EITHER SHOOTER OR SHOT
Interview By Siramuysh Papyan
LRAGIR.AM
11:37:04 – 07/08/2009
In your opinion, what is intelligentsia? And what are the stances of
the intelligentsia today?
-In my opinion, an intellectual is the person, who does intellectual
work, in addition, they can be workers of a taxi service and do
intellectual work, or they maybe workers of the academy of sciences or
members of the Union of Writers and do not do such kind of work. It
is not a task, it is not a status but it is a fact, which has to be
confirmed with the help of daily work.
-In your opinion, which is the reason why representatives of culture
were included in the Republican rows at the latest Yerevan Mayor
election?
– I would not like to touch upon them. In particular, not only the
Republican, but also the ARF Dashnaktsutyun and the OYP did not
resist that temptation. If they became artist elders, it does not
mean that the number of their supporters increased. The problem of
the party is clear, it needs to be well represented. One cannot walk
without clothes. They need to wear clothes. So they need also several
so-called actors, writers, singers, etc. I said so-called, because a
personality has a certain value in the society only when they are not
formalized, and when they are, they give up being intellectuals. They
stop being engaged in intellectual work.
-What do you think about the society we live in?
-This is a very dangerous situation. At some point, it seemed that
we appeared in our mother’s belly, when people do not serve the
idea. Real intellectuals have to bear ideas and have to serve the
very ideas during their life. The government had to serve its idea-
the society, the judge- the law, etc. Unfortunately, today, not all
these people serve their ideas.
-Has it always been this way? Or you came to this conclusion during
the latest years.
-Suddenly appears something, which hinders this kind of
living. Election, post-electoral events, 2008 year…March 1… they
kill people, who struggled for their rights. And it became clear
that you create obstacles for them with "your March 1". When someone
has to make a choice and makes it, their kind is being revealed. An
Armenian citizen connected with the March 1 is in front of a choice:
you are either the shooter or the one shot.
-Which side is more secure?
-There is no question of being good or bad here. There have always
been people within the society who served their ideas. But when the
number and the quality of those people starts to deprive them from
serving their ideas, this means suicide. What kind of situation is
this? Total complaints, fear, uncertainty, Charents would say present
without future.
-Do you imagine unity around ideas? Do you imagine the unity of ’88?
-What ’88? What was the idea of that national unity? We tried
to formulate that idea, it came out to be clan, destruction,
burglary, hostility. Who said that we need to become millions
and be united? Jesus Christ did not come to unite believers and
non-believers. But he came to choose.
-How would you like to see our Mayor? With what ideas?
-We had possibility to have 12 small cities – Yerevan districts,
which may be developable. Now we do not have anything, and everything
we have is only a danger.
And when you say an artist-elder, I want to stop you and say that
the synonym to artist for me is a free person. Sold people cannot be
artists. There, where there is no freedom, they give up being artists.