Composer Ara Gevorgyan on his composition ‘Artsakh’s illegal use by Azerbaijanis

Honored Artist of the Republic of Armenia, Ara Gevorgyan, who has created the well-known and loved by many composition ‘Artsakh,’ could not have imagined that some day the Azerbaijanis would ignore his copyright and use the melody in videos demonstrating Azerbaijani army’s everyday life, Armenian news agency Araratnews.am writes, referring to the recent use of the composition ‘Artsakh’ in a propaganda video of the Azerbaijani army.

The struggle over the composition has been on for already 7 years. Polad Byul-Byul-ogly, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia, in an attempt to sue the composer 7 years ago, learnt the truth and apologized to the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, Hasmik Poghosyan. The topic seemed to be closed. However, new facts about the illegal use of Ara Gevorgyan’s composition ‘Artsakh’ were eventually reported with Azerbaijanis claiming obscure grounds to have rights over the work.

Gevorgyan once again reminded that ‘Artsakh’ had first been played in 1999 being one of the compositions presented in his album ‘Ani.’ Before that, in 1998, the copyright over all the works in the album, including ‘Artsakh,’ were set in the Library of the US Congress, and all the documents are published on the composer’s official website www.aragevorgyan.net.

Gevorgyan says he is going to send 4 letters to Azerbaijan in the near future and he has already agreed with Aram Satyan, the chairman of the Union of Composers of Armenia, over filing the necessary facts.

“One of the letters will be addressed to the President, the second – to the Minister of Culture, the third – to the Union of Composers, and the fourth one – to their KVN ("Club of the Funny and Inventive" Russian humor competition - editor’s note) team which uses the record of the composition right from my disc. Me and Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra are playing on the record, Jivan Gasparyan is performing the part with duduk, and Norayr Sharoyan is performing the part with dhol,” the composer stressed.

In 2002, Aleksander Abt, the Russian figure skater, performing in the programme of men’s single skating, represented Russia in winter Olympics of Salt Lake City with the composition Artsakh. During his performance he declared that he was dancing to Ara Gevorgyan’s music. Further, 4 years later, a Georgian figure skater also danced to this music during Olympics in Turin stating Ara Gevorgyan as the author. Remarkably, even the Azerbaijani gymnast Dinara Gimatova has performed to this composition, and the name of the Armenian composer was mentioned in the programme.

According to Gevorgyan, a mistake happened during the programme of the Channel One Russia, ‘Ice Age,’ in 2007 when one of the couples performed with medley. It included excerpts from Azerbaijani composition and Ara Gevorgyan’s ‘Artsakh.’ Hearing the excerpt of the Azerbaijani music and the statement at the end of the performance about the couple having danced an Armenian dance to an Armenian music, the Azerbaijani spectators of the programme turned to the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia, Polad Byul-Byul-ogly. He held a press conference and threatened Ara Gevorgyan with court for ‘appropriation of Azerbaijani music.’ However, the Armenian composer filed all the evidence and turned to the Armenian Embassy in Russia which later informed that the Azerbaijani ambassador, learning the truth, had orally apologized.

Apparently, also due to the lack of official statements by the Azerbaijani side regarding the case, the Armenian composer’s work is going on to be actively used in that country being called Azerbaijani music.