Sometimes when I write about the culture, the response is almost as follows: “hey, bro, people are hungry, what culture are you talking about?” This generates from excessively narrow meaning of the word. Allegedly it’s some kind of “spiritual food” that should be opposed to material things. Actually, when you are able to debate without offending others, it’s a culture. When you come to work on time and try to yield useful results, it is also a culture. If you’re trying to improve yourself and your work every day, it’s still a culture. Or, when you’re crying day and night on your and the nation’s bitter fate, it’s also a culture. Any tradition, any trend of thought is a culture, which is elaborated for years, decades, and centuries, and becomes an integral part of the mindset. In this respect, it is evident that in the last 23 years, our state, political and production culture needed and still needs rapid and significant modernization, which we were unable to do for various reasons.
The development mechanism of culture is in the exact combination of maintenance and upgrading. By becoming an independent state, we could not develop a maintenance culture. On the contrary, we gave a tribute to the ignorant barbarism. The department, which is called promote its preservation and development, does not promote to either one. I’m not sure that the Ministry of Culture’s key mission is to establish SNCOs and making money through them. The state business, in this case, is perceived as anti-cultural activity. Initially such encroachment was made upon the Garni temple, which, fortunately, is prevented so far, and no eating-house was built next to the temple. Now the same is done with the cathedral of Zvartnots. Probably, no one has explained to the responsible entities of the Ministry and its SNCOs the temple of the faith, especially the Christian (even though, the former) is not a place of revelry, that there are places where you cannot revel or organize “parties” at no cost, neither for 700 000, nor for 7 million drams. By the way, I nowise understand how the SNCO (state non-commercial organization) is engaged in trade, moreover, in the temple. Culture is also politics. After such domestic events, how should we exhort people enjoying barbeque next to the cultural monument not to liter around the temple? After all, how should we accuse the Turks and Azeri for desecrating our memorials? No, whatever you say, culture is an important thing.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
