By Siranush Adamyan
Armenia’s Public Broadcaster Council has reprimanded two senior television executives for airing a concert on September 27, the sixth anniversary of the start of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
Public Television Director Hovhannes Movsisyan and his deputy, Levon Margaryan, received the disciplinary sanctions over the broadcast of pop singer Tata Simonyan’s concert, CivilNet reported on October 7.
The state-funded channel faced public backlash for showing the performance on a day when Armenians visited cemeteries, including Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan, to commemorate soldiers killed in the war.
The television company apologized on September 28.
“Broadcasting an entertainment concert on September 27 was an erroneous decision, and we fully accept responsibility for what happened,” the channel said in a statement.
Simonyan also criticized the decision, saying it was unacceptable to broadcast the concert on that date. He said the television company owned the broadcasting rights and had aired the recording without consulting him.
“I apologize for what happened, but I have to make a note that the material was used without consulting me,” he said.
The controversy followed criticism of Public Television for failing to report on the third anniversary of Azerbaijan’s September 19, 2023, offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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