- The pages of our nation's history continue to be filled with facts that record the bitter irony of fate. We stand again on the way to Calvary... No, we will not be crucified, in spite of Judas, in spite of the evil and betrayal that shakes the foundations of the world, we will live and enjoy the sweet fruits of our righteous struggle.
Recently, the anxieties that have engulfed us often force us all to talk, talk, say what we have wanted to say for years, but have not been able to express out loud.
And now it's your turn, Mr. Matevosyan. What are you thinking these days?
- Let me start with a little depth, because the examination of today's situation requires that.
The attack that took place on the side of Afghanistan due to circumstances and with the temptation of internal Turkey, the Russian dark force was invited to the south, to the warm seas, it is very possible that this attack on poor Persia took place in the hungry times of Islam, in its agitated and aggressive state, when it seemed that Islam wanted a counterattack and that counterattack was to be carried out by the only living force in the East, which was the Soviet Union. It seems to me that the blow was given from Afghanistan to cut the Chinese connection with the Arab world. they lured us that it would be just five days from Afghanistan to the south of the Caspian Sea to Persia and that's it.
Whether Persia wins or loses, in all cases the result should be very beneficial for the leaders of Azerbaijan. The two Azerbaijanis would unite, the borders would disappear. This is how it is. It's a wish granted. The facts speak for themselves. Their Chingiz Huseinov spreads that idea on an artistic level, their Moscow figures betray it with replicas, and it is expressed in a different way in the Turkish shepherd. It is simply the pampered state policy of Azerbaijan, which permeates all their cells, from the shepherd to the top leaders.
Now that border has been destroyed. I don't think they will make it again. They will still be pampered with a peaceful march and conversion, with the joining of economies. Azerbaijan should live together, but at whose expense? To be honest, it's a respectable thing. At the end of the day, borderline is hideous. This is really immoral. There is something good about falling apart, but only if we are not excluded. Excluded. And it is possible that in the effort to save ourselves, we will find ourselves in the ranks of the army of the most reactionary regions, demanding to restore the border. The heaviest forces here will be Russian chauvinism and bourgeois chauvinism. This may sound funny, but look at that poor Turkmen, their smelly, dried-up Aral, the canal drawn from the Amu-Darya, which caused ecological poverty, the Uzbek advertised poverty and still chauvinism? But isn't the so-called chauvinism only the monopoly of halls lit by crystal chandeliers or the generality and court ladies? Chauvinism can overwhelm even the last shepherd, who will not gain anything, but can become such a unit. Both of those chauvinisms exist. One is directly opposed to us by history and has eternally driven us away from it, and it is unnecessary to talk about alliance, negotiation, dialogue. And since it is so, then our traditional friend remains next to us. We were not killed in Russia. It has always been a refuge for us in the most difficult times. Of course, what is gone is lost, especially under socialism. Otherwise, during two or three hundred years, assimilation barely wore out the edges of the colony. And now, in these conditions of civilization and propertylessness, when you cannot be the initiator of your own salvation, take care of your child and yourself, there is the question of accelerated assimilation. We were not killed. Considering this big difference, we can end up in the most reactionary army camp in the world, and it will be a horrible situation. We live in a world of terrible contradictions. On one side of the globe, life is flourishing under the conditions of tolerance policy and civilization, but we are still in the Middle Ages, the knife is still the main character, we are still slaves to robbery, robbery, murders and bloodshed, poverty. Two years ago, I was reading Chamchya, and everything seemed like a nightmare. I thought that I did not understand his behavior well, and I thought that the darkness was due to my misunderstanding, I did not believe that it would be like this. Once I told my father with irresponsible optimism. the war is so far away, he was lying sick. he roared, groaned, - it's a fight, a fight! Oh, it's a war! He said with the profound wisdom of a peasant. He didn't read newspapers, didn't watch TV, even if he did, he didn't know Russian. he felt today's world troubles from somewhere else. Maybe that year the neighbor took the mower for free and went to mow, but that year he saw that he is old, he can't even mow for himself, he thought. so, what else do you have the mower? evil has risen in him: well, die, then you don't need to have a cow, smoke your hearth, to be you. In this small action, attitude, he could notice that we wish each other evil, and the war has started.
I'm very sorry that the difficulties of our days, this unbearable situation, weighed heavily on the shoulders of today's cafe youth of the bustling city. This should have been ten or fifteen years ago, during my generation. of a hardier, pedestrian generation that could scale mountains. And now, I repeat again, those fools who are walking behind us with knowledge and ahead of us with aggression have learned that weight. We cannot hope for victory in this case. What victory in madness?
- Sorry, but I cannot share your opinion on this matter. Isn't it the same café youth you mentioned, who willingly became a modern-day fida and climbed the mountains today to protect the native unarmed people, to repel the group of blasphemous maniacs howling under the crescent flag?
- That's right, I said about the experience. I would like it to fall on my resilient generation, because along with the willingness shown today, endurance, experience and patience are needed. We would be as capable and durable as the hardened, beaten horse of the village.
