On January 28, 2016, the charity concert dedicated to the 24th anniversary of the Armenian Army held in the Glendale “Alex” theater inflamed passions. Proceeds from the concert were not be sent to the Armenian Army. Artak Martirosyan, Chairman of Grand Party Company, who organized the concert, explained that there was no proceed, instead, their organization has accumulated huge debts. Recently, an American-based author-performer Armen Movsisyan has returned the medal “Soldier of Motherland” received on the occasion of the concert, and then he wrote on his Facebook page that he did it as he was unable to be useful to the Armenian Army, regarding the fundraising, he also is convinced that the award was unnecessary as the medal is not raisins.
Aravot.am asked the Chair of the “Soldier” Coordinating Committee founding the “Soldier of Motherland” medal, Margarita Khachatryan, about her attitude to the return of the medal by Armen Movsisyan. “I have written to him that there is no need to return the medal, irrespective of how the concert was held. I know Armen Movsisyan very well; I wrote to him, dear, there is no need to return the “Soldier of Motherland” medal. If there was no proceed, that’s ok, I am not going to request the medals back, he probably is offended when I have said, yes, the medal is not raisins, when some people called me saying that they need a medal, I said, you should be earn it and deserve it first,” replied Margarita Khachatryan.
To our observation of whether the events in the name of the Army and later discussed in some context of scandals do not discredit the name of the Army, our interlocutor replied, “I’m in the army for 22 years and note that there has been no support for the concert program and I have not given any medal to anyone. In this case, since the former army soldiers tried to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Army, and the majority of the participants were young people, I thought that my thins kind of move to them will be a message not to leave Armenia. The concert organizers were former soldiers; there was also the minister’s message that they are thankful for doing a patriotic deed there. People did not think that some people would buy tickets and would not attend the concert. Some people who now have high positions in the US and once have fled from Armenia obstacle that the concert would not take place… I told the concert participants, young people when the amount will be on the account of the Coordinating Committee, I will take it to the Defense Minister and will tell him there is a project to implement in this-or-that military unit of the bordering region. What do you think, Mr. Minister? But as no money was collected, the young people called me saying, Ms. Margarita, we are discredited, and I said, no one is discredited, if it goes so, there are many concerts in Armenia that are scheduled and cancelled, and those who do at least something connected with the army, it is worthy of awarding.” To the question of whether there will be another concert in the United States dedicated to the Army, our interlocutor replied, “This is the first and the list case.” We asked whom specifically she meant by saying that once they have fled from Armenia and now hold high positions in the United States, the Chair of the “Soldier” Coordinating Committee refrained from answering, “I do not know anyone and I have no connections with abroad.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
