Author: Hovhannisian John

“Strong Armenia” party council member Narek Karapetyan writes. “Territory of the homeland is an easy concession, he says, it is necessary.
“National dignity is an easy concession,” he says. He always has something that cannot be given up – his chair.

More than anything, above everything!
He loves his… chair in life.

It’s time for a leader who will ensure a strong peace, that’s what we really need.”

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“First of all, a specialist should be a material collector,” he is sure philologist, literary critic, senior researcher of the folklore department of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Doctor of Philological Sciences Armen Sargsyan.

– Mr. Sargsyan, you studied at Yerevan State University, Faculty of Philology. How did you choose your profession?

– Simply, we read a lot. imagine, I have been reading Hovhannes Tumanyan since the 2nd grade. I was also registered in the library. At that time, to be honest, there were neither any philological things in me, nor was there a guide. My father was a craftsman, my mother a villager. My knowledge was mostly acquired. From my parents, of course, by blood, from my mother, I took the most essential, the proverbial grace, and honesty, purity from my father. In short, the family has given a lot. I was 9 months old when we moved to Tiflis, but we were living in a Georgian district, my mother did not adapt, we moved to Vanadzor. Since I was reading, they thought that I should definitely study higher, so I took it and submitted my work to the Faculty of History, because history has been my essence. However, I was left out of the competition by one point. In the second year, they convinced me to go to the Vanadzor Polytechnic Institute with your hard work. they came to my mind, I started studying mathematics for 4-5 months, but I felt that it was not mine. You have to love. And I left it and this time I decided to apply to the Faculty of Philology because I didn’t want to work as a teacher, but now I miss it… I taught everywhere.

From the very first year, the professors assigned an essay… I got four or five, but there were people who made 5 mistakes in two sentences. It seemed to me that I sat in someone else’s place, and I wanted to do something… my inner historian was speaking. I had neither the gift of writing nor journalism, so I decided to seriously engage in folklore.

In the very first semester, I read a report about the comparative character of Little Mher from “Sasna Trees” among all the stories. It turned out to be something exceptional. By the way, let me tell you that my thesis was about the survival of proverbs, angry Jrbashyan, Tamrazyan, Mkryan – those greats – shouted that this is the topic of a candidate’s thesis, change the title quickly, they won’t accept it at the top. The topic was very complicated.

Then I took the proverbs from the works of Sevak, Hrant Matevosyan, and compared them with Aram Ghanalanyan’s “Proverbs”. By the way, my diploma was followed by Ghanalanyan, who said in his house: “I wish someone would continue my work.” I kept my head down.

– Are new proverbs created in our time?

– Of course they are created. In the 1930s, new proverbs were forced to be created in connection with the kolkhoz, but they did not spread among the people. Some proverbs were somehow transformed, rearranged in accordance with the thinking of the time and the people. When I went on a business trip to Estonia, they asked if we have a collection of proverbs published, I responded positively, showing “Proverbs”. They went and brought their 5-6 volumes of proverbs and put them on my table. I was amazed. They said that we have included all versions of Estonian proverbs. I bowed before those people, the people. They were small, but they held each other tightly. I came back, I tried several times to start the multi-volume collection of Armenian folk proverbs, unfortunately, they did not want to meet.

– In which regions of RA are new proverbs and sayings born?

– In the course of centuries, they get diluted, condensed, gain new strength. “School Proverb” will be ready soon. 4-5 people also wrote school proverbs, to put it mildly, unsuccessfully. There are such things that children do not need. An example is the word bribe, they write. “Bribery brings light to a dark place.” Are you directing a schoolboy to fall into a dark place, to get out with a bribe?

I even wrote out proverbs from fairy tales.

He says: “The sheep of a wise shepherd are more fortunate than the people of a foolish king.” The people of Lori have this proverb, which I recorded in the late 1970s: “Sacrifice both the life of the literate and the life of the illiterate, run away from the semi-literate.” Another one: “Position is a phalanx, one is removed from one’s head, another is placed on another”, and there is a continuation among the people of Lorraine. “Do it like this: after taking the blanket, the person underneath remains.” The proverbs are exceptional: educating, guiding.

– Did you encounter difficulties while doing field work?

