Yesterday writers and their posterity praised Vardan Ghukasyan, the outgoing mayor of Gyumri, in the October hall of Gyumri equating him with two great masters of Gyumri, Bard Sheram and Hovhannes Shiraz. Every second one could hear phrases like “Glory to the mayor of Gyumri,” “Long live the Ghukasyans” in different speeches. And the reason naturally was Vardan Ghukasyan’s generosity; he had sponsored Sergey Arakelyan’s book Sheram, as well as a selection of Shiraz’s works.
Levon Ananyan, the president of the Union of Writers, said in his speech, “We see in these non-cultural times that Gyumri revives its wonderful culture. I want us to first glorify our genius Sheram who is irreplaceable with his wonderful love, with his patriotic, civil, melodic, just unprecedented presence. Let us glorify our national genius Hovhannes Shiraz who carried out a historical mission and after Charents, filled the vacuum in our lyrics created after 1937 with his works, lyrics, particularly poetry dedicated to Ararat, which brought up generations. Glory to the most spiritual mayor, Vardan Ghukasyan, an intellectual mayor who has revived the town from ashes for 13 years, he has solved social and other problems under such difficult conditions. But it is of a great literary and strategic importance for us that culture, all those statues, all those churches, the reconstruction of which is under way today too, and all those cultural centers, which were opened, have been the focus of our Gyumri, the capital of arts and crafts. Also, those tens of books that have been published since the times of Hakob Meghapart until Vardan Ghukasyan have testified to a very important thing that yes, we are a nation of books, we are a nation of literature, we are a cultural nation. Thank you, Mr. Ghukasyan, I want to glorify the native of Gyumri and
say long live Gyumri, glory to you, happy birthday. Glory to the residents of Gyumri, to Mr. Mayor for your efficient, fruitful work.”
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Avetik Isahakyan’s grandson, Avik Isahakyan, also praised Vardan Nikolayevich [it is what he called him] talking about Gyumri’s revival thanks to the mayor’s selfless efforts and devotion.
Perhaps the sweetest words were uttered by Murad Muradyan, a former mayor of Gyumri and Yerevan, who consoled Ghukasyan saying that mayors were never former, they were always mayors.
And Samvel Muradyan who wrote the postface of the book of Shiraz’s selected works stated reading a verse by Hovhannes Shiraz that it seemed the poet had written the verse for Vardan Ghukasyan.
I would have been under obligation,
Even if I had given birth to my motherland,
Even if I had fed her with milk from heaven,
Even if I had given birth to the eternity of Armenia,
Even if I had been God Almighty.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
