The first class municipal specialist of Arevatzag Gagik Shermazanyan who had been holding the position of head of art department for 30 years lost his job at the beginning of the new school year. The official reason of the dismissal was lack of funds, staff reduction.
The Culture House of Arevatzag was once one of the best in the country. It had various groups of interests. Discotheques conducted there every weekend were very popular not only in Arevatzag, but also in neighbor villages. The RA Ministry of Culture had studied this phenomenon and issued a booklet dedicated to it. In 1990s the roof of the building collapsed, thus making the work impossible. At last, thanks to the efforts of the governor and former village mayor, the roof of the building, the hall and greenhouse were repaired.
The art groups started working, the cultural events were renewed. However the Culture House is facing the second idle time due to the absence of a specialist. Gagik Shermazanyan says that the staff reduction was caused by his voting for the former village mayor at the last community municipal elections. A proposal was made to organize fund raising among villagers to pay him a salary for he could work as a head of a group. However, apparently, this was hardly feasible. It was suggested also to give the key of Culture House to the librarian who would open it for meetings and elections conducting.
Gagik Shermazanyan is the last of the Mohicans of the cultural field in Tumanyan region. He really cultivated love towards arts and beauty among children in spite of the former false ideological system, and he did it until his last working day. Despite the real reasons of dismissal one more of the last still functioning culture houses is facing closure.
