“I see no difference between the former and present day authorities.
It’s just that the present day authorities are more unintelligent than
the former ones. They are just too dumb,” said well known singer Ruben
Hakhverdyan during a meeting with university students yesterday. The
singer answered to the many “informal” questions given by students with
a sad tone and irony. From time to time he emphasized the phrase: “I
love and respect all of you and I feel responsible to give your
generation the best.”
The student council of the Philology faculty of the Yerevan State
University organized a meeting with Ruben Hakhverdyan yesterday. The
singer did not obey the students’ requests and did not sing any song
during the event. “To tell you the truth, I have been very busy lately
and I will be free in a couple of days,” said the singer, “I really
wanted to sleep today but my wife did not let me. She told me that I
had a meeting today. Since I perform for this generation of youth, I
feel responsible to give your generation the best.” Ruben Hakhverdayan
answered each student’s question.
The questions directed towards the singer were strictly “philological”,
for example, “Do your songs have a firm basis to them?” or “What
vulnerable phenomena are there in music today?” “Which of your songs do
you like the most?”, “Do you have a song that you can relate to?”, etc.
The singer did not like the questions which were not “philological”. He
particularly answered to the question referring to the price set on his
album released for. After all, there are parents who do not have the
financial means to buy that album for their children. “Don’t you want
everyone to listen to your songs?’ asked one student. As we all know,
this was a topic that has to do with both president of “Grand Holding”
Hrant Vardanyan and Ruben Hakhverdyan and the conflicts between the
two. In response to that question, Ruben Hakhverdyan said: “I have
donated 3000 books to the orphanages and 1000 copies to the Armenian
Union of Russia…I deny what that idiot said on the television, claiming
that I asked him to pay me for the book. We have only had a practical
conversation with each other. I only asked him to place his logo in the
book for which I would receive 20,000 dollars-that was strictly
business. I did not ask him for money. I sell that book, let’s say, for
20 dollars. What I am trying to say is that this is an expensive book.
It is more expensive than the rest and as far as I know, the difference
in products is estimated by the sum of money. There are other issues
involved. I have published 10,000 of those books, I have distributed
3000 of them to the needy, and the rest (7,000) doesn’t cover the
expenses for printing. I can even show you the bill.”
In the past, during meetings like this, Ruben Hakhverdyan used to make
negative comments about the authorities, but this time he held back
from doing that and only got frustrated when talking about the
oligarchs that “rub against each other and kiss each other on the
cheek”. He was forced to talk about the authorities because he was
asked a question: “You make negative comments about the former
authorities which have changed your life. How do you look at the
present day authorities? What difference do you see between the former
and present day authorities?”
-“I see no difference between the former and present day authorities,”
said Ruben Hakhverdyan,” it’s just that the present day authorities are
more unintelligent than the former ones. They are just too dumb. As for
changing my life, nobody has saved me. At the time, there was a
contract signed between Armenia and France according to which, if any
artist or musician was ill, he or she could travel to France to get
free treatment. During that time, $2,000 dollars had been collected (I
have that document with the stamp on it and the French president has it
too), however, I sent that $2,000 dollars to Karabagh. Besides that, I
donated the $15,000 dollars, my savings and the money received from my
concerts to the political party led by Andranik Markaryan at the
time…The unintelligence of both the former and present day authorities
has led us up to the present, when the youth of this generation is
asking me questions like this…The present authorities gave me a home
and everything but that doesn’t mean that I have to love them. I have
even told the president of the country that he is surrounded by
homosexual authority figures. It was different back when Levon
Ter-Petrosyan was president. The authorities were busy flirting with
different girls, well, at least some of them…these questions that you
are asking me….I will tell you something…if an artist does something
not worth doing, then he can not continue doing what he does, in my
case, writing music.”
In the beginning and during the meeting, Ruben Hakhverdyan stated that it has been six years since he has written a new song.