Artsakh (song)

"Artsakh"
Song

External audio
Full version of Artsakh in Ara Gevorgyan's website

"Artsakh" (Armenian: «Արցախ») is a instrumental folk song from Armenian contemporary composer Ara Gevorgyan's 1999 album Ani. The song has become wildly popular in Armenia. Over the years, it has used been in cultural and political events and occasions. Figure skaters, gymnasts, and other athletes around the world have also used the song.

Name

Artsakh was one of the 15 provinces of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia. Today, the term "Artsakh" is used by Armenians to refer to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region, largely populated by Armenians, was taken over by the Armenian forces during the bloody war with Azerbaijan in 1988-94. The war is seen by Armenians as liberation of their historic lands and the song is a tribute to the Armenian military victory.

Usage in sports

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Parts of "Artsakh" have been used in sports, including:

Year	Athlete	Country	Sport	Event(s)	Ref
2001–02	Alexander Abt	Russia	Figure skating	All season long, including at the 2002 Winter Olympics
2005–06	Elene Gedevanishvili	Georgia	Figure skating	All season long, including at the 2006 Winter Olympics
2007	Dinara Gimatova	Azerbaijan	Gymnastics
2007-08	Vazgen Azrojan Anastasia Grebenkina	Armenia	Figure skating	Original dance
2008	Aliya Yussupova	Kazakhstan	Gymnastics
2009	Holon Israel	Israel	Figure skating
2009	Vic Darchinyan	Australia	Boxing	Entrance song
2010	Dou Baobao	China	Gymnastics	2010 Corbeil-Essonnes International Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament
2010	Marta Koczkowska	Poland	Gymnastics	2009 Corbeil-Essonnes International Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament
2010	Giorgio Petrosyan	Italy	Kickboxing	Entrance song
2013	Victoria Moors	Canada	Gymnastics	2013 AT&T American Cup
2013	Gegard Mousasi	Netherlands	Kickboxing	Entrance song
2014	Susianna Kentikian	Germany	Boxing	Entrance song

Other

• Pan-Armenian Games
• In a Russian TV show called "Ice Age" broadcast by the Channel One in 2007 Russian singer Aleksandra Savaleva and a Russian-born Israeli ice dancer Sergei Sakhnovski performed figure skating with this song.

Controversy

In 2007 Azerbaijani ambassador in Russia and former singer Polad Bülbüloğlu alleged that "Artsakh" contains an Azerbaijani song. Ara Georgyan responded that Bülbüloğlu's statements were a result of confusion from an incident that occurred during one of the episodes of the Russian TV show "Ice Age" broadcast by Channel One. During the performance of Russian singer Aleksandra Savaleva (ru) and Israeli ice dancer Sergei Sakhnovski, it was initially announced that the song they were going to use was called "Armenian dance" by Ara Gevorgyan, but instead a song called "Sene de galmaz" by Azerbaijani composer Tofig Guliyev was played and only after that a small portion of "Artsakh" was played. Ara Gevorgyan suggested that Azerbaijanis tried to justify Dinara Gimatova's use of the song without his permission in a 2005 grand-prix.