The ceremony marking the launch of concert hall construction took place at the district of Tekstilagortsner (textile makers -ed.) on June 14, where Oyunjyan school-college, “Varduhi” art school and “Aghavni” center for crafts are located.
The man who donated Gyumri a philharmonic concert hall is an Armenian-American doctor, Hovhannes Oyunjyan, who invested his whole estate in Gyumri development by building the aforementioned schools and the center for crafts succeeding the earthquake. They are named after his parents and two sisters.
Yesterday the doctor celebrated his birthday. The scene was exciting: Hovhannes Oyunjyan, having the pins of the flag of Armenia and forget-me-not (the symbol of the centennial of Armenian Genocide) on his chest and sitting on the wheelchair, had come to put the first stone of philharmonic concert hall by himself. The participants, of course, got very sad seeing him unwell.
Gyumri Mayor, Samvel Balasanyan said he did not find words enough for thanking this great man, the benefactor who took loans in the US and brought them to Gyumri for charity.
“One day I asked him: doctor, how did you come to Gyumri? What was the reason you started building such buildings? He said – I simply get proud of this and have a rest,” mentioned Samvel Balasanyan.
Shirak governor, Karen Sarukhanyan, enlisting the charity of doctor Oyunjyan in Gyumri one by one and thanking him specifically, said: “Having such wonderful buildings means to put any effort in preparing literate and conscious Armenian descendants deserving the New Armenia.”
They wished doctor Oyunjyan a soon recovery. Director of “Oyunjyan” foundation, Mr. Lachikyan mentioned that the doctors in the US had banned Hovhannes Oyunjyan to take an airplane. However, he had decided to surprise Gyumri residents on his birthday. “I want to build a new building in the new Armenia, I would wish to live until I saw the dance of our children and their performance on that stage,” the doctor had written the mentioned lines in his speech which was read during the ceremony.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
