MOSCOW INCIDENT IS NOT CONNECTED WITH MY BEING ARMENIAN, MIKAEL DOVLATIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
May 03 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. “The incident that happened to me in
Moscow is not connected with my being Armenian. Such cases happen
to Georgians, Azerbaijanis and people of other nationalities, too,”
film director Mikael Dovlatian declared at the May 2 press conference
in connection with the attack upon him by a group of young people
some days ago in Moscow underground. According to him, this group
of young people was like a “pack of wolves” and their goal was to
do harm to people of other nationalities. According to M.Dovlatian,
if such incidents become frequent, it is not excluded that a civil
war will start in Russia. “This is a bright example of xenophobia and
the Russian government should undertake serious measures as otherwise
this anti-hysteria will cause many problems for Russia and other CIS
countries,” M.Dovlatian emphasized. He also mentioned that he has
no hope that this case will be disclosed. According to M.Dovlatian,
he has nothing against Russia and will continue to cooperate with
Russian cinematographers. But Ruben Gevorgiants, Chairman of the Union
of Armenian Cinematographers, said that the Russian cinematographers
have refused to take part in the “Yes Em” (“It’s Me”) international
youth festival starting on May 3 in Yerevan.