"Victim complex limits person like serious illness"

Armenian people should not make the victim complex the basis of national identity, the artistic director and chief conductor of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, President of the Moscow International House of Music Vladimir Spivakov urged, commenting on the participation of Russian singer of Armenian origin Anna Aglatova in the first Turkish Russian Classical Music Festival in Antalya.

"We must not forget about the tragedy that happened more than a hundred years ago, and especially justify it, but it seems to me that living with the 'victim complex' all the time is like living with a serious illness that limits a person’s abilities," Vladimir Spivakov stressed.

The famous musician added that, saying this, he is not afraid of the wrath of the Armenians, nor of the conviction of his wife Sati Spivakova. "My conscience is clear - I am always with the people of Armenia - in sadness and sorrow. To this day. You see, I perform Georgian music, I perform Armenian music, I opened the Turkish-Russian festival with Turkish music. Art should be free. Maybe this is the only free territory in the modern world now," he explained.

The presenter of the intellectual TV programme for university entrants 'Geniuses and Wits' and the head of the Pan-Russian Intellectual Movement, Yuri Vyazemsky, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, agreed with Vyazemsky that it is necessary to get rid of complexes in preserving the historical memory. "When it comes to such nations as Jewish, to which Spivakov belongs, and Armenian, about which he speaks, this pain does not go away. But the complex is a painful phenomenon, and I agree with Spivakov, who is an absolutely wonderful musician, if there is a complex, it should be eliminated," he said.

"A complex is a disease, a psychological phenomenon. For example, I have never noticed a victim complex among Armenians I know," Yury Vyazemsky noted.

"As a rule, good music goes beyond the boundaries, it becomes international, although it relies on national melodies. I think that music is just what treats complexes. I think that Spivakov is capable of doing it with his therapeutic music effect. Art unites people therefore, it has no borders," the TV presenter emphasized.

Director of the Multimedia Art Museum Olga Sviblova, in turn, compared the Turkish-Armenian situation with the Russia-German relations. "Vladimir Spivakov is right in a sense that Russia and Germany have normal relations, they do not remember the tragedy every day," she noted.

"Of course, everything is more complicated, only calls that all people should live in peace cannot overcome this. These are deep, difficult to explain complexes, not individual, but historical, which affect many people. We must understand that these are phantom pains and phantom pains are very difficult to heal, so it should be treated with care and understanding," Olga Sviblova said.