We Even Turn Our Mourning into a Protest: Ruben Babayan Says We Should Visit Yerablur Cemetery Silently

Our society has become overly politicized, and in a rather simplistic manner, with enemies and friends, villains and angels, and this stems from a lack of culture. This was stated by Ruben Babayan, the director of the Hovhannes Tumanyan Puppet Theater, in an interview with Tert.am, addressing the cultural life of society.

“However, I would not agree that culture has been relegated to the background; I do not mean state attitude, certain trends, but I believe that every individual always has a desire for the enlightened and the noble, and we feel this even through the examples of our performances. In January, so many audience members came that the last five years had not seen such attendance,” he said.

He noted that culture is what revives the people, but at the center of culture and art should be man as the greatest value; if that happens, it will give meaning to our lives. “One can live for the sake of life; one cannot live for the sake of death, even when approaching death, it must be for the sake of life; we have no right to place a cross upon life, especially to pass disappointments onto the children,” he said and emphasized the importance of keeping the families of the fallen and the wounded in focus, as this reflects a humanitarian approach.

“We have turned mourning into a national culture, and that is wrong. We think that by mourning for a long time, we are showing our respect, but our respect is giving hope and life to people,” he stated.

When asked if this war showed that we cannot even mourn with dignity, Ruben Babayan noted that one should visit Yerablur and the cemetery silently. “We even turn this mourning into a demonstration. Turning Yerablur into a conflict zone is the most wrong thing. But since we turn mourning and death into cultural values, we start to use all these elements there. What happened in Yerablur was the greatest disrespect to the fallen,” he said.