of peace; I came here to lend a breath for the brotherhood of two nations,” says Gasparyan, stressing that the trauma between Turks and Armenians would be overcome through tolerance and understanding.

Gasparyan and Bingöl will play in the Open Air Theatre in Harbiye. Gasparyan aims to reinforce peace and brotherhood between the two countries as he emphasizes how wrong it is to feed young generations with hostility. Following his Istanbul concert, Gasparyan will meet his fans in Ankara tomorrow evening at MEB Şura Hall.

[…]

From time to time, the origin of folkloric songs causes controversy between Armenians and Turks, says the artist. “This is unnecessary,” he adds. “We have lived together for centuries. It is difficult to decide the origin of an anonymous piece.” He says that they will provide the lyrics to the anonymous “Sarı Gelin” folk song both in Armenian and Turkish. “This folk song is claimed by Azeris and Iranians as much as Turks and Armenians. We should put discussions aside and concentrate on the feeling this song gives us inside.”

The full story is here.