March 28, 2005 - 08:43 AMT
DEPUTY MAYOR OF YEREVAN: CITY ADMINISTRATION DID NOT INVITE KIRKOROV TO ARMENIA
The Yerevan City Administration did not invite Philip Kirkorov, Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Arman Sahakian told journalists today. In his words, the Russian singer was invited by the Manukian CJSC and the city administration has supported the conduction of the concerts. As A. Sahakian noted, the issue of conduction of a concert in Yerevan should not be politicized. "It's an issue of culture. Moreover, Year of Russia was declared in Armenia and we can expect many Russian singers, whom municipal authorities should support", he said. It should be noted that 25-30% of the tickets has been already sold. Let us remind that on the occasion of Day of Motherhood and Beauty Philip Kirkorov has been invited to Yerevan to give a couple of concerts. In this view about 30 youth organizations sent a letter to the concert arrangers. The authors of the letter called to cancel the concert. They reminded of Kirkorov's anti-Armenian, moreover pro-Turkish position. Besides, he has recently outraged an Armenian journalist and spoke scorn of her origin. The protest initiators consider that the invitation of pro-Turkish singer to Armenia on the threshold of the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is immoral. The profit of the concert is recommensurable with moral values. The representatives of the youth organizations noted that if the concerts are not cancelled they will undertake measures to prevent them.