Not having an opinion is dangerous and slippery, Sargis Manukyan Says www.aravot.am inquired of Gor Sujyan, the lead singer of the rock band Dorians, what he thought of the letters sent by Serj Tankian, a famous Armenian American musician and the lead singer of the band System of a Down, to President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the singer’s step and why Armenian rockers were passive in that regard. Gor Sujyan responded that he was not aware of Serj Tankian’s letters and hadn’t read them. When we told him what they were about, Gor stated: “It has nothing to do with rock; there are people who are interested and there are people who are not. I for one don’t want to interfere in politics.” In response to our observation that rock was also music of a struggle, the lead singer of Dorians said: “I have something that I want to say, which is deeper than politics…. As for Tankian, I don’t know, there must be something between them that made him take that step.” In response to a question of www.aravot.am why rockers from Armenia were silent, Sargis Manukyan, the lead singer of the band Empyray, said half in jest, half in earnest: “Why? Aren’t there cowardly rockers?” Then added: “I am in a band of people who are bold, can fight for their rights.” He thinks that the Armenian American rock star took that step, because he knows about a powerful army of his fans. “Now the situation is so tense that if people step aside, it will be worse. Not having an opinion is more dangerous; I don’t like slippery things either. If he (Serj Tankian) deemed right to express his opinion, I welcome it. I might have said more or less than he did,” Sargis Manukyan said. According to him, there are a lot of youths who stand for their rights among the people who traditionally rise up every five years, and that gives some hope. And Sargis describes those who prevent students’ struggle as correctional student facilities or penitentiaries. According to the rock singer, today’s student councils are like yesterday’s Komsomols, in which there are mainly people who are admitted to the university for money and long for their papas’ offices. Sargis Manukyan separates the youth into a few groups – cowards, good kids, according to him, who express their protest through a strike, and people who are up to their neck, genetically in the corrupt system. According to the singer, those people come to the university not to learn, but to show their papa’s X5. The lead singer of Empyray states that students’ strikes were not personalized and were not against anyone, but for the fatherland. “And if, God forbid, our country faces an external threat tomorrow, not those cowardly kids who shout today, ‘Go away,’ will go to defend the fatherland, but those kids who have risen up. And let those who forbid that movement and are in power today remember that some twenty years ago, they were students too and they would express their political position through strikes too.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
