“I didn’t apply to anyone, nor did I ask anyone for help, nor will I ask, nor am I dependent on anyone,” Djivan Gasparyan, People’s Artist of Armenia, said to www.aravot.am. In his words, Serzh Sargsyan helped him celebrate the 80th anniversary of his birthday, “but it doesn’t mean that I am dependent. I meet with them from time to time, not once in two years. What do I have to do with the government…? I live a quiet life, not bothering anyone.” Talking about the verbal skirmish between singer Shushan Petrosyan, singer and songwriter Ruben Hakhverdyan, and Armen Mazmanyan, the rector of Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema, over taking money from the government and praising or not praising it, Mr. Gasparyan said that Mazmanyan’s father had been his friend, then added: “Whom else can you apply to, besides the government? An artist should apply to the state. The state should give an artist a building, time, support, if an artist is in need. There are artists who engage in politics…, MPs etc., it is a different style…. I don’t know what they
think of, why they engage in politics; I cannot answer in their stead…. Everyone has something to say; if that is how he wants to speak, what can I do, shall I tell him not to say that? I can say one thing; if they speak, they should speak politely without insulting each other. It is a free country; no one can tell anyone why he has said this, why he hasn’t say that.” Mr. Gasparyan complained that almost everyone was politicized these days. “Everyone is a political scientist these days. Whomever one visits, everyone talks politics. One even gets disappointed and wants to leave. Everyone has become a politico. It is not good either.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
