On Sunday morning, the staff of “168 hours” weekly visited National
Assembly deputy Levon Khachaturyan’s home in Aparan’s Yernjatap village
and found him like this. Levon was sitting on the statue of a
donkey, drinking coffee before going to the National Assembly. He has
been doing this for the past month and a half. As a sign of
respect, he always wears a hat while sitting on the donkey. After doing
this every day, he gets dressed, wears his shoes and makes his way to
the National Assembly sessions. “There was no place appropriate for
drinking coffee, so I decided to drink my morning coffee on top of the
statue,” explained Levon Khachaturyan. This statue was donated to him
by a sculptor from Gyumri whose name Levon could not remember. However,
he affirmed the fact that he is a very famous sculptor and has sculpted
other masterpieces except the donkey. “He sent this statue of a donkey,
knowing beforehand that I like to collect pictures of donkeys,” said
the deputy from Abaran proudly.
The most precious gifts for Levon Khachaturyan are pictures of donkeys
and sculptures. He has built a special corner in his house for his
guests, where there are pictures of donkeys on the walls, small donkey
toys, and a “bust” of a donkey made of iron. “I have some in my house
too. There is more where this came from,” said Levon Khachaturyan,
adding that he has friends from the Emirates and Astrakhan who send him
pictures of donkeys on special occasions. Mr. Khachacturyan started his
“collection” about two years ago and he goes to buy new items from the
Vernisazh (fair) every Saturday and Sunday. However, he has not been
able to buy a new “masterpiece” during the past couple of weeks. “There
were two pictures of donkeys, but they were not worth my money,” said
Mr. Khachaturyan with disappointment. “Now I am looking for a donkey
which is similar to Christ’s donkeys so I can buy it. I want to find
out why Christ’s donkey brought Jesus Christ to Jerusalem, where there
were the Jews and Muslims instead of bringing him to Etchmiadzin. I
want to know why that happened.”
Might I add, that there were only two donkeys in all of Yernjatap. One
of them was Mr. Khachaturyan’s and the other one was villager Jhora’s
who had gone to work while we were there.