What was planned as AGBU's routine "Manufacturing Consent" practice - backfired at them. read more below...  

Listen to how the Press-Conference was covered by the key TV channels in Armenia on evening news (after a little surprise intervention from Melkoniantsis)

  TV1.mp3 (740kb)   TV2.mp3 (605kb)   TV3.mp3 (540kb)

In order to listen, Right-click and choose "Save Target As"

You can also read the Press coverage of this event in "Letters & Articles" - below are the Photos of what happened.

So what is the AGBU's grandiose plan???  To close and sell Melkonian under the pretext of "askabahbanoum", run away with that money, and in the meanwhile - to payroll the media to keep the public in darkness.  Well not this time - not in Armenia.

So what happened in Yerevan?  Berge Setrakian was holding a Press-Conference in Yerevan. Only an exclusive list of friendly media were invited.  Discussion of Melkonian's closure was not on the agenda.  But along came the Melkoniantsis - Haik Nazarian & Co.  On the doorway, while Setrakian wanted to enter the building (and some key TV stations were there), a Melkoniantsi managed to cut his way off and pass him the MI Open Letter with a request to give clear answers as to why MEI is being closed. This was the breaking point because when the journalist asked him not to interrupt (since they wanted to take an interview with Berge) that Melkoniantsi shouted "I am Melkoniantsi and I demand answers", so the journalists started showing interest.

For some unknown reason it took Setrakian 30 minutes to start the Press-Conference.  30 minutes is all it took for us to hijack the Press-Conference.  In the meanwhile Melkoniantsis started distributing the MI Open Letter to journalists and TV channels.  Suddenly it was a Melkoniantsi who was giving interviews and a Press-Conference.

AGBU did not plan to have even one single question about the MEI.  Instead, the entire Press-Conference turned out to be all about MEI.  Berge's promises to invest in Armenian did not seem to satisfy Armenian journalists thirsty for justice.  Berge seemed to have become very frustrated with such unexpected turn of events.  He did not give even one single satisfactory answer to media.  Many journalists, as  a sign of protest, just simply collected their microphones and left in the middle of Berge's speech.  Ouch...  So it was a complete fiasco for the AGBU and a triumph for MI.  

We hope to put up the whole Audio of the Press-Conference very soon - it is really hilarious how a NY lawyer talks about Armenian Sociology in Middle East and Europe.  Its beyond description - one must listen...

Is that Bergie wiping his tears?