Appreciation with medal. Armenian composer and conductor Konstantin Orbelyan was honored last week with the Movses Khorenatsi Medal by President Robert Kocharyan. The 75 year old composer devoted 60 years of his life to art. He was the founder of the most popular symphonic pop orchestra during Soviet times.

The celebration of Orbelyan's birthday took place on September 20 at Paplavok cafe, where President Khocharyan awarded him with the highest civilian medal of honor.

Independence in photos. On September 22 photos of different Armenian photographers were exhibited at the Armenpress Photo Salon. The main goal of the exhibition was to show artists' photo viewpoint on Armenian Independence, which was expressed in their works. Some demonstrated their happiness living in the free country, while others showed the dark part of independence.

New Sculpture. On September 23 a sculpture called "Melancholy" of an outstanding Armenian painter and sculptor Yervand Kochar was placed in front of the building of the Experimental Art Center. This sculpture is four times bigger than its original and was copied by the architect Ashot Karapetyan, who says that Kochar's creation presents civilization, its beginning and present and its achievements in one person. Mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan and the sculptor's son Ruben Kochar were present at the opening ceremony.

However, this event doesn't overlook the fact that Kochar's most popular monumental statue Sasuntsi David is now in very terrible condition. Not only the water pond under the statue is not functioning but the very important ideological part of the statue has been stolen as well. There was a copper basin under the leg of the horse of hero of folk epos David. The water was flowing from that basin into the pond. That basin was symbolizing the cup of people's patience, which had already been filled up and was slopping over. However, this cup has disappeared for three years and instead of that cup, the cup of patience of the administration of Erebuni Community has been filled up as they have placed that copper basin for three times and every time that basin was stolen.

Clipped film. (ARMINFO news agency) The film "Ararat" shot by the Canadian film director of Armenian heritage Atom Egoyan will be demonstrated in Turkey provided some scenes are clipped from it.

According to the "Actuality Film" organization, which brought the film to Turkey, Turkish "Hurriyet" newspaper reports that the Film Control Commission decided to have some scenes clipped from it. Clipped parts of the film include scenes that "present the events of Armenian history in an eloquent manner of cinema and contain expressions humiliating Turkish soldiers." According to authors of the statement, in the countries where the film was demonstrated "none of the viewers believed the theses stated by means of the unsuccessful film." "When bringing the film we thought that its original version might not cause any damage to Turkey, but meet its interests," they said. According to them, "clipping some fragments from the film will put in a more favorable light the events exaggerated by Armenia's history."

Successful Tour. Yerevan Puppet Theatre returned from Belarus and Bulgaria, where they took part in two International Festivals and was titled as The Most National and Musical Theatre of the Festival.

Provocative information. On September 24 Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs of Armenia Tamara Poghosyan refuted the information spread recently by a number of Turkish and then by local mass media, according to which Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs of Armenia Karen Aristakesyan had made some statement.

At the parliament Tamara Poghosyan informed that the International Conference called "Cultural policy in the transitional period, dialogue and new partnership" with the participation of the Ministers of Culture of a number of countries had been held in Antalya (Turkey) under the aegis of the Council of Europe. The Deputy Minister Karen Aristakesyan participated at that conference.

According to him, after the conference Turkish Anadolu news agency spread an information, which later was actively used by Turkish and Armenian mass media. According to the information, at the conference during the meeting of the representatives of the Culture Ministries of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan Karen Aristakesyan had allegedly stated that it was necessary to forget about all upsetting events, taken place in the past. In fact, the Deputy Minister stated "Armenia in its cultural policy has attached and is attaching great importance to the development of the dialogue in the issue of prevention of conflicts by means of intercultural and inter-confessional dialogue with the participation of the figures of culture."