JAZZY START TO PRESIDENT HALONEN’S VISIT TO ARMENIA

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland
Sept 27 2005

Finnish President Tarja Halonen began her week-long visit to the
Caucasus region on Monday in Yerevan, Armenia, where the arrival
day’s informal programme included a visit to an art museum and an
evening in a jazz club.

The official part of the first-ever visit of a Finnish head of
state to Armenia only begins today, Tuesday. Even so, Halonen and
her husband Pentti Arajarvi already spent Monday evening with the
Armenian President Robert Kotsarian, first dining and then visiting
a local jazz cafe.

The choice venue for the dinner with the Finnish President was a
museum dedicated to works of film director and artist Sergei Parajanov
(1924-1990). The focal point of the view from the museum’s windows
was the 5,165-metre peak of Mount Ararat on the Turkish side.

“Magnificent views”, Halonen remarked when entering the museum.

President Halonen, an amateur artist herself, praised Parajanov’s
collage art with phrases like “amazingly modern” and “genuinely
skilful”. In his works, Parajanov used various materials from pieces
of bottles to the wings of birds. One of the museum’s glass cabinets
was filled with hats.

“I have one of those”, Halonen said when she spotted an old Singer
sewing machine. “Maybe I should send it to a museum.”

The topics of today’s official discussions in Yerevan will include
the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, as well as Armenia’s relationships with
the EU, Turkey, and Russia.

Halonen’s host, President Kotsarian, was born in the Nagorno-Karabakh
region, the possession of which is a subject of an ongoing dispute
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Halonen will be visiting Azerbaijan
later in the week, along with Georgia.