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Presentation of Saakashvili’s Book in Yerevan Cancelled Again

The Noyan Tapan bookstore in Yerevan has also refused to provide space for the presentation of the Armenian translation of the book by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili “Awakening of Forces.” Note, the presentation was supposed to take place late in January at the Yeghishe Charents House-Museum, but the management of the museum went back on the agreement with  translator Mikael Nahapetyan at the last minute. The organizers of the event later reported that it would take place on February 7 at a then unknown venue.

“I have been notified by a representative of Noyan Tapan bookstore that the director flatly refused to let organize the presentation in his store and even subsequently sell the books there because he ‘did not want any problems.’ I do not know any other details.

“I had said in my previous interviews that the further course of events would show whether the incident with the Charents house-museum was a result of pressure. I now insist that these two, as well as the numerous other refusals that were left undisclosed, are the result of political pressure and are directed against the dissemination of the contents of the book. This is obvious and direct censorship.

“Regardless of the current situation, I express my solidarity with the staffs of the Charents house-museum and the Noyan Tapan bookstore and with all the citizens who have been affected by encroachments on their freedom of speech, thought, receiving and disseminating information, engaging in business activities and other constitutional freedoms,” Mikael Nahapetyan wrote on his Facebook page.

Note, Armenia’s Ministry of Culture told Epress.am earlier that they had had nothing do with the cancellation of the presentation at the Charents house-museum.