Epress.am News from Armenia
The screening of Azerbaijani films in Yerevan has once again been postponed, and once again because the owner of the venue was put under pressure, as a result of which he withdrew his consent of holding the festival on his property.
This news was recently conveyed to Epress.am by the festival organizer, Caucasus Center of Peace-Making Initiatives (CCPI) president Georgy Vanyan.
The event was to take place today at 4 pm at 1 Buzand St. Prior to that, it was scheduled to take place at 5 Tamanyan near the Cascade complex. And prior to that, the festival was going to happen from Nov. 2–4 at the Media Center at the Mkhitar Sebastatsy educational complex. In all previous options, the owner or the person in charge of the venue withdrew their initial consent and organizers had to keep looking for another venue.
Vanyan would like to apologize to all those who were preparing to attend the festival today.
Further, he added that, at this time, he cannot say for sure where or when the festival will happen; however, he confirmed that, in any case, it will take place.
Speaking to Epress.am, the person in charge of the “Ruskaya Kniga” shop at 1 Buzand St., who did not wish to provide any comments on the refusal to provide the space, said:
“You know better than me, I have nothing to say, the festival organizer has explained everything to you.”
Vanyan informed Epress.am that the festival organizer had previously signed an agreement with the property owner and even paid a deposit.
Recall that as a result of numerous hateful and xenophobic comments initially left on the Facebook event page, organizers decided to postpone the event. Further, a number of those opposing the event posted a “counter event” on the social networking site, calling on supporters to join them in a protest demonstration at the site and day of the event (at that time, Nov. 2). The protest, however, did not happen.
As Epress.am reported earlier, another “counter event” called “Anti-Festival: Hatred in Turkish and Azerbaijani Cinema” is planned to take place today at the Tekeyan Center. Further, comments left on the Facebook page of this event suggested another protest against the festival might be planned to take place today. Whether this counter event or the protest is still planned is yet unclear.