BBC reveals how Armenians feel about Kim Kardashian

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS: News of pregnancy of 32-year-old Kim Kardashian one of the world's most famous reality TV stars of Armenian descent has grabbed the attention of newspapers and news websites like the BBC, Washington Post and Le Figaro being on the front pages of them.

BBC has tried to find out how Armenians feel about Kim Kardashian. Armenpress reports BBC has noted there are many people who follow each twist and turn of her life. There are many more who are either indifferent or are actively hostile to hearing about her activities, regarding her as a sad sign of the times, a reality TV star obsessed with fame.

“But for some it's impossible not to read her surname and think of her Armenian heritage,”BBC writes. Kardashian is distinctively Armenian. The model's father, paternal grandparents and even great grandparents were of Armenian descent. So how do people in Armenia - a country with a population of three million - reading about someone who is one of the world's best-known ethnic Armenians, feel about her fame?

Photos of Kim Kardashian are splashed across the front pages of magazines and adorn billboards, the walls of car washes and car parks in Yerevan, the country's capital, according to BBC monitoring journalist Armen Shahbazian, who was based in Armenia between 2007 and 2011.

But he says that doesn't mean the nation loves her.

"Kim is an Armenian and famous in the world, so this is enough for every Armenian to be proud of Kim. But because of cultural and traditional issues, they do not want to accept that she is an Armenian," he says.

Stories about Kardashian are frequently a topic for comedy programmes, he says.

"They always compare the Armenian French singer Charles Aznavour, who they are proud of, with Kim Kardashian, who is seen in a more negative light. They don't want her to present their country," he says.

Her "open sexual life and video tapes" are the sticking point, he says. Essentially, many Armenians do not want people all over the world to think that all Armenians are like Kim Kardashian. Many admire the way she has used her celebrity status to speak out about issues Armenians care about, such as the killing of Armenians under Turkish rule in WWI, Ishkanian argues.

Last year, Kardashian tweeted: "Today let’s all stand together and remember the 1.5 million people who were massacred in the Armenian Genocide."

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised internationally as genocide - and some countries have done so. Turkey admits that many Armenians were killed but it denies any genocide, saying the deaths happened during widespread fighting in WWI.

Kardashian was quick to explain when photos from a shoot appeared on Cosmopolitan magazine's Turkey edition in the same month as Genocide Remembrance Day. She has also spoken about the current plight of the Syrian Armenian community.

“And for Armenians who don't like reality stars, they can always look to Levon Aronian. He's the world's third-best chess player,” BBC noted.