YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, NOYAN TAPAN. A proposal was presented to the Committee of Culture, Science and Education of the RA National Assembly, to officialy declare April 1 as a day of satire and humour in Armenia, on the initiative of Samvel Baghdasarian, satirist, humourist and parodist, and a group of intellectuals. As Samvel Baghdasarian informed at the February 9 press conference, today the proposal is in the RA Government and at the stage of discussion. He hopes that the Armenian legislative bodies will appreciate the necessity of satire and humour and will vote for that decision. According to writer Razmik Davoyan, who was present at the press conference, that genre of art couldn't be fully displayed in the Soviet years proceeding from the ideology of the social system. According to him, today the society very much needs this kind balsam, satire and humour. According to satirist Aramayis Sahakian, humour is the mirror of life. He mentioned that April 1 has been considered as a "day of cheating" for many years, and as today "all the days are days of cheating" then it must be declared as a day of laughter and humour. The intellectuals, who participated in the press conference, mentioned that new satiric works are needed in order to develop that genre in Armenia, which will differ from the known national comedies. According to R.Davoyan, "Paghdasar Akhpar", for example, is rather a tragedy, than a comedy, so only works with kind humour are necessary. S.Baghdasarian informed that the "Samvel K.Baghdasarian" company headed by him announced a competition of satiric and humorous monologues, small short stories of variety-stage genre on different subjects. The bids of participation will be accepted until March 20, and the results of the competition will be summarized on March 21-31. The company instituted three prizes (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and respectively monetary awards of 100 thousand, 75 thousand and 50 thousand drams (respectively 220, 160 and 110 USD), as well as 5 encouraging prizes of 25 thousand drams each. The prize distribution ceremony will be held on April 1 during the "Mekits-Mek" festive satirical parade.

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