Arsen Grigoryan told him to boycott concert Internationally acclaimed duduk virtuoso Jivan Gasparyan has been invited to perform at a peace concert in Turkey. The musician, awarded the status of "National Artist" in Armenia, hasn’t decided whether he’ll go in September. Arsen Grigoryan, the folksinger, has advised the maestro to boycott the concert. "If someone with the status of Jivan Gasparyan boycotts the concert, it will create a real ruckus," says Grigoryan. The two spoke at a press conference earlier today in Yerevan.

Mr. Gasparyan recounted an incident several years ago when he was again invited to Turkey. "I asked then Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian whether I should go. He told me to definitely go." The two musicians also spoke about foreign influences in Armenian songs written today, especially Turkish "mughams" (modes). Arsen Grigoryan noted that current Armenian songs not only include such Turkish influences but are written to appeal to European and American tastes and are then presented to the listening audience here. The argument used is that this is what the public demands today. Mr. Grigoryan added that the Turks are trying to Turkify Armenian songs. "They also take our songs of liberation and claim them as their own. They don’t even listen to the words to see that the song is directed against them. But the Turks really have nothing of substance. They don’t even have a language." In closing, Jivan Gasparyan said that our current field of music must be supervised by the Ministry of Culture to a certain degree.