Human rights defender Vardan Harutyunyan also participated in the exhibition called “Eclipse” dedicated to victims of Soviet dictatorship, organized in the open-air area in front of Hovhannes Tumanyan’s museum.
In conversation with Aravot.am Mr. Harutyunyan highlighted the importance of the opening of the exhibition: “There should be many similar exhibitions, because our people, especially young people, do not know the history of the Soviet period, they are absolutely not aware. Moreover, no one knows the history of the Soviet era until the 60s. It should be covered, written down and not only in Tumanyan’s house-museum, but everywhere, that people can understand what period we have lived in.
For comparison, I can say that our young people know medieval history better than the of the Soviet period. It is very difficult to explain to them what the Soviet Union was. For example, I had an interesting conversation with a young girl recently. A person who has seen a computer, a printer at home from the very first day of her life is unable to understand that finding a typewriter illegally during those times, typing, keeping, multiplying, and spreading any material not checked by the authorities on the typewriter, were criminally condemned and subject to enormous sanctions”.
We inquired from Vardan Harutyunyan how he treats the fact that on the one hand, this kind of exhibition opens, which sheds light on the terrible events of the Soviet period, on the other hand, we still have Kasyan, Frunze, Mikoyan streets and avenues, statues and more in Armenia.
“That’s our shame, that we still have Mikoyan avenues, busts, still there are notes on the walls of our Yerevan buildings, which say: here lived this or that state, party, communist figure. This means that we still have not completely cut off from the Soviet past, this burden is still on our shoulders. That’s also the reason we live like this. As long as we have streets, monuments or villages named after Amiryan, Mikoyan, Ghukasyan, we will live poorly, we will have to live like this because we are not cut off from Soviet thinking, because our officials, people living among us, our neighbors are endowed with this mentality…”, said our interlocutor.
Regarding the revival of Stalinist thinking in Russia, the strategic ally of Armenia, Vardan Harutyunyan noted, “We are not far from it either, in Russia, of course, Stalinism is on the rise, but it refers to us too. Just two years ago there was a big problem in Yerevan, our authorities wanted to set Mikoyan’s statue. Now as you look at our statues, everything will be clear. For example, at Spandaryan’s statue at Nzhdeh Square, it is good that this man did not manage to commit very bad deeds, although he was a communist. That atrociousness exists among us, with huge amounts, that’s why we are like this”.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
