ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS TAPE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
Submitted by: MCB Quantico
Marines.mil
Aug. 10, 2006
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va.(Aug. 10, 2006) — Two television
journalists from the Republic of Armenia visited Quantico July 26
to capture on tape the spirit of the United States Marine Corps and
what Americans stand for as a democratic society in hopes to further
educate their own country on the positive impression the United States
brings to the rest of the world.
In conjunction with the State Department, Avet Demuryan, vice president
of YPC Productions in the Republic of Armenia, and Hovhannes Hakobyan,
a cameraman from NTV, a Russian television station, made the long trip
half way around the world to meet with Larry Clamage, a television
co-op producer contracted with the State Department. Clamage’s job
is to plan the logistics of the journalists’ trip to the states. He
made contacts and set up interviews for every angle the journalists
wished to cover while filming in the states.
"These projects are very important," Clamage said. "It’s in our
interests as Americans to let the world know what a democracy is
like, and that this way of life is worth pursuing for other foreign
countries. It’s one thing if an American journalist appeared on
foreign TV to tell the people how great democracy is, but having it
come from the mouth of one of their own respected journalists makes
all the difference."
Clamage and the Armenian crew visited The Basic School to the
highlight the training of a Marine Corps officer. The place where newly
commissioned Marine Corps officers learn to lead Marines into combat
as platoon leaders is an important part of their story on the Corps.
Demuryan served in the soviet military around 25 years ago in his
military’s Special Forces as a military journalist. As a young man he
saw combat while in the Republic of Belarus. His experiences in the
military shaped his life as a journalist and gave him a deep respect
for military forces such as the Marine Corps.
Demuryan thinks the Armenian viewers want to see and hear the story
of the Marine Corps because of what the Corps stands for among the
military services in the United States and among the world.
"The Marines are of the highest level," Demuryan said. "They are in
my opinion the best part of the American military. The Marines are
always the ones on the front lines. They are the best of the best
and that’s what the Armenian viewers want to see."
The crew is traveling across the country to many different locations
to cover their story on the Marine Corps and some other U.S.
services. They have already been to National Defense University in
Washington, D.C., to visit Congress, the Pentagon and Quantico.
Within the next two weeks the crew will be traveling to Tampa, Fla.,
to the U.S. Central Command, Fort Leavenworth in Kansas City, Mo.,
and Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Their story of the Marine Corps and other U.S. military services
will be broadcasted throughout the former Soviet Union region and
the Armenian military in a 20 to 30 minute long news media show.
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