Last week, the newspapers had three important events: singer Joseph Kabzon died, Robert Kocharyan announced that he will participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and actor Hayk Marutyan made bold announcements. These events are weighted differently by Armenian citizens and by Armenians overall, but they were all discussed equally across the Internet and with the same curses.
I’ll write about Hayk. I already wrote about Kocharyan. I tried to analyze his chances in the upcoming elections and avoid emotional evaluations: he’s a monster, he destroyed the country, he has blood on his hands. Analyzation demands reasonable, connected thoughts (of course, those thoughts can be right or wrong).
As far as why Kobzon upset Armenians that much, I have difficulty saying. He was a Soviet pop singer. He was gifted, but not very talented. Yes, he was palatial, but were Leshchenko or Magomayev dissidents? They sang, and just as Kobzon, people liked their music. Kobzon seems to have treated Armenians well. He held charity concerts here, but I think it’s difficult to consider him a “great relative” of the Armenian nation or give him the medal that our government gave to him. Yes, Kobzon was needed by the Russian empire, too- he was made a parliamentarian, they gave him business opportunities, and more. But I don’t understand why that was so interesting for Armenians.
Is it possible for us to neither worship nor curse at Armenian politicians and public officials? I, for example, want to see the good and light in everyone, while of course not turning a blind eye to their faults. Sadly, we have a habit of choosing targets and filling ourselves with hatred towards them. Then we demand that everyone else share the same negative opinion. Especially on Facebook, where the comments share all sorts of emotional exclamations.
Was Kobzon a part of the mafia? It’s possible. They say the same about Frank Sinatra.
Aram Abrahamyan
