We Can No Longer Remain Silent: Open Letter to the Minister

The soloists of the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater have addressed an open letter to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Konstantin Orbelyan.

Dear Araik Harutyunyan, we can no longer remain silent, as the theater, the creative spirit, and us as artists are being buried in a swamp of fear and tension. The daily life of the theater has turned into a nightmarish performance that began when the court granted Konstantin Orbelyan's lawsuit.

Mr. Minister, we want to believe that your lack of response to the chaos currently prevailing at the Opera and Ballet Theater, managed by K. Orbelyan, is a result of ignorance rather than indifference, and that through this letter we will be able to shift the gaze of revolution towards the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.

We must note that this anti-cultural atmosphere began to intensify even more from the moment K. Orbelyan made the arbitrary and legally unfounded decision to appoint extraordinary attestation hearings (March 13-14, 2020), as, according to widely held views in the theater, the result of these attestation hearings will be a ceremony to reward those loyal to K. Orbelyan and supportive of his methodology.

We should also note that new positions are being created recently, the functions and legal procedures for their establishment are uncertain and deeply questionable.

Mr. Minister, striving to be as fair as possible, it must be stated that K. Orbelyan is not the only one to whom we owe blame for this situation; however, the fact that he manifests as a complete successor and rooter of all the flawed manifestations of the past is undeniable.

It is obvious that the timing for the attestation hearings has been cunningly chosen. Orbelyan selected this period to covertly implement his goals, as all of society's attention is focused on the upcoming referendum on April 5.

In conclusion, we ask you to consider that we have resorted to this anonymous means of reaching out due to the oppressive control mechanisms imposed through Gestapo-like practices.

Sincerely, a group of soloists from the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.