Last year, the Russian famous “Literaturnaya Gazeta” (Literary Newspaper) celebrated its 185th anniversary. It was founded since the times of Alexander Pushkin. In the last few years, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief is the famous writer and social activist Yuri Polyakov, in the meantime the circulation of the newspaper consisting of 16 big-format pages rose to nearly 160,000. It is extended in the Internet through www.lgz.ru website and has permanent subscribers in dozens of countries of the world. On April 16 of this year, the issue of “Literaturnaya Gazeta”, for the first time, included “The Land of Nairi” annex, which consists of 4 big-format pages about Armenia, which henceforth will be published periodically. The preparation work of “The Land of Nairi” is carried out by the writer, translator, and Literaturnaya Gazeta’s personal correspondent in Armenia Lia Ivanyan. In the meeting with “Aravot”, our interlocutor noted that after long searches, the headline was chosen “The Land of Nairi” after Charents as an eternity symbol of Armenia. Lia Ivanyan informed that Yuri Polyakov, in the last few years, is frequently visiting Armenia on the occasion of the presentation of his plays, performance and books translated into Armenian, has many times raised at the highest instances the issue of having an Armenian annex in his newspaper, as well as about his willingness to support it. “One should not get the impression that such friendly attitude is displayed to everyone, Mr. Polyakov, for example, has refused Azerbaijan for 2 times, and their offered funding, the opportunity of using the circulation of 140,000 copies and the Internet. As for “The Land of Nairi”, our compatriot and film director Nona Aghajanova supported in the printing of the first issue. By chance, the first issue of “The Land of Nairi” was published in April, which in the vision of every Armenian, unwillingly, is associated with the Armenian Genocide. Naturally, the main part of 4-page Annex is related to this topic. Considering that the majority of readers are foreigners, we found is appropriate to present samples from of Daniel Varoujan’s, Siamanto’s and Ruben Sevak’s poems, which ends up with “brutally murdered in 1915″ acknowledgement,” informed the writer. She also added that the Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Haik Demoyan’s article entitled “The Armenian Jeanne d’Ark” about Hollywood actress Arshaluys (Aurora) Martikyan has found a great response among the readers. Based on the latter’s autobiographical book written in 1918 and entitled “Ravished Armenia”, in the same year, a Film Director Oscar Apfel shoot a film in Hollywood called “Auction of Souls”, where Arshaluys had played herself. “The page related to Homilies of Mush was accepted in a special warmth, in which the genetic reverence of our people towards the Armenian ancient manuscripts is presented, and as an example, there are excerpts from Antonia Arslan’s “A story about the Book of Mush” novel. This page is completed by the sculptor Heriknaz Galstyan’s “Homilies of Mush” statue. Genocide-related issues are also covered in the last page of “The Land of Nairi” under the title “As long as we remember”,” said our interlocutor. She also said that recently she had received a letter from a Russian woman, Valentina Feofanova, who after watching “The Lark Farm” film last year, filled with abundance of emotions, for the first time, wrote a poem, where she shares the pain of Armenians.
Samvel DANIELYAN
“Aravot” Daily
