National Assembly MPs Sisak Gabrielyan, Taguhi Ghazaryan, and Alen Simonyan have presented a new draft law on making amendments and additions to the “Law on the National Anthem of the Republic of Armenia.”

The draft proposes that the anthem’s performance should be carried out exclusively in accordance with the version officially published by the state authority in charge of education.

If the draft is adopted, the anthem may be used in a shortened musical and textual version by Government decision in certain cases prescribed by law.

Iravaban.net has learned that the draft authors propose to remove the last quatrain from the anthem’s text, which is: “Death is the same everywhere, A person must die once, But blessed is the one who Will be sacrificed for their nation’s freedom.”

The MPs also propose to make the law mandatory in preschool educational institutions, preliminary vocational (craftsmanship) and secondary vocational educational institutions.

Note that under current legislation, the law is mandatory only in schools.

It is planned to perform the anthem also during award ceremonies at international official competitions and tournaments, national official sports events held in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

“Although the text and music of the anthem are defined in the appendix to the aforementioned law, during various international official sports, cultural and other events, the RA anthem is performed or played in different performances and recordings, therefore there is a need to clearly publish a unified recorded official version for cases defined by the said law.

At the same time, the RA anthem is played in a short version during various events (mainly sports, cultural) due to the specifics of these events and airtime. In these cases, there is also no unified approach and there is a need to develop a single unified standard. Therefore, the draft authorizes the RA Government to define a shortened version of the RA anthem in accordance with the text and music of the appendix to the aforementioned law.

It is also appropriate to make changes in the text of the RA anthem, rearrange it so that it ends with the following quatrain: ‘Look at it – three colors, One sacred symbol, Let it wave against the enemy, Let Armenia always be glorious,’ with corresponding logic and message,” states the justification.

Mariam Shahnazaryan