SECOND TURKISH FILM FESTIVAL TO OPEN IN YEREVAN
Gayane Danielian
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24.03.2010
An Armenian non-governmental organization will open a second festival
of Turkish films in Yerevan on Thursday as part of its efforts to
promote Turkish-Armenian dialogue.
The three-day festival will feature over a dozen of motion pictures,
documentaries and even animations. They will compete for a single
prize to be awarded by an amateur Armenian jury.
According to the organizer of the event, the Yerevan-based Caucasus
Center for Peace Initiatives (CCPR), ordinary viewers’ opinion will
be the main criterion in the selection of the winner.
The CCPR already held such a festival a year ago. Its chairman,
Georgi Vanian, said on Wednesday that Turkish filmmakers’ interest
in the initiative has sharply increased since then.
"We had only one application from Turkey for the first festival,"
Vanian told RFE/RL. "We obtained all other films included in the
competition from the archives of local and international festivals
taking place in Turkey."
"This year, we received 77 film applications before the submission
deadline," he said. The purpose of the festival, sponsored by the
British Embassy in Armenian, is to give Armenian society a better
idea of modern-day Turkey, added Vanian.
The CCPR held a similar festival of Azerbaijani movies in the Armenian
capital last October. The civic group was also the organizer of
"days of Azerbaijan" at a Yerevan public school in December 2007.