The appeal of leader of the Popular Party and president of “ALM” Holding Tigran Karapetyan against stage director Armen Mazmanyan was supposed to be examined at the Kentron and Nork-Marash district first instance court on Wednesday.
Tigran Karapetyan had sued Armen Mazmanyan for “offending and defaming him by spreading lies on television”. When talking about T. Karapetyan, Mazmanyan had used the words “child abuser”, “former pick-pocketer”, “semi-illiterate”. However, the trying scheduled for Wednesday was postponed due to the judge’s personal reasons. The next trying is scheduled for the 14th of February. But Mazmanyan did express his point of views on all this to journalists.
Mazmanyan believes that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia has feared to answer whether or not Tigran Karapetyan has been brought to justice in Armenia or the former USSR. Instead of that, the Ministry has handed a document, which states: “We inform that based on information from Russia, Karapetyan has not been convicted in that country. “What information? What question did they respond to?” asks Mr. Mazmanyan. The answers to those questions must be heard in court with the certificate and Mazmanyan knows where the certificate is. He advised visiting the Russian internet website, mentioning that journalists have conducted investigations in the Volgograd press and have clarified everything. “They have the courage to call things by their names there”.
Armen Mazmanyan informed that he is going to mediate the court to look at the former USSR archive where it’s impossible to purchase and clear anything; nothing is erased. “If I get a response that there is no such thing, it will turn out that I, just like Mr. Artashes Geghamyan, heard the wrong information while sitting at a cafe,” says A. Mazmanyan.
According to Mr. Mazmanyan, the wrong information refers to the words “pick-pocketer” and “semi-illiterate”. If there are no proofs for similar words in the archives, then “it will turn out that he (Tigran Karapetyan-B.T.) is literate, for example…he may make 5 spelling errors in a sentence…but be literate” [Mazmanyan probably meant the article printed in “Haykakan Zhamanak” (Armenian Times) on Wednesday where there is a photo of a couple of sentences written by Tigran Karapetyan]. Mazmanyan also said that he hasn’t asked anyone for help because that’s a personal issue. “If I tell my colleagues and friends to help me, there will be meeting of 3,000 people.” But Mazmanyan doesn’t think that’s the right thing to do because he doesn’t want to make a big scene. According to him, it seems as though Armenians have lost the sense of national dignity.
“The British may take the Armenian flag, touch it however he wants and we’ll call that liberalism. Hey, you bastards, go to England, take the British flag and touch it however you want to. That’s still liberalism; it’s just that then perhaps some liberal fascist will stand up and shoot you. That’s his way of being liberal.”
Mazmanyan doesn’t blame the Ministry of Culture for this because for the first time, the government has reacted to at least have people respect the Armenian national flag on stage. But in general, there are things worth criticizing. As for the British artist that caused a scandal, according to Mazmanyan, just because the British Consul has invited the artist doesn’t mean that he is something big. There are thousands of talented artists that “smoke ecstasy” and “party” like him around the world,” says the stage director.
He is certain that the “action” style [improvisation] must be measured.
“The most important thing in art is the feeling of not going overboard. That boy doesn’t have that feeling. He doesn’t understand that you can’t sit on another woman’s lap in Armenia. Go and do that in your country where such things are allowed. He is an intactful artist, undisciplined,” says Mazmanyan, reminding that you must ask what kind of country you are going to when coming.
“Who are you to take the flag and use it as a requisite? Who gave you the right? How can we Armenians defend such liberal, bisexual and heretic, European values? Then it turns out that we are bad. If this is fascism, then I am a national fascist. There are times when a nation must have national fascism; otherwise we Armenians will never free ourselves from these clammy semi-illiterates, homosexuals and pick-pocketers. Sooner or later they will be the ones telling us how to discipline our children,” says A. Mazmanyan.
However, the stage director is certain that that won’t happen. “We’re not going to get tired, get up and leave country; we’re always going to say what we think is right.”
As for the trial, Mazmanyan says that it’s clear for him that “…a person who is pretending to be the opposition on his own television network has been shown the green light by the court and has solved all issues concerning his dark past before the elections. He won’t be able to do that by taking advantage of me no matter how many years it takes. I’ll appeal to the European Court and I will spend money; I’ll prove myself,” says Mr. Mazmanyan. “We don’t go along with everything; they say pay at least 50,000, but agree that you are guilty. I’ll burn one million, but won’t pay one penny.”
Mazmanyan also said that he had thought about taking money from his friends’ funds, but… “I later realized that I didn’t want to be looked at as a criminal. Why?”
Mentioning that he has not dragged Tigran Karapetyan to court, and in general, has never sued anyone and has always solved his problems on the street, Mazmanyan suggests: “If that hurt his dignity so much, he should have met me on the street. He sued me.” Mazmanyan believes that regardless of the court’s decision, what needed to be proved was proven. He is ready for anything, even if the court decides to sentence him to three years in prison. “I have been sentenced, it’s normal, there is no problem…even better, at least I had free time in jail; I was reading.”
As they say, every cloud has a silver lining.