– I was employed at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences at the age of 57. Kalantaryan, the director, took my workbook, looked, there was no place… By saying moment, moment, he was browsing. I have worked everywhere. It was in my favor. Wherever I worked, I tried to be useful both to myself and to the people. I have 52 tape recordings. Wherever I was, I had a pen in my hand, and if possible, I recorded. While working at the scientific-methodical center of the House of People’s Creativity, I had contact with archival materials, and I organized the entire archive.

The folklore archive was going back and forth, I organized it. They were the manuscripts of our gusans, hermits, Sheram, Havasu, and others. In the end, I felt that these materials would be lost, stolen, trampled, I moved everything to the National Archives, it was saved.

– You have recently published a book in which you refer to your birthplace, Shamut.

– After my heart surgery, I decided to fulfill my soul’s duty. I had lived in my birthplace for 9 months, and I decided to return my debt of 9 months. 18 clans with family trees, ethnography, folklore are presented. I recorded such ethnographic materials that were not known to ethnographers before. There are words that are not in the dictionaries of Ararat dialect, Lori dialect, but they are in the Artsakh dialect. The reason was that 10-11 families from Shamut came after 1795 and settled in settlements where there were mills and khachkars. There is a khachkar from 1315. In the 60s of the 19th century, people from different places came to this settlement and settled, and I attributed the influence of the Artsakh dialect to this.

In the last 15-20 years, the people of Lorraine have started using the words “malina” and “malinkut”. Malina is called “morut” by the people of Lorraine, malinkut is “morut”. Sometimes the Language Committee does not do what is necessary.

Let’s say, why don’t they use “forget”? They call it raspberry. The words that are radical come from ancient times. And literary Armenian is enriched at the expense of dialects. For example, we use the word “pregnant” even though the dialects have the word “tsotkovor”. That word is used by Hovhannes Shiraz, Hrant Matevosyan… Shiraz says: let the Armenian fields and fields be plowed. And pregnant is the right word. This is what the people of Artsakh say: “I’ll go and get my aunt’s daughter pregnant, I’ll come.” It is the word to accompany.

I get nervous at every step.

– What makes you nervous?

– It is annoying that starting with the Government and the National Assembly, they speak with “A”. Where did the “e” of our literary Armenian go? It’s a shame.

– Which folklore species are endangered?

– There are genres and types of folklore that have already left the scene. Today, fairy tales, myths, legends, epics are hardly created. I have also been involved in children’s folklore, published “Children’s Fun Talks” and “Children’s Laughter”. Every child presents his worldview in an original way. Let me tell you a few episodes. We celebrated my 70th birthday, my grandson went home saying that his grandfather’s birthday was very sad. When asked what was sad, he answered that there was no candle to blow out. Actually, it was a personal incident, there was no heart and passion, but I felt so bad! I tell all parents, no matter whose birthday it is, put one candle for the children to blow out, just so they don’t get sad.

Let me tell you one more thing. the other grandfather took my grandson to kindergarten, on the way home he said: let’s go in and buy a bun, the grandfather said: I’m in sports clothes, I don’t have money with me. On the next day, the grandson warns him not to forget and bring him with those clothes. He is only 5 years old.

– In the Shamut book, you included Hrant Matevosyan’s story “We Are Our Mountains”.․ what is the reality like?

– Let me tell you the background. After returning from the army, my uncle (by the way, he is the only hero whose name has been changed from Seryozha to Revaz) mother, aunt, says in the evening that the sheep are not there, look, where are they? Man goes as he comes, reaches Ahnidzor, uncle’s daughter hugs him and asks when did you come, she says in the morning, and adds that the sheep are not there. The girl says that Pavel and Ishkhan ate. He goes to them, they say that they have eaten, and now they will give him the money. They bring the saddle, load it with wheat, give something more than its value and leave. My uncle happily returns home, after 15-20 days they call the police and say, “You son of a counter-revolutionary, we took your father and shot him, do you want us to take you too?”

He says, “But what have I done?” They say, “Why did you hide the enemies of the state, why didn’t you come and tell us that your sheep were stolen?” He answers that they are neighbors, they know everyone, they even gave him double wheat. They say, well, we will judge you with them, you will know what it means to hide the enemies of the state. The trial took place in the fall of 1952, in the village of Dsegh. Each was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

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168 TVs՝ “Zara has a question” the guest of the program Diaspora Armenian businessman, global energy and security expert, economist, writer Vahan Zanoyan is.

