12 CULTURE NEWS HEADLINES FROM 6 COUNTRIES IN MAY
Armenia
Erevan hosted first international festival-contest “Music of Friendship” uniting several CIS countries. The event comprised young singers from Armenia, Russia, Moldova Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. The festival’s executive director Elena Ezerskaya highlighted that the event aims at supporting Russian language and culture as well as cooperation between different countries used to have brotherly relations.Newsarmenia
Azerbaijan
American Days took place in Azerbaijan. Opening the American Days, Robert Secuta, US ambassador to Azerbaijan, and Sevda Mamedaliyeva, the country’s deputy culture minister, noted the importance of holding similar events between two countries having much in common like tolerance and openness to other cultures. The main purpose of the culture days is to show diversity of American culture to Azerbaijan people and foster mutual understanding between the two countries, the deputy minister underlined. Trend.az
Azerbaijan hosted Dagestan Culture Days for the first time initiated by Dagestani side to widen culture cooperation in the region and to renew interest to Dagestani and Russian culture in Azerbaijan. The events also include meetings between business circles of the both sides.Trend.az
Belarus
Belarus authorities are concerned by broad presence of Russian content in national media. Ihor Buzovskyi, deputy head of Belarus Presidential Administration, expressed concern by the amount of Russian content presence in Belarus media. At the moment, the share of Russian content has reached 65%, the official noted, adding that this is worrying from the point of view of national culture and information security. On the one hand, this is a positive cultural integration, from the other hand, however, there is a need of Belarus national information content, Buzovskyi underlined.News.tut.by
Belarus conducted Turkmenistan Culture Days. The programme included numerous events across the country - exhibitions and concerts - organized by Turkmenistan’s ministry of culture and the State museum of national culture center of Turkmenistan with the support of Belarus culture ministry. Belta
Georgia
Politico highlights the impact of Russian propaganda in Georgia. A US-based political journal Politico wrote an article dedicated to Russian propaganda in Georgia and its influence. Georgian satellite dishes mostly broadcast Russian programmes delivering a powerful message to Georgians: “You belong to us,” the article wrote. Besides media content, Russia employs widespread presence of Russian language and Georgian Orthodox Church. According to a Georgian political expert, Europe’s major mistake is the decision to freeze EU membership perspective for the country and wider for the EaP region. Moscow is pouring money into pro-Russian media and NGOs promoting the message already deeply rooted in Georgian society: “Russia is a traditional and natural ally, while the West is a temple of decadence and a haven for homosexuals,” the article wrote. Politico, reported also by Fokus
Bashkiria hosted Georgia Culture Days. On 14 May, Georgia Culture Days opened in Bashkortostan. The programme is prepared by the Georgian national culture center with the support of the country’s ministry of culture. The main ideas of the Culture Days is to preserve centuries-long friendship between the people, mutual understanding, respect and tolerance, the head of Georgian national culture center said. Bashinform
Moldova
Chisinau conducted Europe Day on 14 May. The government of Moldova presented projects conducted in the framework of European programmes as well as education and research possibilities available for Moldovan citizens. The programme of the Europe Day included numerous sport and culture events with the participation of the country’s senior officials starting from the PM Pavel Filip. RTR Moldova
Romania to open information center in Bălți, Moldova’s second biggest city. The center aims at promoting Romanian language and culture in the region by supporting topical training programmes and seminars. The center would also hold sessions dedicated to the European Union. The Center will be established based on a protocol signed between the Romanian foreign ministry and Alecu Russo State University of Bălți. Similar protocol was signed on 11 May in Ukrainian city Izmail. Beltsymd
Ukraine
Ukraine won the 2016 European Song Contest in Stockholm. Jamala, Ukrainian contestant, won the European Song Contest 2016 with the song “1944” telling about deportation of Crimea Tatars committed by Soviet Union under Stalin authority in 1944. The song scored 534 points followed by Dami Im from Australia with 511 points and Russian contestant Sergey Lazarev who received 491 points. Channel 5
Culture minister: Ukraine would hold 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on European money. In his interview to Ukrinform, Yevhen Nyshchuk, Ukraine’s minister of culture, noted that the next Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) would be conducted for the money of European investors. We need to bring European experts, to meet the high bar set in Stockholm, the minister noted, adding that this requires extensive financing. Ukraine would not spend state budget money for holding the ESC, Nyshchuk added. Ukrinform
Ukrainian opened its pavilion at the Cannes Films Festival. The State Committee for Cinematography together with International Film Festival “Molodist [Youth]” are the organizers of the pavilion which is used to demonstrate trailers of newly filmed Ukrainian movies as well as teasers of the upcoming ones. The pavilion is also used to present Ukraine’s biggest Film Festival “Molodist [Youth].” Argumenty i Fakty
