You must be able to defend your national interests and values – Armen Sargsyants 

Speaking with Alpha News, General Producer of the Arno Babajanyan Memorial Foundation Armen Sargsyants shared his opinion regarding the desire of the Armenian authorities to change the anthem and how this should be resisted.

A conductor by training, Armen Sargsyants is shocked by the decline in the cultural level in today’s Armenia.

“I cannot understand the syndrome when a religious person goes to church with his family, baptizes his child there, an hour later goes to a restaurant, gets drunk, and celebrates the christening to Tatar-Persian tunes. I cannot understand. The music that will be considered popular is the one that will be broadcast on television, on the radio, and taught in schools. In Soviet times, in addition to pop music, folk music concerts were always broadcast on the radio.

It was popular, people sang at weddings and birthdays. It was trendy even to go to music schools. Everyone had a piano at home. In general, there was an educational qualification, a culture so that the child would have a general development and a general understanding of music,” Sargsyants said.

Speaking about the proposal of the Armenian authorities to change the national anthem due to its excessive “aggressiveness,” the head of the Arno Babajanyan Foundation noted that every nation has the right to defend its values and interests.

“I have no idea what is in the heads of the leaders of today’s Armenia, but I think it is not aggressive to hold high the honor of your people, your nation, and to fight for the preservation of spiritual, cultural, and historical values. It is not aggression, it is the concept of protecting your interests. To seize is one thing, and to protect and preserve is another. You must be able to defend your national interests, your culture.

And what should you do if they come to you? As they say, ‘He who comes to us sword in hand, by the sword shall perish.’ If you take an ordinary cross and unfold it, it will turn into a sword. Our cross at this moment turns into a sword, and we defend our religion, our culture, our history, and our land,” Sargsyants emphasized.

Touching upon the currently difficult relations between Armenia and Russia, he expressed optimism about their future. “Remember, if there is night in relations today, tomorrow will be a bright day. There will definitely be a bright day. Everything will pass,” Sargsyants concluded.