ArmInfo. Armenia's President Armen Sarkissian met with representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia. As the press service of the RA President told ArmInfo, at the beginning of the meeting Sarkissian announced that he expects...
ArmInfo. Armenia's President Armen Sarkissian met with representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia.
As the press service of the RA President told ArmInfo, at the
beginning of the meeting Sarkissian announced that he expects to hold
an open conversation in an informal form. At the same time, he
expressed concern about the lack of public discussions with the
participation of the intelligentsia in the recent period, a
superficial approach to a number of problems in society, the lack of
deep analysis of the situation, and a more emotional approach to
pressing issues.
The President of Armenia discerned in all this a syndrome of
superficial discussion of everything, which is very painful, or in
other words "headline syndrome".
He also mentioned that there is another factor in Armenia that
worries him, it is connected with pretense, when we make pretense
that we have a lot things, for example, a developed sector of
information technologies, although in reality everything is
different, since having talented people in this industry is one
thing, and a developed IT sector is completely different. Sarkissian
stated that today about 20 thousand people are employed in this area,
while only 5-6 thousand are engaged in programming. Therefore,
according to him, talks about the possession of a developed IT sector
are just an imitation.
The President of Armenia also spoke about the Hay Park project, which
is planned to be implemented on the territory adjacent to the
Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex and which, according to the
President, will become a kind of symbol of the unity of the Armenian
people.
The meeting participants also touched upon the issue of the Armenian
language, pointing out the importance of showing the state's
attention to the language and respectful attitude, while maintaining
the purity of the language, literate speech and writing.
Intellectuals expressed their concern about the change in educational
criteria, pointing to the importance of education, national image and
national values. Sarkissian said that education is one of the main
drivers of development of any country, especially Armenia, where the
education system is one of the most sensitive parts of the country's
social life.
"It is not so easy to change a school textbook, methodology,
attitude. This process should go through a long-term public
discussion through public consent. National unity is not only an
army, not only culture, but also a textbook by which we teach a
child. If we do not have national unity, what can we teach our child,
then how can we reach agreement in the field of culture or the army,"
the President asked, adding that we need to be very attentive to
cultural and historical values, have a development strategy where the
key places will be occupied by education, culture and, of course,
health.