Anna Mayilyan: You are constantly being brought to your knees, constantly being subjected to genocide, and you inexplicably want to forget it all

Singer Anna Mayilyan is proud to regularly present Armenian music on various stages worldwide. She considers herself one of the cultural ambassadors of our country. In her words, our music receives admiration from everyone, while in our country, it seems we are forced to fight for our own culture.

– You have never shied away from expressing your stance. Is it a matter of personality type, or does the situation dictate it?

– Today, it seems each of us is taking on a great burden to go into everything except for our profession. We seem to have intruded into every field, especially politics. I am an Armenian citizen, and I am concerned about my Homeland; I cannot help being concerned. When one gets concerned, people tell him/her not to get involved in politics. What politics? I can simply see how bad the situation in my homeland is, and I cannot remain silent…

– Do you believe in about-to-happen peace?

– There can be no peace when you throw yourself into an even deeper hole without having solved the outstanding problems. Most importantly, in the case of such neighbors, when the mindsets and cultures are so vastly different, the establishment of peace is impossible. You are constantly being brought to your knees, constantly being subjected to genocide, and you inexplicably want to forget it all; there can be no peace.

– Well, it’s a well-known fact that when diplomats fail, war begins.

– We, cultural figures, and you, journalists, each try to do our job. Diplomacy is not our job, although sometimes I consider my profession to be a diplomatic one–it’s cultural diplomacy, which plays a significant role. But our job is to serve our homeland with our work.

– Why doesn’t true Armenian culture have widespread recognition in our country? Our songs are rarely sung, and our architecture is not well-known. Only a narrow stratum of society is familiar with them.

– Why did Komitas collect all those songs? So that they would be forgotten? No, they should belong to the people, but the question is how they should be presented.

– How should we take the path of victories and get out of this cycle of defeats?  

– When I talk about the spiritual, it’s not limited only to religious frameworks. We—even with this small territory—have reached these times; this means that there is a mission that we have not yet carried out. We are constantly being punished; we’ve reached this point; one day we must say, “My God, I want to be faithful to You…”

Interview by Lena Gevorgyan