- Maybe it's the adults' fault that today's idiots grew up in soft skin like you said, that they didn't learn the real ways to anticipate difficulties and face them. Maybe we really didn't raise them right?
- We repeat that phrase developed by the Russian government every time like a parrot. we didn't educate, we didn't do this, we didn't do that. But the fact is that absolutely nothing happened to us. After the November Revolution, the initiative was taken away from human hands, the totalitarian system took everything into its hands. What kind of upbringing can we talk about in the conditions of socialist orthodoxy? It's wrong, it's not wrong... Of course, they were brought up badly, as badly as the first Christians behaved wildly with the old culture and just hardened in the dungeon of faith as if they were a new person: narrow-minded, maniac, religious. The generation of our grandfathers also had those religious fanatics who in 1937 ate all our intellectual abilities. The rest of the unthinking but moral mass, which was the peasantry, that wonderful people (28.5 million), who took the war on their shoulders, hardened in the centuries, were taken away and devoured. People of pure color: people who create oxen, strength, and bread. carried away, attributing the victory of the war to the military leaders, Stalin, Zhukov and I know who else, when in reality the hero of the war was the country's resources.
During the war, the Armenian people gave as many victims as the United States of America on the European front: 350,000. The entire mass was sent to be crushed, to close the mouth of the tanks. Out of 2 million people, 350,000 were taken away and crushed. If I can't say it, what can I say? America of 200 million has sacrificed as much as my little nation of 2 million.
For a long time, the words of Reagan in his speech on the occasion of Roosevelt's 100th birthday that war is such a serious business that it cannot be left to military scientists did not fit in my head as an Easterner. And this is how he evaluates Roosevelt. "Thanks to his efforts, millions of lives were saved from the enemy and our army." And among us, those who defeated many enemies were made heroes.
However, my tribe, my nation, which has suffered a lot of hardships, has taken the test of living both in Armenia and abroad, in the country of high civilization, creating an environment of humanism, respect, kindness and luxurious lifestyle around it. And today's destroyed Armenia will also become just such a country. There are grounds for this.
- Mr. Matevosyan, recently the cynicism of not only the popular front, but also the intelligentsia (if one can call the "educated" Khuzhan that way) has reached its peak in Azerbaijan. The red color of Christian's blood, with a desire for bullfighting, also engulfed the "leading" class of the neighboring republic, writers, artists, who use every pulpit and television screen to push their people to the most despicable acts of cruelty against Armenians.
Yes, every writer is the bearer and reproducer of the high morals and ideas of his nation. Therefore, it would be pointless and naive to be surprised at such manifestations. However, how do you, as a writer, perceive the behavior of your penmates (sorry a thousand times), what is your position in such a situation?
- I studied Kemal's activities and biography and I can say one thing for sure. the secret of his greatness is being a pure nationalist. Turkish nationalism has not been defeated. they consistently did the same with the "wise and smart" policy of the Sultan and Turkish statesmen from their point of view. the exclusion of Armenian statehood within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. From the very first days, the leading intellectuals of Azerbaijan, as faithful heirs, easily began to be guided by Kemal Ataturk's protocols about the indivisibility of the country, exclusion of other elements, etc. They knew. it is a proven fact in history: no one will stand up for the victims. The same "wonderful", "brilliant", "successful" script has been in their hands ever since and continues to do so. This is something to say, of course, but also funny, as a progress of thought, a triumph of thought, this is plagiarism, taken from there.
They use the chairs... it is a complete immorality. curse in your own home, in front of your children, your grandchildren. You say, who are you saying, at least you would say from a helicopter, from the pan-Caucasian height, so that your words and curses would fall into the house of your enemy. Otherwise, you are cursing among your children, your school and students. Hate does not give strength either, don't believe it... We will remain the ruling tribe of the Caucasus.
Wahabzade... Zades... Who are they? Begs are people completely separated from their people, for whom polluting and sacrificing people is nothing, they know that no one from their family should be sacrificed and they send their people to be slaughtered. It's a stupid, salty way of thinking: let's send these cows to be slaughtered.
- And how do you look at the common people of Azerbaijan? What moral profile does he have today?
- The people can be herded, and each one can be singled out from that herd, from the crowd, made the owner of a house and a place, and the ability to work can be discovered in him. I don't know, I can't be filled with hate for what people say. When I say people, I see a village worker, a tiller of the soil with a shovel in his hand, a girl following a cow, I see bent women working in the fields. I loathe backgammon players in teahouses.
- And who do you see in the popular front?
- All the scum. To the idle people of Baku, big towns and small villages. It is terrible that our retaliatory wave of revenge will not find its corresponding channel in them, and the cow owner, the girl, will be killed. And more terrible than that is the destruction of man morally (both for them and for us) which is inevitable if this state of affairs continues for a long time.
- Perhaps I know what you will answer, but I still want to ask. What is Nagorno Karabakh for you?
