Remembering Silva Kapuyikyan.

    "Today, January 20, is the birthday (101st anniversary) of National poet of Armenia, I involuntarily recalled, although I will never forget our meetings with Silva Kaputikyan," the Director of the Educational Complex, Ashot Alikhanyan, opens the chain of stories.
    "The Lyceum's 10th anniversary was approaching, and on this occasion we had established our highest award, the Lyceum Medal for "Impeccable Services", which would be awarded not only for rendering invaluable services to the Lyceum, but also in the field of education, science, art, literature and culture, in social and political life, as well as those people who are distinguished by charity and who have a significant contribution to the education and upbringing of the young generation.
It was decided at the Lyceum council that the first person to be awarded the medal should be one of the outstanding intellectuals of our nation. There were many worthy ones, but as a result of the discussion, it was confirmed. National poet of Armenia Silva Kaputikyan.
    The poetess had to be invited to the Lyceum. The invitation was organized by Garik Ghazaryan, head of the Lyceum's theatre studio, known actor and TV journalist, who was close to the poetess. The guest of honour accepted the invitation with love.
    The evening passed in the traditional manner typical of the Lyceum, without any formalities, especially since Silva Kaputikyan was not like that either.
As usual, her life and works were presented at the beginning, which was taken over by one of our Armenian language teachers, Manana Oshkhereli (who, unfortunately, passed away very early). She presented brilliantly, without any prompts, almost as the poetess herself speaks (well, few can surpass her in the art of speech, - A.A.), and ended the speech with a recitation.
    I was sitting next to our guest, and when our eyes crossed, it was noticeable how excited and awed he was listening. When the speech was over, Mrs Silva inquired who that wonderful girl was, asked her name, she answered, Manana. It's a Georgian name, she said if she was Georgian. She was a surprised.
    Until then, we did not pay such attention to nationality; the Lyceum has always been an international institution. And she was surprised how a Georgian woman could understand our poem, our language, our soul like this. She was more excited at that fact. Then she gave a speech, a speech instructive for all of us, which seemed instantaneous. And then only when we looked at the filmed version, we realized that it was quite long, and at that moment in the hall we were all very excited and applauded the great master for a long time.
    Then we presented our surprise - the Lyceum's greatest award, which was also very unexpected for her (for person who had many medals - A.A.). The medal should have been accompanied by a certificate, but since it was the first awardee, and the printed version had not yet reached us, we apologized and asked to hand it over later.
    Some time passed, and one day Silva Kaputikyan herself called me, jokingly asking during the conversation, "Maybe you forgot about the certificate?" "I said no, we have already prepared it, but we want to visit her on her anniversary to congratulate her and hand over the certificate at the same time."
    There were so many people who wanted to go, but we understood that we all couldn't go. It was me, Arpine Papazyn and Garik Ghazaryan were the participants of that meeting. As it was very important event, we asked our TV operator Garegin Torosyan to join us to record that historical event. Mrs. Silva welcomed us very warmly. That time seemed to us quite long and at the same time short, we talked for a long time, took photos.
    I asked her to retell an episode she had presented on the radio in the 90s when the nuclear power plant was shut down. My father heard Kaputikyan's speech and told me. The story was like this... Anton Kochinyan, the first secretary of the Central Committee, Andranik Petrosyants, the chairman of the USSR Atomic Energy Committee, and others were invited to the summer house of Nikolay Yenikalopov, a Soviet-Armenian scientist. Those were the times of creating nuclear power plants and choosing their locations in the Soviet Union. Being patriotic people, Petrosyants together with Kochinyan did everything to build the first nuclear power plant for Transcaucasia in Armenia. During the meeting, Yenikalopov tells Kochinyan that he is against the decision to allow the construction of a nuclear power plant in Armenia, taking into account its location, earthquake zone and proximity to the border, to which Kochinyan gives a fantastic answer for those days. "Of course you are right, Armenia is a small republic, it is in a seismic zone, Metsamor is close to the border, but you forget the most important thing, and if one day Armenia becomes independent, doesn't it have another energy source?"
    Yenikalopov was also shocked by the foresight and answer of Kochinyan, only a true statesman, how a pro-state figure could think about independence in the 60s... and this story was told by Kaputikyan, who also gave a speech in the 90s, when the nuclear power plant was closed, quoting the incident.
    It was also with that speech that the image of Kaputikyan stood out for me not only as a writer-poet, but also as a real intellectual citizen and powerful leader.
    We left his house with unforgettable memories that day. Years passed... One day in 2004, Mrs. Silva called me again, her voice was kind of strange, she asked me to send the operator Garik to her, I wondered what happened. I don't remember how he defined it, but expressing her very sharply and harshly to then President Robert Kocharyan, he said, "I have to hand over the Order of Saint Mesrop Mashtots, which I received from him." Garik was not in town, I called to say that he will not be able to come, maybe we can find someone else, he said. "It's okay, dear Ashot, I've already thought about it." He was convinced that such a gift can only be received from clean hands. It may be controversial for many, but it was Silva Kaputikyan's decision. And I'm gradually beginning to understand that it was the right decision, especially now.
    The last meeting with the poet took place on the day of her death. When we went with my friend Masis Baghdasaryan in the evening, I thought that there would be no place to stand in the yard or in the house, but it turned out not to be so, because the poet had already become an "exile". After returning the medal, people knew that they were already ignoring him at the top, and many also did not come because of fear. 15-20 people were standing in the yard, one lantern illuminated the small yard, only two wreaths were placed.
    When we were already at home, another unfortunate incident happened, fireworks went off just a few meters away, and the neighbors told how they laughed and called things out when they went to warn about the death of the poetess and asked them not to have fireworks.
The next day was the civil funeral in the Opera building, not many people came yet, and as it was customary and happened during the death of many elders, when leaving the Opera building, the procession did not move along Mashtots Avenue, but along Abovyan Street, where even the cars did not stop. And President Kocharyan didn't come either.
    It was surprising, but all this once again proved that Kaputikyan was right. all the same, she was awarded, awarded the highest title - the title of National poet of Armenia and loved by the people," says Ashot Alikhanyan, the Director of Shirakatsy Lyceum, adding that such an image of an intellectual should be a benchmark for all our generations.