Death Star in Baku

It's being pointed out with some excitement in certain quarters of the online community that this Vegas-style novelty building, which is apparently destined to be built by Korean architects as a hotel in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, resembles the Death Star from the 'Star Wars' films. Too weird to be true? Onnik Krikorian at Global Voices Online has more details here.

'Bloody Saturday'

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has published a dramatic series of pictures of the unrest in Yerevan at the weekend here, as well as eye-witness reports from its correspondents, who under the current situation are remaining anonymous.

Meanwhile, the respected online newspaper ArmeniaNow has published a reaction to the restrictions imposed on the media as part of the state of emergency which is now in force, which mean only officially-sanctioned news information can be broadcast or published:

ArmeniaNow believes that in any true democracy – even, and especially, during time of crisis – access to information is a fundamental public right.

It is on that basis and others that we declare our strong objection to the Armenian Government’s inclusion of media prohibitions as part of its enforcement of Article 15 and Article 117 of the Constitution pertaining to a State of Emergency.

We fully support all legitimate efforts to stabilize conditions following the tragic events of March 1.

But we do not accept that silencing non-state media is a legitimate means of maintaining order. Rather, we fear that the restrictions, even for the short period announced, could lead to the sort of propagandized media that re-unites Armenia with its Soviet past, while doing nothing to resolve the problems it faces in the present.

While obliged to comply with this imposition of censorship, ArmeniaNow will post state-approved information pertinent to the interests of our readers. But we do so with a caution to our readers that these releases present only a partial picture of present conditions.

We apologize to our readers for this disruption of news. We ask, though, that you continue to check this site, as we will resume normal reporting as soon as the State of Emergency is lifted.

John Hughes, Tony Halpin, Founders, New Times Journalism Training Center, Editors, ArmeniaNow; Julia Hakobyan, Managing Editor; Suren Musayelyan, Managing Editor

Armenia: State of Emergency

Under the state of emergency imposed by the president after the unrest here in Yerevan on Saturday, the Armenian media is now under severe restrictions and is only permitted to publish or broadcast officially-sanctioned news. I've heard that a few local bloggers may be defying the emergency regulations, but for excellent eye-witness reporting on the events of the past couple of days, see the independent Armenia Now website or Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Armenia Liberty site. For more details about the state of emergency, read the Armenian president's address to the nation here.

Unrest in Yerevan

It's the second night of the state of emergency here in the Armenian capital, and having just walked through Republic Square, where the main government building is located, I can see that the army is still on the streets after clashes on Saturday night in which eight people died and around 130 were injured, according to offical figures. Many people believed that the increasingly bitter stand-off between the authorities and opposition supporters here would eventually end in a crackdown. It was just a question of when it would happen, and how bloody it would be. In the end, it was extremely ugly indeed. Here is a piece written the morning after the violence.