A few days ago Aravot.am had reported that on the day of opening the PACE summer session, Bureau’s report was also discussed, which with a special line, expressed thanks to the Government of Armenia for donating glass windows to the Chamber of Assembly. However, there is no comprehensive information on the terms of the competition, on money spent and other topics. Only after the publication of the report, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs explained to Tert.am that the Republic of Armenia has participated in the competition of donation to install stained glass on the windows of PACE Chamber, won it, and made the commitment. Preparation of stained glass was ordered by artist, designer Arev Petrosyan. However, there is no information on, ultimately, how many stained glasses are we talking about, what sizes, and at what cost? It is obvious that most likely they are purchased by the resources of the state budget, because the PACE thanked just the government. Aravot.am tried to obtain information from Arevik Petrosyan regarding these issues. She conveyed the following: “I am the artist, the author of sketches. I have presented the sketches, I do not have other information yet.”
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan was inquired as to how much money is spent for stained-glass windows. He did not tell provide the exact information, but instead he said,- “It is a great joy for us that we have won the competition. We have passed through a great competition, because some countries were trying to win the competition. We have done everything to win the competition, we have passed through the Committee of Culture and other committees. We are a member of the international community, and different countries spend money to show their role and importance, that their name is mentioned in the history.” Again, we tried to clarify what volume of stained-glass we are talking about and so on. Z. Mnatsakanyan answered,- “The stained-glasses are not installed yet. Now I do not have budgetary lines before my eyes. But they are not huge amounts. We are now talking with the PACE technical specialists regarding the transportation, security and installation issues. We have donated one more piece of arts to PACE. The sculpture is called ‘Tamada’ (translator not -“a toastmaster”), it is placed in the ECHR president’s room. This is not a politics, nor diplomacy, this is the presentation of our culture in one of the organizations in Europe. We present our culture to the international community.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
