BOOK PUBLISHING UNDER CORRUPTION: KARABAKH OFFICIALS YEARN FOR WRITER’S FAME
Book publishing has recently become one of the most controversial issues speculated upon in Karabakh, where corruption has penetrated even into the modest enterprise. The thing is that some Karabakhi officials have decided to use the state as a sponsor to publish books authored by them. Every year the state allocates funds to book publishing. In 2008 around 10 million drams (about $32,000) has been allocated for those purposes. According to the approved list 30 percent of that money has to be spent on books by Minister of Culture Norek Gasparyan and head of the Writers’ Union Vardan Hakobyan. Since 2004 46 million drams ($150,000) has been allocated to the sector. One hundred titles by 62 authors have been published. In the past 5 years Hakobyan has published 7 books (including the one approved for this year) for 5.8 million drams in total ($18,800). Twenty-one out of 46 million was given to 7 authors, who have published 29 books. The remaining 29 million was given to 55 ‘regular’ authors. Every year the Ministry’s special commission on issues of culture and youth announces a contest of book manuscripts ready for publishing and selects those that, in their opinion, deserve state-funding. In March a list of 23 books was approved at the session of NKR government, to be published in 2008. In that list 2 out of 23 are authored by the Minister of Culture himself, the author of another 2 books is Hakobyan. According to the list, “book publishing records winner” is Gasparyan’s book “Stories” which has to be for some reason published in English, also the book “Mother”, The state has to allocate 1,250,000 drams ($4,000) to publsih these books. Two books by Hakobyan titled “Volume 4” and “Volume 5” together make about 1,900,000 drams ($6,200). Before submitting the list for government’s approval the parliament all of a sudden had called a session on the issues of book publishing. This was caused by complaints of a number of authors concerning the principles of book selection for state funding. Both the authors and members of parliament considered use of position for personal puproses by the minister or any other official to be unacceptable. Even more so, a question was raised on whether anyone had studied the effect of the money spent by the state. What is the political, national, literary value of the books that have already been published? The participating deputies expressed rather reserved opinions about the value of those books, noting that practically nobody reads them. The answer to a reporter’s questions at one of Stepanakert’s libraries whether readers ask for contemporary Karabakhi writers was only a smile. The librarian showed shelves full of hundreds of untouched books by the local writers. At the same time there wasn’t a proper copy of Tumanyan’s or Khno-aper’s tales at the library, which, as the librarian said, are the books school-age readers most frequently ask for. After the parliamentary debates, Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan gave instructions to reconsider the list and said that the list shouldn’t include more than one book by the same author. However, he did not say that according to all norms- both legal and moral, a state official cannot allocate money to himself. He has to be either a commission member, or a contestant [cannot be both at the same time]. The list was reconsidered. Hakobyan indeed took one of his volumes off the list, meanwhile the Minister of Culture found another way. He replaced the English translation of his book by a Russian one, and put his translator’s name as the author instead of his own.
- Naira Hayrumyan
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- 1847 Summit Meeting of the representatives of the Transcaucasian Armenian community.
- 1847 With the participation of the gentry and commoners, the National, Ecclesiastic, and Supreme Council is created in Constantinople. It is the first step towards the creation of the "Constitution".
- 1859 A Committee, consisting of 5 clergymen and 14 laymen, is struck in Constantinople to write the "Constitution". The Chariman was Rusinian.
- 1945 End of World War Two (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in the USSR).
- 1964 Death of Vahan Totomyants, professor and public figure.
- 1992 Shooshee (Artsakh) is liberated after 71 years of occupation by Azeri Turks.
- 1994 Protocol negotiated in the Artsakh War and signed in Bishkek (Kirgizstan) by the parliamentary speakers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Artsakh as mediated by Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. This was the first recognition of Artsakhs distinctiveness as a political and territorial entity in the negotiations. Azerbaijan occupied 750 sq. km. (15%) of Artsakhs territory, while Artsakh occupied 7059 sq. km. (8%) of territory considered to have traditionally been possessed by Azerbaijan.
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