Journey to Karabakh
I am writing from the press center for the presidential elections taking place here tomorrow. I didn't really comprehend what it was going to mean to be here while the election was going on - but now I do. The town is humming, loads of people around from Yerevan and abroad, hotels packed, friends from Yerevan and the US are around, and locals are busy, making it a bit hard to get things accomplished here on the Janapar. Gamats, gamats as they say.
It was kind of humorous to discuss the Georgian movie "Journey to Karabakh" with a Georgian journalist last night - he cracked up when I asked if he saw the movie and was inspired to come. I bumped into Shavarsh Kocharian, a well respected politician in Armenia and had a drink with him at a cafe. An old LCO friend from 1995 is here in town as well, and now as I type I'm being photographed by a journalist, so maybe a photoblog of me blogging will pop up somewhere? This weekend, lots of friends coincidentally arrive from Yerevan as well. So I guess Stepanakert is the place to be this week (it certainly is feeling a lot like Yerevan with all these out of towners here). Speaking of the place to be - which is the Hotel Armenia's cafe motto (you didn't know they have one?), there is now a Hotel Armenia in the Republic Square of Stepanakert. It's not affiliated with the now Marriott Hotel Armenia in Yerevan, but it is certainly trying to copy it in many ways. The city is nice and clean, though it's been drizzling or overcast the entire time I've been here.
Ah yes, the elections. It is for the most part going well (ie. pretty free and fair as they say) according to the many foreign observers in town. The outcome also seems to be a forgone conclusion according to most of the press, with a candidate named Bako? (or something like that) poised to beat Masis, the second more popular candidate. Don't ask me their last names, I'm too lazy to get up and pick up a press kit. Technically I'm not the real press anyway, so I should probably get off this machine... I'll try to take some fun pics for my flickr page.
It was kind of humorous to discuss the Georgian movie "Journey to Karabakh" with a Georgian journalist last night - he cracked up when I asked if he saw the movie and was inspired to come. I bumped into Shavarsh Kocharian, a well respected politician in Armenia and had a drink with him at a cafe. An old LCO friend from 1995 is here in town as well, and now as I type I'm being photographed by a journalist, so maybe a photoblog of me blogging will pop up somewhere? This weekend, lots of friends coincidentally arrive from Yerevan as well. So I guess Stepanakert is the place to be this week (it certainly is feeling a lot like Yerevan with all these out of towners here). Speaking of the place to be - which is the Hotel Armenia's cafe motto (you didn't know they have one?), there is now a Hotel Armenia in the Republic Square of Stepanakert. It's not affiliated with the now Marriott Hotel Armenia in Yerevan, but it is certainly trying to copy it in many ways. The city is nice and clean, though it's been drizzling or overcast the entire time I've been here.
Ah yes, the elections. It is for the most part going well (ie. pretty free and fair as they say) according to the many foreign observers in town. The outcome also seems to be a forgone conclusion according to most of the press, with a candidate named Bako? (or something like that) poised to beat Masis, the second more popular candidate. Don't ask me their last names, I'm too lazy to get up and pick up a press kit. Technically I'm not the real press anyway, so I should probably get off this machine... I'll try to take some fun pics for my flickr page.
posted by Raffi K. at 6:02 PM
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