Epress.am News from Armenia
The issue of Armenia’s national anthem is not one of today’s urgent issues, but it is one of the pressing issues of the decades, said Union for Self-Determination (AIM) party leader Paruyr Hayrikyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today and presenting his version of the anthem.
According to Hayrikyan, the tricolor Armenian flag was restored on May 29, 1998, due to their initiative, while the song “Our Homeland” became the national anthem after the Battle of Sardarapat. “It’s correct to say ‘anthem’ and not ‘hymn’,” he said, explaining that it’s not a “song to bless” but a “main song” (the choice of words are more accurately portrayed in the original Armenian), the selected words of which repeat — “as if there are no more words in Armenia, two out of four words have to be ‘free, independent’; moreover, that ‘we, though we are free, but we are also not free; we are independent, but in many issues we continue to be dependent on our neighboring countries’.”
Hayrikyan said that recently the AIM board decided to contact the Armenian prime minister and offer their version of the anthem. But since the prime minister’s response to their letter was late, they also wrote to the Armenian president. With their letter sent to the president, they received a positive answer from the PM. Hayrikyan asserted that they received a positive response also from the presidential staff — the letter stated that their proposed amendments to the lyrics are acceptable and will make the lyrics to the anthem more harmonious.
If the version proposed by AIM is accepted then the anthem will have the following lyrics:
“Our homeland, free, independent,
that has lived for centuries
is now summoning its sons
to reborn Armenia.
“Death is the same everywhere
a man dies but once,
but blessed is he who dies
for the freedom of his nation.
“Our homeland, in chains,
chained for so many years,
With the blood of your brave sons,
is now living freed.”