Vahram Atanesyan, a former deputy of the Supreme Council of Armenia and the National Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh, wrote on his Facebook page:
"By order of the President of Azerbaijan, mass marches, crying, mourning, and self-flagellation have been banned on the day of Ashura for about ten years. It is written that whoever wants to lose blood on that day as a tribute to the memory of Imam Hussein, let him enter a medical institution and donate as much blood as he wants.
And this year, even women have been banned from entering the mosque and mourning. How many "brilliant" playwrights, directors, and screenwriters do we have? Let them present a ritual for the Vardavar celebration, along with cultural events. Let the government approve one through a competition so that next time no one in any city of Armenia will be tempted to turn on the song "Vladimirskiy Central."
PS "Just don't say, 'Vardavar is a church holiday, what does the state have to do with it?' A thousand years before the Enlightenment, Vardavar was a national holiday, and it has remained so to this day. No Armenian ever thinks on that day that Christ climbed a mountain with his disciples and preached a sermon."
