Armenian Artists Urged Not to Sell Out to Politicians, Not to Sing and Dance for their Election Campaigns

The only way to save the country is through revolution, said singer-songwriter Ruben Hakhverdyan, speaking to journalists in the Armenian capital today about the upcoming elections and the political situation in general. The other speaker at today’s press conference, actor Sergei Danielyan (pictured), finds that the right move would be to boycott the elections altogether.

“To speak about politics, you’d have to bring a sociologist — to say how many people have left Armenia, how many people come and go [from the country], how many dead bodies they bring back from Russia, from xenophobia no doubt. You’d have to bring an ecologist — to say what cutting down 400 hectares of forest in Teghut will give us, what they’ll do with the scrap heap built in its place. In exploiting any mine in the world, 50% has to belong to the state, but in our country only 20% is given to the state; that is, they’re going to reap gross profits. More unbearable is the matter of freedom of speech — even if we’re speaking freely, nothing changes,” said Hakhverdyan.

Danielyan, in turn, appealed to Armenian artists with a call not to participate in election campaigns ahead of the elections.

“Elections are approaching; soon they [i.e. politicians] will being to prey upon artists. I advise that no matter how much money is offered, not to back any political figure, not to sing and dance for their campaigns. That which a politician does is temporary, it’s something akin to toilet paper, while art is a more constant value. Don’t discredit or support this or that person,” he said.

Hakhverdyan also provided some advice of his own: “Please, don’t elect anyone out of the three presidents [Serzh Sargsyan, Levon Ter-Petrossian or Robert Kocharian]. Don’t elect [them] if you care about this country’s future.”