May 19, 2015

Tbilisi Jam! Fest 2015

DivahaR (Armenia) © Onnik James Krikorian 2015

Two weeks ago saw Tbilisi Jam! Fest 2015 held close to Lisi Lake. Featuring metal bands from the U.S., Europe, and Israel, the event also saw another instalment of the Wacken Open Air (W.O.A) Metal Battle Caucasus in which groups from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia competed to represent the region in the German music festival. Alas, the first of the three day festival was wet and cold.

Tbilisi Jam! Fest 2015 © Onnik James Krikorian 2015

It cleared up the following day which was just as well as my main interest was re-interviewing Azerbaijani Melodic Death Metal Band Silence Lies Fear for BBC Azerbaijan.

Silence Lies Fear © Onnik James Krikorian 2015

The video and interview I shot for BBC Azerbaijan is below.

Azərbaycanı təmsil edən Silence Lies Fear qrupu Gürcüstanda keçirilən rok festivalında işritak edib. Onlarla jurnalist Onnik Krikorian söhbət edib.

There were a few other bands from the South Caucasus which stood out for me during the event. Ducktape, a young Georgian pop punk band were particularly energetic.

Ducktape (Georgia) © Onnik James Krikorian 2015

Another was also from Georgia — the magnificent Third Side Justice.

Third Side Justice (Georgia) © Onnik James Krikorian 2015

And then there was DivahaR, an all-girl metal group from Armenia who are totally badass live…

Tbilisoba 2024

Oct 17, 2024

Earlier this month, Tbilisi celebrated Tbilisoba, the city’s annual harvest festival. Over the years it has changed significantly and seems smaller than before. I first covered the event in 2011 but the best so far remains 2014 when there was more representation of traditional Georgian folk dance and music as well as by ethnic minorities such as the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities. This year, that was held relatively far away from Tbilisi’s Old Town and Rike Park with very little publicity or in some media any at all. Nonetheless, those that attended appeared to enjoy themselves sufficiently and I managed to photo stories.

Can Armenia and Azerbaijan finally reach an agreement by COP29?

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As this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku draws closer, negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be drifting further apart. Despite hopes that the opposite would be true, a lack of clarity and confusion instead continues to reign. Does the draft Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations contain 17 points or 16? Initially, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had announced that consensus had been reached on 13 points while 3 were partially agreed and there was no agreement at all on a fourth.