- It is my home and I will always stand next to it. Even the Turk will consider me a traitor if I shake hands with him. This is also in the consciousness of my people. We will be the last fool if we leave Karabakh. The area of Karabakh is the same as that of flourishing Israel (4.5 thousand sq. km), which made its present-day fertile soil out of the desert. And Karabakh... we don't need to create a new fertile land, it is there, it is ours and it will flourish and become a place of rest for all of us.
Armenia is not an orphanage or a shelter for the deportees from Baku to come and only want to settle in Yerevan. Hell, let them go to the paradise of that hurt, let them live, but where else should they go, and start collecting America's garbage again? When?
- Man manages his own destiny. This phrase, as time shows, often deviates, undergoes deep deformation. We Armenians feel this especially today. And the first question is born unintentionally. Why does fate punish us so cruelly? is it because we are very humanist... But let's stop for a moment, look at the place where the humanist of tomorrow, the person, the individual gets its juices from. Wherever we go, wherever we turn our questioning eyes, we will start with education, we will search for the roots of all questions in school. I wonder what you think about our school today, which we want to make national in face and content.
- Deep school reform is needed. And it should start from the school building. No structure shall have an area of less than one hectare. Children should have room to breathe. They pass out after sitting for 45 minutes. The composition of the class should not be more than 10-12 students. This is like this. The most important task of the school is not to kill the children. Today, Uzbeks launched a raid on why they take their children to pick cotton. What should they do? Well, attack the past why children were with shepherds, attack America why children from the age of 14 work to buy a car at the age of 16. We should not entertain the idea of dwelling too much on what has been lost in the past. Armenian history, literature, religion... I am afraid that we will go to the extreme in this way in the way of making these things absolute. Armenian history, separated from world history, makes you narrow-minded, you don't understand that the earth is round, you don't know what history unfolded in the world parallel to your history. Until now, the history of Russia has been presented instead of the history of the entire Union. Now we have woken up from sleep and we just want to teach the history of Armenia. In this state of just insult, I am once again afraid that the Russian language, which provides an infinite opportunity to communicate with the world's culture, will suddenly be pushed out of the arena. In general, languages should be brought to the fore in the education system. Those of us who read the Turkish press today have no choice. The importance of knowing the enemy's language is most felt today.
The types of schools will change. No good school should become an example for another. Neither should duplicate the other. As much as you can, scientific teacher, so many kinds of school. We are proud. We had a school in Tatev, Amarasi... these are empty words. Let's say we restored Amaras, put up walls, plastered, and appointed a guard with a candle seller. Then... You have to give life to the school, breath and warmth of the children. The greatest profession should be the teacher. Armenian national talent should go to work as a nutrition teacher. And this is possible only in one case. most of the state funds will be thrown there. Wherever you throw the gold, that's where the energy will go. If we throw gold into the school, the ability, flexibility, initiative and expertise of the Armenian mind will be thrown there, the school will wake up. It's dead for now.
The country needs education, professionalism, good politicians. At the top, a huge army of half-tongued Turks has arisen. It's from not having a good school. We put the name humanistic, but from the very first day of entering the school, the child sees nothing but sermons and unnecessary waste of energy.
On the roads of America in the summer, I saw a strange image. Bright girls and boys of 15-16 years of age were running behind the wheel of open cars. like a parade. The car was not a goal they had achieved and they were happy about it. I realized that they were independent people and were already ready to enter life. One day we were at a priest's house in Fresno. Called the school boy. "Take your break at home, there are guests from the homeland." The child came for a few minutes and soon went back to work. He worked four hours a day. was going to buy a car next year. If I accuse America's educational system of inhumanity, I will be guilty of a crime. The great Faulkner was born there, the great Saroyan was born there. And here the Saroyans become just Sarmens or Matevosyans, angry at everyone, narrow-minded. I saw Armenian schools there, where they teach children the alphabet of life, English, Armenian, they know how to drive a car, they know how to use computers, how to trade. Whose alphabet is satisfactory, good, others also produce wonderful people, specialists, scientists, political scientists.
The American school left an incomparable impression on me. In conditions of maximum security (food, etc.), the minimum received is enough to lead an independent, safe life and still have a position in the ruling authorities.
The school will have a national face if true specialists suitable for the nation are educated there. Now that school, whether in Yerevan or somewhere else, in the church of Amarasi, Sanahin or Tatev, should be a school related to life, not a school of formulas and meaningless sermons.
- Is it necessary to teach the history of religion as a subject in that school today?
- For me, the question of religion is first of all a question of culture. singing, history, culture. The teaching of religion in school is as necessary as the Mesopotamian alphabet to learn the language. With the knowledge of religion, the doors leading to the world culture will be opened before the child. The Gospel is humanity's greatest literary monument. Depriving the child of a relationship with that work means cutting him off from the heritage of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Narekatsi.
Fear is the birth of darkness, darkness is the birth of ignorance. So why not complete a child's education by teaching the history of religion, that is, the alphabet of 2000 years of human culture? This will make him bolder, more fearless. And for today's generation, it is a particularly important feature, because we still have a long way to go in the struggle.
The interview was conducted by Vardanush Torosyan
"School", 13.02.1990