In the conversation, Vahan Zanoyan referred to the messages conveyed by the authorities: peace agendas, the ideology of “real” Armenia, the prospect of synchronization with TRIPP and the Turkish-Azerbaijani energy systems, as well as the possibility of the return of Armenian prisoners illegally held in Baku, the processes launched against the church and other internal and external challenges.

– The yellow map symbol of “Real Armenia” is ordered by Pashinyan to the citizens during the undeclared pre-election campaign. In your opinion, is this a sign of pragmatism, as the authorities convince us, or the helplessness of the authorities, which they convey to the citizens with the vision of depriving us of our historical dreams and national values?

– That which is easily bent cannot be cut. our entire foreign policy is about bending so as not to be cut off. They make more concessions than necessary to avoid a new war.

According to me, the ideology of “real” Armenia is not only a pragmatic policy to avoid the next war, but it is about changing the collective consciousness and memory of the entire Armenian people in a radical way.

If we look at this ideology in detail, there are many truths, for example, the state is indeed an absolute value, but it starts with the truth, and after these truths come such conclusions that are absurd: it is said: the state is the motherland, yes, but only the state is the motherland, that is, whatever is outside of that 29740.3 km2, any historical or present value, memory, consciousness, national courts, has nothing to do with that motherland and that state.

– Why do they separate the nation, the motherland, the state?

– Our biggest crisis today has separated national interests and agenda from state interests and agenda. I have been a security consultant to different countries for 35 years and I have not met a single successful country where national interests are separated from state interests to such an extent.

There is nothing like this in the world, in any place, in any country. even Turkey does not have this.

Preventing war is a smart thing to do, but if we need to take some steps to prevent that war, we take 15,000 times more of those steps. that is the problem, and in the long term we are creating new dangers.

– In other words, there are more concessions than there should be?

– There are much more than there should be. For example, what does it matter to say that we do not pursue historical justice? It is a different thing to say that we are chasing historical justice, we are demanding our lands, but why say that we don’t need to, we are not persecuting, let’s not talk about the Genocide.

– They say that it is not our priority, but yesterday in the context of Artsakh, when Pashinyan had a briefing, he mentioned that it is harmful to talk about the “ethnic cleansing” of Artsakh.

– Now I have the impression. that every policy or strategy that is adopted in Yerevan today is the result of mere fear, not created with the interest of strengthening the state in the long term.

Ruling a country with fear is a very dangerous thing.

Details in the video

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“Staff of the Council of the Public Broadcaster” PA provided money under the name of a grant to the “Spiritual-Cultural Public Television Company” CJSC, “Shogakat” in order to organize the liquidation process. The parties signed the contract yesterday, the price of the contract was 22 million drams.

Within this amount, CJSC’s obligations must be repaid, salaries and severance benefits must be paid, and other expenses must be carried out. 2026 According to the state budget, 221 million drams were allocated for “Shogakat” TV station, and 22 million drams will be allocated from this amount for liquidation.

They say that the other part of the money will be transferred to the Council of the Public Broadcaster for the purpose of technical re-equipment in Public Television and Radio.

Let’s remind that the RA government’s 2025 According to the decision of December 25, “Shoghakat” TV company “Shoghakat” CJSC was dissolved on January 1 of this year.

In parallel with the campaign of the Catholicos, the authorities hastily decided to close “Shogakat”. CP deputies regularly generated this idea.

“Shogakat” is a spiritual and cultural TV station. The founder is the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church. It was broadcast 18 hours a day on the spiritual-cultural public TV channel and the H1 satellite TV channel.

In 1995, a TV studio was founded in the Ararat Patriarchal Diocese. The initiator and founder was the presbyterial vicar, Archbishop Garegin Nersisyan. Five years later, it was already operating in the Holy Mother See of Etchmiatsin and was registered as “Shogakat” TV station.

2002 “Shogakat” received a broadcasting license and since November it has been operating as a TV station with 18 hours of air time a day. In addition to traditional church programs, educational and cultural programs were also broadcast. According to the contract signed with the Armenian public television in 2004. “Shogakat” television programs began to be broadcast on H1 satellite TV as well.

In fact, during the reign of all previous governments, this TV station was not closed for spreading content, and the bastion of democracy in Armenia was closed. The TV company belonging to the Mother See was made a thing of the past, and Pashinyan’s family newspaper continues the propaganda.

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