YOU HAVE COME OUT OF KHOR VIRAP…
Anahit Yesayan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 31 2007
Armenia

One has to grow wiser after 60

What new things did Levon Ter-Petrsoyan say on October 26 on the
Theatrical Square, during his speech which lasted around 1 hour and
10 minutes? What are the impressions regarding his advent and his
claim for Presidency?

As mentioned by the NAS (National Academy of Sciences) Academician
Henrik Hovhannisyan, Doctor-Professor in Art Studies, "A person has
to be sensible enough to know that his time is in the past. The same
game cannot repeat itself after several years when the atmosphere
has changed, the forces have changed, the arena has changed, and,
after all, you yourself have changed…"

Many years ago, in 1983, actress Violeta Gevorkyan played a magnificent
role on the stage of the Dramatic Theatre. It was one of the best
performances I had ever seen: "Autumn Sun", based on Hrant Matevosyan’s
story. No woman had ever had such an image on the Armenian stage. I
wrote 3 articles about her brilliant performance.

Years later, about 2 years ago, she came to play that role again.

I told her that there was no need to play the same role. The times
have changed; we do not have the same audience. The co-players have
changed; I didn’t tell her that she herself had changed.

And she repeated it. Those who saw it came to me and said, ‘was
that what you wrote about?’ Naturally, what they had seen could not
be what I had seen. That is, you cannot play the same game. It is
impossible. The performance is over; the repetition cannot have the
same value.

Similarly now, after shutting himself away for 10 years, a person
suddenly rises to his feet and … as if he has come out of the grave.

He is politically dead in the strictest sense of the word. It isn’t
as if you are an intellectual and read manuscripts in Matenadaran;
don’t you know that it is impossible to cross the same river twice?

Generally, a person has to grow wiser after 60, while in this case
we are dealing with utmost stupidity. Even if he were wonderful and
we remembered him jokingly, repetition would be impermissible again.

The matter does not consist in being good or bad. The same water
stream never flows down the river. One is not required to be literate
to understand that; all he needs to have is common sense, wittiness.

We all have changed.

The kind of society and the values have changed. You may say true
things, speak eloquently but that won’t work. People have memory."

"But simultaneously, there is the phenomenon of ‘memory lapse’ which
has its bearers."

"It is public idiotism. There is a generation that has no idea of what
happened. There is another generation that was young and didn’t see
and understand everything well. But the generation who bear in their
souls and consciousness the times they lived and survived cannot
and must not have a memory lapse. But there is also the concept of
moral memory. Today the former President may come and propose a new
conception. But that won’t work. Even if he tells the greatest truth,
that won’t work. Such is life. There is a historical context.

And in general, when a person makes a step, he/she has to think
over it.

Have they really remained so firm, that they are repeating the same
things after 10 years?

You have come out of Khor Virap, and now you are repeating the legend
of Gregory the Illuminator?"