Levon Khachatryan is a member of the National Assembly’s “Popular
Deputy” club. You can always see him with a costume and a tie. He often
complains that there is nothing to do at the National Assembly, and the
villagers waiting to see what the deputies will do so that the “rain
will not come”. “These villagers are just having conversations with
each other about harvesting the crop and make bets of when the rain or
hail will come to destroy the crop. That is what the villagers does the
whole day,” said Levon Khachatryan and showed us his potato fields from
which he expects 35 tons of crops. He hopes that there will be no rain
or hail in the next 20 days so he can get a chance to collect the crop.
“I am going to collect and distribute the crop to the villagers, asking
them to not eat it all up immediately. I will tell them to also harvest
so that next year they can have some and give some to me at the same
time. The crops given to me next year will go the other villagers. This
is my plan and I want to accomplish that. We’ll see,” said the deputy.
Levon Khachatryan is always in the center of attention at the National
Assembly with his loyalty and cunningness. What’s amazing is that even
though he is from Abaran, all his jokes seem to be focused on the
people of Abaran. He does not omit him from those jokes also. “Have
heard this joke about us,”-this is how he talks with his fellow
deputies from Abaran. “168 hours” weekly’s photographer German Avagyan
wanted to tell a recent joke about the people of Abaran in front of the
Abaran deputies. Upon hearing this, Levon Khachatryan and his fellow
deputies started laughing. “How can it be recent, jokes about
Abarantsis are made every second,” said Levon Khachatryan. That was
proved by the following joke: “I asked one of the deputies in Abaran if
they had an “Abaran” bottled water. He gave a thermos to his other
friend and said: ‘Go and fill up some water from the fountain.’
Levon Khachatryan’s friends were remembering many interesting events
connected with him and Levon Khachatryan himself told the following one
about himself: “Six years ago we had gone to Karabagh to celebrate the
liberation of Shushi. In the evening, I saw a donkey on the hill. I
said ‘call that donkey over here’. I put some grass in the donkey’s
mouth. I started eating from one side and the donkey from the other.
Two years later, one of my friends from Astrakhan made a 44 dollar bill
with that picture in honor of my 44th birthday. On one side was that
picture, on the other it showed me naked. It was no different than the
actual dollar. I brought that to Yerevan and made copies for my
friends. After a while, one of the officials working at the police
department, whose name is Hrach, called me and said that he had given
that dollar bill to prostitutes (he had paid with that-L.S.). The
dollar bill had fallen in the hands of the 6th department and they had
brought it to me saying that they had revealed a case without paying
attention to what kind of dollar it was.”
“Two years ago, after I came back from Astrakhan, I started to gather
all my relatives in one place so that they wouldn’t get lost,” said
Levon Khachatryan, showing each person in the picture. “This is Mels,
this is me, this is Vrezh Markosyan, this is the statue dedicated to
the soldiers from Abaran, and this our neighbor Gago-he was peeking
behind the gates…..and the list goes on and on. I am going to add to
this collection. I tell everyone to hurry up or they will end up in the
last.”
Deputy Levon Khacatryan and Aghasi Arshakyan are playing backgammon
with a bet. A. Arshakyan lost 5-0, but he didn’t do the bet. The bet
was to swim in the swimming pool. “There is no water,” said A.
Arshakyan (it was half full-L.S.)
Yuzik Khachatryan is Levon Khachatryan’s father who has no hope that
his son will get married some day. “He has been like that ever since he
was a child. He did not have time to get married back then, he doesn’t
have any time now either,” said the father who has gotten used to that
side of his son.
The 78 year-old pensioner Yuzik Khachatryan has danced in the 1938
Dance Olympiad with Vanush Khanamiryan and has won first place. “They
wanted to take me to Moscow to participate in the union competitions.
At that time the Myasnikyan-Atabekyan plane had been bombed and when my
father knew about that, he put his foot on the ground and said that he
will not let his son go on any “aeroplane”. That time nobody said
somolyot (Russian for airplane), they just said aeroplane. The
then head of the pioneer palace told my father to let me go, that I was
able to learn on my own, I had no education and that I could live on my
own. My father was afraid, the mentality of villagers back then was
different. He did not let me. I wanted to escape.
My nephew was a doctor and had gotten married with the daughter of
Levon Hovsepyan, who was a member of the Ministers’ Council. His wife
used to say that Levon was going to steal me away, keep me in his house
and send me to Moscow. My father and brother found out about this, my
dad got offended and went and let everyone know that they were going to
put me on an aeroplane…He did not let me. My father took my medal from
me and the 400 rubles that they had given to me. He went and gave it to
the head of the department, claiming that the medal and the money was
his and that he was not letting his son get on that plane,”says Yuzik
Khachatryan. After that, Yuzik has worked as a “messenger for the Young
Communists of the City Hall”, an assistant to the chief of
boiler-heating of the “Vegetable Oil-Soap” factory and chief of on-duty
workers in the Kirov Factory. Grandpa Gevorg is also 78 years old and
he has worked with Yuzi Khachatryan for 50 years in the Kirov factory.
“It was good back then, for fifty years we slept on a trestle,” said
Grandpa Gevorg proudly, “we have not slept for 25 years. We either
slept on wood or on the floor. In the evening we used to work…..It was
good, very good”. Twenty years ago, Grandapa Gevorg moved to his native
village Yernjatap and lives alone. He prepares his own meals: “I have
gotten used to living alone. My wife is dead. I am all alone.” Gevorg
Serobyan has six children, fifteen grandchildren who visit him every
week. The school in Yernjatap was built last year. The villagers say
that on Khachatryan had taken care of all expenses and made sure that
everything was properly done. On that day, Sunday, the children were at
a karate class. Trainer Karen Samsonyan is a trainer at an
international level and vice president of Armenia’s national
traditional “Karate Do” Federation. He says that Levon Khachatryan is
the one who has personally invited him to conduct karate lessons in the
village. “We don’t pressure the parents that much with the money. We
have a sponsor and that sponsor is Levon Khachatryan. The children only
pay for the exams and the uniforms. Many students don’t have uniforms
and we will probably ask Levon Khachatryan to provide us with that,”
says Karen Samsonyan.