Epress.am News from Armenia
– What do they have against Khachaturian? Is Wagner better? And at Israel's request, will the sports minister get circumcised?
– With the same success we would've had to give up Beethoven and Bach, Goethe and Heine.
– I suggest Azerbaijan abandon the MiG-25 and MiG-29 fighter jets… something's not right with the family name of their chief designer.
– Nagorno-Karabakh is completely to blame — they still can't share.
– Let's ban altogether, say, Tchaikovsky — in the name of homophobes.
– If the host country places such conditions, then tournaments shouldn't be held there.
– Stupidity.
– Are we going to renounce pork too […]?
– Nationalism is an illness, which should be treated!
– Why did they agree? They should've then taken Azerbaijan's anthem; they would've won first place.
– Does music have a nationality?
– What wonderful songs [Soviet Azerbaijani performer Muslim] Magomayev performs with music written by [Soviet Armenian music composer Arno] Babajanian!
– Nationalism is not a disease, but the result of stupid upbringing.
– Aram Il'yich Khachaturian — People's Artist of Azerbaijan!
– Conflict in the Caucasus is long-standing; everything is mixed up! In the 80s, even the World Weightlifting Championship was cancelled in Yerevan!
These are some of the comments left by users on the Belarusian site News.tut.by, commenting on the news that the Belarus rhythmic gymnastics team, upon Azerbaijan's request, relinquished performing to the music of Soviet composer of Armenian origin Aram Khachaturian (pictured).
According to head coach of the Belarusian team Irina Leparskaya, they took this step at the request of the organizers of the upcoming Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships to be held in Baku.
Justifying her athletes' tournament failures, the coach said that the team has performed for six months under Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance," but now they're forced to quickly prepare a piece to different music. This, according to the coach, is why the team scored so poorly in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Minsk. The Belarusian team on May 31 ranked sixth place in the all-around category and seventh place in the exercises with balls and ribbons the next day.
"There is occasion to criticize, of course, but the unfortunate occasions are more," said the coach.
The 30th Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships will be held in Baku from June 9–15.