THOUGH WE HAVE GOOD POETS AND COMPOSERS, I AM NOT SURE THAT A GOOD
ANTHEM WILL BE WRITTEN, PAINTER HENRIK GALUKIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, JUNE 23, NOYAN TAPAN. "I am the fan of Aram Khachatrian’s
music and highly appreciate his genius, but the anthem written by
him makes an impression of an army march on me." Poet Razmik Davoyan
expressed such an opinion at the June 23 press conference. According
to him, "A.Khachatrian’s anthem is written by head, but there is no
heart in it." Though R.Davoyan is a member of the commission created
for the purpose of selecting lyrics and music for RA national anthem,
he considers that it is senseless to announce a competition and to fix
a term for creating the anthem. "An anthem is not born in one day and
I get surprised how one can sit at a table and create an anthem. I
was also proposed writting lyrics for the anthem but I refused,"
the poet mentioned. "We often say "Mother Armenia" and I think that
the anthem should be a song about mother. And we should have such an
anthem that will be also sung by our children of pre-school age,"
R.Davoyan said. According to the poet, naturally, many creations
will be presented by the end of the competition, but it is possible
that no work will meet the competition’s requirements. Painter
Henrik Galukian also considers that it is senseless to announce a
competition for creating an anthem. He reminded that a competition
was also announced for creating a monument to Komitas in the Soviet
years but none of the works presented at the competition received the
first prize. "Though we have very good poets and composers, I am not
sure that a good anthem will be written," H.Galukian is convinced.