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PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

2009 AGBU Garbis Papazian Award Presented to Tsvetana Paskaleva

In an awards ceremony at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan
on July 3, the AGBU Garbis Papazian Award was presented to Bulgarian
reporter, documentarian and cinematographer Tsvetana Paskaleva for her
unwavering devotion to the truthful presentation of the Karabakh
liberation struggle.

Established in 1988, the AGBU Garbis Papazian Award is annually bestowed
on non-Armenian scholars and intellectuals, who, through their scholarly
research and publications, contribute to the dissemination and
understanding of Armenian history and culture, as well as the Armenian
Question.

Past recipients of this prestigious award have included Polish public
figure Msgr. Stanislaw Pindera, Spanish intellectual Gonzalo H. Guarch,
German scholar Wolfgang Gust, UCLA Professor Peter Crowe, Baroness Cox
of the British House of Lords, Russian intellectual Kim Bakshi and
Austrian archivists Helmut & Heide Buschhausen.

Paskaleva worked in Karabakh during that enclave’s war of independence
from Azerbaijan, presenting the battles and politics of the conflict to
an international audience. As a foreign journalist, she reported on the
mass deportations and atrocities against the Armenian citizens of
Azerbaijan. She is the director of seven documentaries about the
Karabakh war. She has also prepared reports for CNN, NBC, Antene-2 and
other European media agencies.

The July 3 ceremony began with a screening of Paskaleva’s 1993
documentary, "My Dears, Living and Dead," and continued with a speech by
Ruben Gevorkiants, chairman of the Republic of Armenia’s Union of
Cinematographers, who spoke about Paskaleva’s war coverage. Razmik
Hartunian-Tamrazian, member of the AGBU Garbis Papazian Award committee,
and Levon Kebabdjian, honorary member of the AGBU Central Board of
Directors, presented Pashkaleva with the award money and certificate.

AGBU Central Board of Directors member Yervant Zorian spoke about the
wide range of cultural and educational activities of AGBU and read AGBU
President Berge Setrakian’s congratulatory message. Zorian also
presented Paskaleva with the special AGBU crystal award for her
outstanding achievement.

After accepting the awards, Paskaleva expressed her gratitude to AGBU
and the Garbis Papazian Award committee for their gift. She spoke
passionately about the Karabakh liberation struggle and her urge to tell
the world about the atrocities in Karabakh, "I witnessed human truth
during the war…which needed to be revealed and protected. It was my
duty to come and shoot the severe reality of the people of Karabakh."

The award ceremony was followed by a performance of Avet Terterian’s
Symphony No. 3 by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra under its artistic
director and principal conductor Eduard Topchjan.

The AGBU Garbis Papazian Award was established in 1988 through the
initiative and with the financial resources of Garbis Papazian, for the
purpose of recognizing non-Armenian intellectuals who contribute to an
increase in awareness of Armenian history, culture and the Armenian
Question.

Established in 1906, the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) is the
world’s largest non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New
York City, AGBU () preserves and promotes the Armenian
identity and heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian
programs, annually serving some 400,000 Armenians in 35 countries.