The Armenian people bid farewell to Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan on Wednesday. There were tens of thousands of people gathered at the funeral not only from Yerevan, but also the Marzes (provinces) and distant villages; people whom the Prime Minister had visited and talked with during his visits to the Marzes, schools and institutions.
The Prime Minister’s corpse was moved from his apartment in Avan to the Republican Party office where it was placed on a white, armored car. The Prime Minister’s partisans, officials, deputies, colleagues and people who simply sympathized with him had gathered at the funeral. The rain and the cold did not bother the people who had come to bid him farewell. After waiting for a couple of minutes outside the Republican Party office, the funeral procession moved towards the Government building. Many people had also gathered there.
The next stop was at the Republic Square; the procession moved from Amirian and Mashtots streets towards the State Opera and Ballet Theatre and the ceremony was going to end there. Almost all the government officials, including Serge Sargsyan, Vardan Khachatryan, Hovik Abrahamyan, province and district heads, mayors and deputies carried the corpse all the way from the Republican Party office to Amirian street. President Robert Kocharyan was not part of the procession and that was highly noticeable. Patrol officers, journalists and even average citizens were asking why Robert Kocharyan was not there. There were many people who joined the procession moving from the Republic Square to the State Opera. Many residents from buildings on the street were following-up on the funeral procession. Some people were even throwing flowers from their windows as the hearse approached the buildings. A great many was gathered in front of the Opera as well. There had not been that many people at “Freedom” Square for a long time. The final part of the ceremony took place at the Opera building at 1:00 p.m.
It was impossible to describe how many people had come to bid farewell to Andranik Margaryan, but not everyone was able to come inside. Foreign visitors, top-ranking government officials and representatives of international organizations in Armenia participated in the funeral. Whereas the representatives of state organizations and diplomatic corps were simply fulfilling a duty, the people were actually there to bid farewell. As you walked around that huge crowd you understood that they didn’t just come to see what was going on, rather they really came to mourn and pay tribute to Andranik Margaryan. It was clear from the presence of different professionals that the people accepted Andranik Margaryan as a leader and he was a very popular political activist. To be honest, few realized that when he was alive. It should be noted that people even expressed their sorrow as they greeted each other in the Opera building.
Writer and journalist Vanik Santryan was Andranik Margaryan’s brother-in-law. He has obviously had close ties with the Prime Minister and can describe him not only as an individual, but also a state activist and a leader.
“It was amazing. It didn’t matter if he was the Prime Minister,” says V. Santryan. “He had the capability of listening to people. That is very humane and not everyone can actually listen to the person in front of him. A person may be talking to you but not listen to you. He was attentive in all kinds of relations, whether they were human, friendly, practical or family relations. You would be amazed to see how much he loved his family. We used to meet, talk and I would always argue with him to raise the pensions. He said that ‘
‘the government is doing all that it can, don’t you think that I want to have higher pensions?’ People tell me so many things, knowing that I am his brother-in-law. So many citizens have told me that he has helped them. Since I have been a journalist for many years now, I have had contacts with many prime ministers of Armenia. I will not mention any names, but I know prominent leaders who have not received anyone. Andranik was not like that. Even if you approached him on the street, he would stop, listen to what you had to say and quickly give an order to solve the problem. Now, my art colleagues and I find that it is our duty to prepare a series of works in his memory.”
Many affirmed that Margaryan had received and supported artists. They sadly confessed that the benefactor of culture is gone. “It is rare to see someone that loving and preoccupied about the culture like him,” says Deputy Minister of Culture of Armenia Karine Khodikyan. “Perhaps this was too much for us. We received the final decision he made as prime minister to found a philharmonic school. If it weren’t for the good will and struggle of the prime minister, we wouldn’t have had that decision. That decision is aimed to educate our generation so that our theatre, our auditoriums and audience will not be few in number. We lost an entire generation that grew up listening to Rabiz music and whatever music they could find. The philharmonic to be founded will be one of the things for which the school will be remembered and those children, who will attend classes for the first time and on a regular basis to hear classical music, watch a play, they will all reap what the prime minister had sown. As for theatre, many plays were put on thanks to the efforts of the prime minister. Sometimes it seemed as though the prime minister would find money from anywhere to put another play on. The person who understood the sorrow of culture is no longer with us”.
“I think something is amiss in Armenia; the people lack generosity,” says director Albert Mkrtchyan. “We lost a real Armenian; a kind, humanitarian individual and one who helped the villagers. We lost an individual, a great compatriot, a great political activist. This had a great impact on me. When you take a look at what he has done, you feel sad because he could have done more for our people. We will acknowledge his work much later”.
Foreign diplomats also highly valued Andranik Margaryan the activist. “I must say that although Andranik Margaryan left us, he left us as a winner. When he was young, he used to dream of an independent Armenia. He had the chance to see that become a reality and not only saw it, but also worked for that independent Armenia,” says Ukrainian Ambassador to Armenia Alexander Buzhko.
These days it has been said several times hat the prime minister was a balancing power both between the pro-government and oppositional wings. Almost all oppositionists have said that, including many government officials. They state that Margaryan was able to give correct approaches in different kinds of relationships and was able to keep everything stable. He was able to stay in power for seven years thanks to those attributes of a state activist.
“He was struggling for balance in the most difficult times that the state was going through,” says leader of “Heritage” political party Raffi Hovhannisyan. “His loss leaves an entire political field open and it is necessary for each person to learn from that loss, reevaluate his approach toward compatriots. I hope that by losing him we will give more meaning to life so that we can secure the freedom of citizens, interests of the nation and state security for the generations. When a person has positive attributes, losing him truly has an impact on the system as a whole. I am certain that this was not the Armenia that he had dreamed of or wanted to see. This was the base.”
We will especially feel the loss of Andranik Margaryan now as we approach the parliamentary elections. Political activists predict that his absence will become a reason for reclassifications and reevaluations in the Armenian political field. The upcoming parliamentary elections are going to be rather active and tense. After his death, we expect that tension to grow and all the predictions and presuppositions prove that Andranik Margaryan played a very important and decisive role in Armenia’s political life and that his absence will briskly impact the process of many programs and developments.
P.S. A rather interesting and symbolic picture was placed on the facade of the Opera building. In the picture, Margaryan was turned sideways looking at the funeral procession moving away.