Azeri Film Festival Cancelled in Armenia

After a festival of Azerbaijani films in the Armenian capital Yerevan had to be cancelled, local organisers said freedom of speech was under threat.

Georgi Vanyan, head of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Centre for Peacekeeping Initiatives, announced just three hours before the film festival was due to begin on November 12 that he had been unable to find a venue.

Nevertheless, he said, “We are determined to hold this festival, and specifically to create a space for free expression, a space for direct, unmediated discussion in Armenia, against propaganda and terror that seek to degrade humanitarian ideals and negate intellect.”

Vanyan said he had been trying to find a venue for a year, often securing agreement from the owners of cinemas, hotels and private houses before they backed out at the last minute.

“This is terror against freedom of speech and expression,” he said, insisting that “there are citizens of Armenia who want to watch and discuss these films”.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have no diplomatic relations because of the war over Nagorny Karabakh, which ended in 1994 with a de facto separate entity controlled by an Armenian administration. Distrust of the neighbouring state still runs high in Armenia, where memories of the bloodshed of the early 1990s are still fresh, especially among the tens of thousands of people who fled ethnic violence in Baku and other parts of Azerbaijan.

Vanyan had been planning to screen four short films and one full-length film made in 2007-08. None had any connection to the Karabakh conflict. Vanyan said his intention was to “show the real Azerbaijan to viewers divided by a wall of propaganda”.

His plan to screen films from Azerbaijan was extremely controversial, and was condemned both by politicians and by participants in an internet campaign, who used Facebook to accuse festival organisers of being “traitors” and “turncoats”.

Opponents of the events included some surprising people. Ara Papyan, for example, a former Armenian ambassador in Canada, has previously argued strongly for closer cultural links with both Azerbaijan and Turkey. In a widely-republished blog entry he explained his reasons, saying, “fairness has been halted and the principle of reciprocal action has been violated. If there is a reason for holding an showing of Azeri films in Yerevan, then an analogous event –a screening of Armenian films – must be arranged in Baku. If that doesn’t happen, then the world will gain the wrong impression - people will think there’s only a need to spread tolerance among Armenians.”

The government did not comment on the festival, but Karine Achemyan, a member of parliament from the ruling Republican Party, described the plan as immoral.

“They’re shooting at our soldiers on the border…. How can you talk about cultural dialogue when Azerbaijan is destroying Armenian culture? There’s a clear case of this in Nakhichevan with the khachars,” she said, referring to the traditional Armenian stone crosses.

Narek Galstyan, spokesman for the opposition Hnchakyan Social-Democratic Party, was not to be outdone and wrote on Vanyan’s Facebook page, “You can go to Baku and organise any festival you want – just leave our country in peace… The bodies of our soldiers are not yet cold, and he plans to organise a ‘festival’.”

Interviewed by IWPR, Galstyan said no right-thinking person would go to see a film from a country that regularly generates anti-Armenian propaganda, and that there was no way Azerbaijan would host a screening of Armenian films.

Film critic Ara Nedolyan argued that banning Azerbaijani films would only make them more attractive.

“I don’t believe there should be forbidden fruit for citizens of Armenia; they should be allowed to do what they wants, including going to see Azerbaijani films,” he said.

Siranush Gevorgyan is a correspondent from the online publication ArmeniaNow.