The Russian “Kultura” television network showed a live concert which took place at the Moscow Kremlin hall last Sunday night. The “Kultura” channel rebroadcasts its shows in Armenia, but that didn’t stop Armenian Public Television from broadcasting the concert live. Just like back in the days of the Soviet Union, the local television network had joined the central television network of the imperial union, especially since there was an occasion-the opening ceremony of the Armenian year in Russia. Two presidents made their speeches and those speeches were truly emotional, especially our president’s speech. Some television networks rebroadcast that speech for two days in a row. Too bad that the Kreml had not been courteous to Armenia-whereas Vladimir Putin had the state emblem shown from his podium, Robert Kocharyan didn’t have Armenia’s state emblem. I can say that that was mere politics. I won’t say that the Russian elite did not prefer to see Russia’s state emblem next to the state emblem of their fore post. Our foreign politics with Russia have nothing to do with this. I suppose that the people making the stage decorations had taken out the Armenian state emblem. They had probably seen who was going to present the Armenian culture and how. They decided that that concert was not worth being presented on behalf of Armenia and Armenian culture. If you don’t agree with this, you will be forced to say that they were aware of what the Armenian president was going to say in his speech. They were well-informed and decided that this wasn’t a speech that a president should make. But this is a political point of view and I don’t intend on looking for political explanations.
Who would think that the non-quality acts could be shown “just like that” to viewers in the Diaspora? “Azg” and “Aravot” newspapers gave evaluations about Ara Gevorgyan and the acrobats during Flora Martirosyan’s performance. Unfortunately, entertainers are not reacting to this. It is an old Armenian custom not to criticize fellow colleagues. Only journalists are the ones going against the “Armenian culture-either the best or the worst” taboo.
The program put on at the Kreml was a bit confusing. After two or three high-quality performances, the fun-loving and genius Armenian artists lowered the level of the nation and the state to that of a typical office worker. The phrase “Armenia is not a country but rather an office” is turning into a phrase used to describe culture nowadays. After those numbers, I was impatiently waiting to see Aram Asatryan or Andre on stage. No Russian imperialist has ever expressed himself this way about his culture at the Kreml. We called ourselves the fore post and then changed our status to that of an average office worker. The Armenian delegation members were laughing their hearts out. It’s interesting to know how were Charles Aznavour’s words translated, when he said that “Armenia is not a country, but rather an office” and who did the translation? As a matter of fact, Armenia’s former minister of culture and current “office worker” ambassador Armen Smbatyan was sitting not too far from Charles Aznavour.
There was a joke back in the days of the Soviet Union:
Armenia asks Moscow to open a Ministry of Navigation. The union administration is surprised to hear this and says that they can’t do that because Armenia does not have a sea.
“Really? How come Azerbaijan has a Ministry of Culture?” says Armenia shocked.
Now it is clear that the Ministry of Culture for us Armenians is just something to show off. Iosif Kozbon will represent Armenian culture better than us. The foreigner would have noticed the fact that Armen Smbatyan’s song called “Hayastan” was a success but it was not a song to be sung by a children’s choir consisting of a hundred or more children. The foreigner would have noticed sooner that there are other composers in Armenia and the fact that performing pieces by Tigran Mansuryan and Armen Martirosyan would not be considered bad taste. For two decades, based on what host Dibrov said and the world’s interest in ethnic cultures, the duduk has continued to be praised. But it would be hard to consider the Ara Gevorgyan and Ara Babajanyan mixture as part of Armenian culture. The people showing our culture to the world refrain from showing the Arshakyan sisters for a couple of years now. The sisters probably don’t satisfy the tastes of the jewelers and sellers of Los Angeles, or the Russian working field. But a concert showing one’s culture is not a business transaction. There were more than a thousand people present at the Kreml and I don’t think that they were all Armenians. After all, the “Kultura” channel has a high reputation in Russia and 15% of viewers in Russia prefer to watch that channel. This is a high mark for a channel showing cultural programs. No matter how much we Armenians claim that we are a culture-loving nation, we can not deny the fact that Russia loves culture a little bit more than we do. It would be better to ask the Minister of Culture of Armenia to resign after putting on a concert like that for the opening ceremony of the “Armenian Year in Russia”. Too bad he resigned for another reason.