KUSTURICA PLANTS TREE OF PEACE IN YEREVAN
Blic
March 8 2010
Emir Kusturica and No Smoking Orchestra have held a magnificent concert
in Armenia, at the National Theatre in Yerevan. The Serbian film
director had arrived at the invitation of Khachatur Almazian, famous
Armenian violinist, best known for his Almazian’s Obsession orchestra.
Kusturica and Almazian were given an official reception by Armenia
president Serzh Sargsyan, chatting for 45 minutes in a warm and
friendly atmosphere in the president’s residence. Kusturica was then
seen by Karekin II, the current head of the Holy Armenian Apostolic
Church, who presented the filmmaker with a 1,700-year-old Holy Mother
Church plaquette.
Upon his arrival in Yerevan, Kusturica was welcomed by Armenia’s
Prime Minister, Tigran Sargsyan, after which they visited Yerevan’s
Armenian Genocide Museum, where Kusturica planted a tree of peace.
Following the visit to the museum-institute, Emir Kusturica, together
with the members of the No Smoking Orchestra, laid a wreath at the
location where seven Serbian pilots died in 1988, after delivering
humanitarian aid to the Armenian people, hit by that year’s devastating
earthquake.
No Smoking Orchestra continue their tour tomorrow night in Saint
Petersburg, which will be the band’s eighth concert in this Russian
city in the past year.