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Yervand Manaryan: Nothing is worse for society than indifference
11:49 / 08/15/2009

On August 10, the Honoured Art Worker, well-known actor Yervand
Manaryan marked his 85th birthday anniversary. Neither the Armenian
authorities nor mass media honored him with attention. Even the First
TV Channel of Armenia disregarded the occasion. Talking to NEWS. am,
Mr. Manaryan did not want to address the matter. Our talk was just
about modern-day theater, the actors’ life and career.
Question: Mr. Manaryan, I did not receive your consent to an interview
at once. You said you were not in the right mood. What was the cause?
Answer: Everything… The present is of interest to you, the whole
life is ahead of you. For people of our age it is the end.
Question: So it is your age that is the cause for your low spirits?
Answer: Yes, it is the age – I have not any special expectations.
Question: What expectations do you mean? Are they expectations from
the State?
Answer: State issues are most complicated. Do we have a state at all?
It is a question arising before an aged man, and there is no evading
it. For so many years you, Armenian, labor, going through troubles,
and at the same time put a question to yourself: do I have a state?
There is power, but no state. They should be discriminated. We wanted
to create a state – a free and independent one. May be, it went
wrong. I would not like to call it an error. Rather, it went wrong.
Question: But when you stood side by side with Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
you believed that power would be able to rectify the mistakes and
create the State you have just mentioned?
Answer: I do not have a special wish to speak of an individual, though
we cannot do without that: it is individuals that make
history. However, the truth is one. We think we can we can avoid it,
but we cannot. Society and the State have two poles: the authorities
and the opposition. The State does not exist without authorities. On
the other hand, the State becomes uncivilized without the Opposition.
Question: Did you join any other force before joining the
Ter-Petrosyan-led Opposition? Did you appear in the political arena?
Answer: At the age of 20 I was engaged in politics. I worked as a
political observer for the organ of the press of the People’s Party of
Iran. Twenty is twenty. At that time there was no politics for me,
there was Homeland. The concept of Homeland is somewhat different for
Iranian-Armenians than for Armenians residing in Armenia. A local
Armenian can see both strong and weak points of his Homeland, wants to
improve something… In a foreign land, the Homeland is far away from
you. You seek it…
Question: You mean the Diaspora is unable to contribute to the
Homeland’s prosperity? Should activities aimed at bringing benefit to
the Homeland be launched in the Homeland itself?
Answer: People should come and take care of their Homeland. Donating
part of your earnings, even a greater part, is nothing. People should
come and take care of this land. It is a most laborious process. It
requires great devotion – the devotion displayed by me and many of
them who were like me.
Question: The well-known people who returned to the Homeland with you?
Answer: There were eleven of us. Now I am alone. Hovhannes Badalyan
was among us. If you are acquainted with modern literature, Abig
Avagyan was among us – he was the oldest. Albert Hayrapetyan became a
Doctor of Physiology, Hamlet Yeganyan a Doctor of History, Hrair
Movsesyan defended a PhD thesis on philology and Manuk Barseghyan a
PhD thesis on medicine. In short, they are all well-known people.
Question: How did the repatriates launch activities in the Homeland?
Answer: Some people ask: what and how it was, if we did not want to go
back? I told them nothing like that had happened. I had family
problems. It is easier for a young man to overcome difficulties. In
short, I have been in this walk of life for 63 years.
Question: Did you launch your career at the Puppet Theater?
Answer: No, it was dramatic art. My parents were actors. They left
Armenia and met there, in Iran, got married and started a family. We
are two brothers. I studied dramatic art, and Arman took interest in
film art. It was great we were besides each other at work. He was a
film director, and I a scriptwriter… I love this work very much.
Question: Mr. Manaryan, many people know you from the film `A bride
from the North’. How did it happen that you acted in the film?
Answer: My friends, Zhora Harutyunyan, Nerses, called me. We were good
friends. They offered. I had had nothing noteworthy before. I played a
role in Arman’s `Karine’. I am good at languages. Although I have
nothing in common with Western Armenian, I am a good speaker. With
Nerses and Arman I played a role in `Tzhvzhik’. A second time, with
Nerses I played in the film `Cooks’ contest’ – a character of Western
Armenian. In a word, I worked much in Armenian cinema and theater and
I had no problems. I thank God for having an opportunity to work in
Armenia theatre.
Question: It was when you starting working at the Puppet Theater?
Answer: At the Sundukyan Theater I assisted Vartan Ajemyan, when I was
offered work at the newly opened Tumanyan Puppet Theater. I started
working chief stage director. After retiring, I thought of opening my
own theater – I did not even let a day pass. Fortunately, at that time
the Soviet Union granted freedom to theater though they continued
watching over. At that time we created `Aghulis’.
Question: What is the state of `Aghulis’ now? What are its problems?
Answer: I find it difficult it say. The problem is the repetoire. We
are going to stage a play for young people…
Question: Are these the only problems? And what is the theater’s
financial position?
Answer: Financial problems as well. How can a 50-member company
maintain itself? It is great that enthusiasts can be found among young
people. Girls, mostly graduates. We thus maintain ourselves. We have
to specify the theater’s image, which is most difficult. I think we
need plays for young people. We are staging a new play now – Hayk and
Bel.
