Folk musicians and others are talking about comedian/singer/etc. Ashot Ghazaryan’s recent show on National Television in which Armenia’s best known rabiz singers were featured, in this case singers who try to sing what’s known here simply as “Baku” or “Istanbul.” As one folk musician put it, “After seeing this program, I see one positive aspect in the opening of the border with Turkey. If good Turkish singers sang here, these miserable Armenian rabiz singers would hide their faces, and we’d never have to see or hear them again.”

Towards the end of the show (fortunately I turned it on too late to see the start of the program), Homenetmen youth from South America, in the country for olympic games, were invited to the stage to say a few words and meet Ghazaryan. Although I thought it would have been nice if these Homenetmen youth had refused to attend the show in the first place, being it featured Baku-Istanbul style singers (fine in Baku or Istanbul, but not in Yerevan), I was happy to hear the songs the Homenetmen youth chose to sang: “Yerevani Sirun Aghjik,” and the patriotic song “Getashen.” As a friend watching with us said, “Maladets,” Russian for “aprek,” or, simply, “Good for them.”