There is a troubling question. I am often asked that question, and I answer to it as follows: “Of course, I do not regret that for the sake of our independence I have spent my younger years in prisons of Soviet Union and in exile”. And I add, “It was not our choice to struggle for independence. We were chosen by providence. As for the injustice, I am still struggling against it”.
Since the Armenian Genocide, we Armenians have come a long way in reinstating the historical truth: historiography, diplomacy, lobbying. Being well aware of the power of culture, we have also been talking in the language of culture about the state crime committed against us.
At Christmas it was much spoken and written about how people celebrate New Year all over the world. There are unique and beautiful traditions which different people have been preserving for centuries.
This fragment of my book is very dear to me. I mean not only its biographical significance, but also the revelation of those moral values in it, that have many layers inside, which I still intend to disclose. The work to be initiated by me is greatly encouraged and promoted by all those written and oral heartfelt feedback that I got in connection with coming out of this publication.
It goes without saying that the trials of political and historical past may become an experience. There is only one compulsory precondition for that: the exclusion of lie and forgery.
It happened so that I had gathered some newspapers, magazines and journals, as well as several books subscribed and preserved by Armenian political prisoners in Mordovia after 1965.
Even if it sounds strange the prison regime has one privilege: you can be absorbed in reading all day long. At noon it was prohibited to sleep, and in conditions of faint light my eyes got overstrained from long reading and wanted extra rest.
For me taking an oath has always been a sanctimony. Christianity also rejects it, even up to the extent of curse. In my early childhood, when I was playing with children of my age, I hadn’t yet read the Holy Book. I remember that since then I haven’t made a vow. “Swear that you didn’t do it…”. “I didn’t do it, believe it or not”.
Ruben Hakhverdyan is the most prominent representative of the Armenian copyright song. I am confident that regardless of the further march of this genre in the Armenian art of singing, this estimation of Hakhverdyan will remain unchanged.