Question: Do you feel more responsible to young or adult spectators?
Answer: It cannot be compared. At a puppet theater, a child hands his
or her pure soul over to you. Also, children are surprisingly
trustful. Some children argue with puppets, they cannot stand their
`bad deeds.’ You should be most cautious. You cannot feel free. It is
a matter of human relations. You sow first seeds in the soul of a
future citizen. It is not so with adults. In this case, you set
creative tasks. The theater has numerous `heights’, which does not
seem to be taken into account now. Theater’s mission has changed. The
purpose for which it was created thousands of years ago no longer
exists. It hardly works in this field. It is issues of aesthetics that
are mainly of interest in Armenia, whereas theater’s true purpose is a
discussion with audience. People go to the theater to find ideas, and
the ideas must be in conformity with the questions they bring to the
house. At present, aeshetics is irrelevant because television and
cinema sometimes demonstrate this aesthetics so there is not sense if
going to the theater to see the same. Theather is supposed to answer
society’s questions.
Question: What about modern-day theater?
Answer: Theater is fully dependent on the spectator’s spiritual `ego.’
What do you give to him? What he takes… Something like the most
savage barter. How does the spectator asses your acting? The
modern-day spectator comes to the theater with serious questions,
which are far from being everyday ones. For instance, the most serious
question is that of nationhood. If entertaining is the main aim, it is
not theater. Another matter is that entertainments provide answers to
serious questions. Biographies must be in effect in theater. There
must be a conflict of biographies, which provides food for
reflection. No society can have theater, without this excitement
passing by its theater. We cannot hear about someone staging a play on
the March 1 events and be told: no, we are not going to stage it. It
is theater too.
Question: Are you writing as play about March 1? Do you plan to do it?
Answer: I did it at my time. I am bold in this matter, and my
conscience is clean. I wrote a play about the first stages of
Ter-Petrosyan’s rule. It was published in the miscellanea. I staged it
at the Sundukyan theater. The play told about the hard times our
society was going through, about an ancient people that could not find
a shepherd to put it on the right track. Lorents Arushanyan played the
leading part. Renovation work was under way at the theater, it was
bitter cold. For technical reasons, it was not a long-term play.
Question: Besides the recent years’ political activity, did you appear
in the political arena?
Answer: Being an Armenian citizen, I am always interested in political
life. I am not a political figure, I am a citizen. At the 2004 rallies
I was the only representative of Armenian intelligentsia that was
speaking with the people through a loudspeaker. I cannot understand
why I was alone Why are so many intellectuals on this side, and none
of them on that? I cannot understand. It is a serious question, and I
find it difficult to answer it. Because, like it or not, I will have
to say bitter words, but I do not want to.
Question: Mr. Manaryan, you preferred a way leading to Opposition. But
they preferred a way leading to power. Why are you surprised?
Answer: Yes, it is a clear thing. Society must be like this – the
authorities and the Opposition. And art critics must mostly be in the
Opposition. It is a standard for any society – for the authorities’
errors to be indicated. A word of a man of art is sincere.
Question: Would not it be better if intellectuals united and, without
joining the Opposition, pointed to the authorities’ errors? The
Opposition has demands, seeking power, but not the ways of resolving
the social problems.
Answer: Of course, the Opposition came out to overthrow the
authorities and occupy their place. Depriving the Opposition of its
mission means, excuse me, castrating it. If anyone thinks the
incumbent authorities must yield their place to new forces, let them
go and stand besides them. Is it possible for a person of my age – I
marked my 85th birthday anniversary three days ago – to seek
power. Intellectuals, workers of art are not only for entertaining.
Question: Was Ter-Petrosyan the reason for your participation in the
movement?
Answer: Ter-Petrosyan was a able to breathe new life into the
political Opposition. He is a person knowing what to do. He does not
tell everything to us – it is his nature. We do not know anything
about his thoughts. He wants to put them into practice. I am a person
that gained experience in the Dashnak School. All our teachers in the
Teheran school were Dashnaks. They were different from these. What
games are these playing? I am disappointed with their steps. I can say
what I am sure of: the Soviet people has not yet relegated to
oblivion. And, being in agony, they are manifesting themselves in a
subtler way. I do not complain about the Soviet power. It existed for
a certain historical period and must go away. Functions are gone, but
the way of thinking is still alive – with immoral people. No decent
person is a bearer of Soviet ideology. I can see with my own eyes
their efforts to return Soviet power.
Question: Who wants to return it?
Answer: Those having levers in their hands because Soviet power
allowed them to have levers under the guise of great names. The only
difference is that a powerful hand did not allow them to exceed the
limit at that time. At present it is not so, they are moving forward
in an organized way.
Question: As an Armenian intellectual and citizen, what do you think
of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and of the issue of return of
territories?
Answer: I do not know what to say. It is diplomacy. But I am
Armenian. How can we return Aghdam?! I see a problem is a morally
degrading society. Such a society will never reach anything even if
they are presented with an Armenia from sea to sea. It is a pity!
There are more than enough intellectuals supporting the
authorities. Whose weighty utterance can we hear? What is it if not
indifference? There is nothing worse for society than indifference. I
do not know about the end, but we have sustained great moral losses,
which are most difficult to make up. Our intellectuals have much to
do, but they are sitting with their arms folded.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress