What follows is a portion of an interview conducted by Nouvelles d'Armenie reporter Seta Mavlian with Ruben Hayrapetyan.

The 4 hour unique interview took place on August 11 in the Avan district of Yerevan, where Hayrapetyan lives and where his Harsanakar restaurant is located. The interview appears in french in the magazine but was later translated to Armenian. Nouvelles d'Armenie has allowed the Armenian media to freely reprint the interview.

Let's start at the beginning. What environment were you born and raised in?

I was born to a socially well-off family. In the early 1970s, my father managed two restaurants. They were good restaurants. One at the end of Ajarian Street and the other, the Grill Bar, in Nork. My father built them from scratch and ran them.

Where did your father get the resources for the restaurants?

I was seven in 1970. You'd have to ask him. All I know is that before 1970 my father was in the cargo transport business. It was a profitable sector. They would transport foodstuffs and stones on large lorries out of Armenia. My mother was a housewife.

Where does your family hail from?

We are from Avan. Some Avan residents came from Khoy (Iran). I tried to do the research but couldn't find whether my father's family relocated from Khoy or if they were locals. Nevertheless, Avan residents speak in the Khoy dialect. My mother is from the village of Akounq, near the town of Abovian.

How did you come by the nickname "Nemets Rubo?" They say your father was taken prisoner by the Germans during WWI.

That’s wrong. My father was born in 1939. The name comes from his uncle, my grandmother’s brother, who was conscripted into the war the same year my father was born. He served and was wounded. He came back with metal fragments still in his body. He then worked as a driver. Like all good drivers, he also worked on the vehicles. When he’d get under a truck, the fragments would move around and cause him pain. He’d then start cursing the Germans. . That’s how he got the nickname "Nemets". Later on, it passed down to the rest of us.

Did you attend a Russian or Armenian school?

An Armenian school in Avan.

Were you a member of the Young Communist League?

Yes, unfortunately. (He laughs) We all became members when we turned 15. Had I refused, they would have caused trouble for my father, even sending him to Siberia.

You worked in the Almast Factory from 1980-1981. You were about 17-18 years old. How did that come about?

During the Soviet era, if you weren’t accepted into university, you could work somewhere for a year and get it registered on your employment papers for your pension Later on, you could take the admission tests again.

Why weren’t you accepted?

There were so many students applying for openings at the universities; 500 applicants for just 25 openings. You had to wait in line to get into college just like waiting for bread or meat. You needed good grades.

What kind of factory work did you do?

I was a first class electrician at the Almast Factory in Yerevan’s Zeytoun district. The place produced saws. We would repair the damaged mechanical parts. The following year I got accepted at the institute.