Edward Militonyan says he’ll promote reforms in Writers’ Union if elected president

In an interview with Tert.am, Edward Militonyan, the Armenian writer and publicist who has nominated his candidacy for the Writers’ Union president, shares outlook of future reforms in case of being elected. He also addresses the generation gap between the younger and older writers and the measures he thinks the Union’s president has to take or avoid taking when seeing indifference to social and political processes by the intellectual circles.

Mr Militonyan, when the rumors about candidates for the Writers’ Union president just began flaring up, you said you weren’t going to nominate yourself.

I haven’t made a statement of the kind. I said only that I would think.

Well, and you did.

Thinking is not enough. I have been a secretary here for nine years and we have an objective to continue the joint work we have done with [late President of the Union] Levon Ananyan and the other secretaries. And why not, to also expand and preserve what is good.

It was widely discussed that the young writers wished to a candidate of their own and that a major contender for the older generation would be one of them. But that didn’t happen …

That’s absolutely untrue. The younger [writers] have talked that over. We have talked to them and worked together. That’s not something new; we have worked and will work with the younger [generatio].

So, you are not a self-nominee.

I have been nominated by a team of writers whose names will be partially published in Grakan Tert [the Literary Newspaper, the Union’s official publication].

You, and the other two candidates, Hovik Hoveyan and David Sargsyan, are representatives of the same generation.

We do not represent the same generation. They are a little younger, but I do consider all my peers, be it though with a slight difference.

What chances do you think your rivals have?

I do not think anything at all. They all are my friends who wish to run [in the election]. I do not consider it a sporting competition; it is for the [writers’] congress to decide things.

Your vision of reforms in a nutshell. What are you planning to do with the platform you are going to unveil?

The platform, with its keynote provisions, will be published tomorrow. We have many unresolved problems that have to do with writers’ creative potential and their social situation. So we must try, in the course of time, to resolve those problems, as well as continue doing the other good things that have been done.

What solution do you see to writers’ social problems?

The social aspect is a complicated one, as it ranges from apartment building to living standards and employment. There are keynote provisions addressing all those issues, and that will be realized in the course of time if the congress elects me.

An issue traditionally discussed from one election to another is whether the Writers’ Union president has to be a person with a good creative talent or someone who is a good organizer.

I do not distinguish the two from one another. Neither is there a law saying the two have to be together. But one person can embody both. And we have had such presidents – Levon Ananyan, Vareges Petrosyan, Avetik Isahakyan, Edward Topchyan, Hrachyan Hovhannisyan and Vahagn Davtyan. They were people who did and had chances to do good work. Hence, to say that the [president] must be only a good organizer or just a person with a good talent is not right.