Tore the inscriptions
The Russian "RIA Novosti" Agency organized an exhibition for photographers of the CIS, the Baltic countries and Georgia (the entire post-Soviet territory) within the framework of the "Forum of European and Asian Presses" taking place in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev from 7 to 10 December 2010.
One of the largest expositions at the "Photography" exhibition was devoted to talented Armenian photographer Ruben Mangasaryan's works.
Two of the numerous photographs showed the NKR region of Martakert, which were inscribed as "Abandoned cemetery in one of the villages of Martakert region, Armenia, 1993" and "Abandoned village in Martakert region, Armenia, 1993". On the second day of the event, just a couple of hours after the opening of the exhibition, the Armenian delegates participating in the event noticed that the inscriptions on those two photos by Ruben Mangasaryan were torn.
In response to the Armenian delegates' disappointment, the event organizers promised to restore the inscriptions by replacing the name "Armenia" with "Karabakh". After a while, the inscriptions were restored as agreed with the event organizers and Ruben Mangasaryan's collection was fully presented until the end of the event.
The developments related to the Armenian photographer's photos spared great interest among participants.
The Azerbaijani delegates were rather frustrated and kept trying to take measures to remove the photos. They even called Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Ukraine, but it was all in vain. Despite that, Azerbaijani presses spread false rumors according to which the photos were removed from the exhibition and the organizers had apologized. The presses had presented Ruben Mangasaryan as Ruben Baghdasaryan.
The exhibition organizers assured that all three facts mentioned in the Azerbaijani press releases were inaccurate. The photographer's last name isn't Baghdasaryan, the photos haven't been removed and nobody has apologized.
Let us add that the photos were at the same place throughout the entire exhibition.
