President Armen Sarkissian’s statement at the Cybertech Europe 2019 international conference: I am confident that the 21st century will be the era of the countries like Armenia

On September 24, in Rome President Armen Sarkissian participated at the largest in the world Cybertech Europe 2019 international conference on the cybersecurity related issues.

Before the opening of the conference, President Sarkissian watched the Cybertech Europe 2019 exhibitions which present the latest technological achievements of the leaders in this area, new challenges existing in the global cybersecurity area, and avenues to thwart them.

Cybertech is one of the leading world platforms dedicated to cybersecurity which is attended by over 5000 state figures and heads of businesses, from nearly 40 countries as well as representatives of the security, defense, healthcare, insurance and other fields, as well leading companies from all over the world. In his remarks, President Sarkissian first thanked the government of Italy, Leonardo company and its head Alessandro Profumo for the invitation. In his intervention titled “Armenia as an emerging regional hub on the issues of cybersecurity and an attractive venue for investments” President Sarkissian said in particular:

“I am a former professor of theoretical physics and relative astrophysics. However, the quantum nature of the global risks is not related to quantum physics or quantum programming. Living a life of a scholar, businessman and later of a political figure, I understood that we are living in a period of great historic changes. The world, we are living in today, is totally different from the world we were living 10,20, or 30 years ago. Changes, which took place during the last hundred years, have totally changed our lives. Indeed, the world has changed.

Each newborn child starts to discover the world, but children born after 2000s are discovering not one but two worlds. One of them is a material world in which we live. It is the classical world in which all our actions are of a classical nature. The laws of Newton’s physics work here. But, at the same time, we are living in a non-classical world which a child starts to explore and does it through iPad, iPhone which he sees from day one. One or two-year-old child is living in two worlds – one is classical, the other is digital, virtual…

One month ago, Roma football club signed a contract with Henrikh Mkhitarian who is the captain of Armenia’s national football team. By signing that contract, the club has gained millions of new supporters who will not only cheer at the Roma’s matches but will also wear its T-shirt, etc. Through that Armenia came closer to Italy and Roma football team. All this will develop further because now the most interesting hobby is not football or Game of Thrones but interactive computer games, which one can not only watch but also participate in. In the whole world, the two areas of human activities become closer and closer and meet at some point. I am talking of entertainment and politics. Politics, which have a great deal of entertainment, have a direct impact on the society. It is no accident that we see more and more political figures who use successfully the tools of social networks, bypass traditional political institutes, such as political parties, and become successful, appealing directly to the public…

Democracy, which is emerging today, is a modern, real democracy of our times. You can exercise your rights through social networks, every day. That’s why we witness how the classical democracy, which exists in parliaments and organizations, sometimes is conflicting with the modern democracy which is manifested daily on Facebook. We live in a totally new world. But we shouldn’t be afraid of it.

Why cybersecurity is important? Cybersecurity is important because so much money has been invested in the form of research in the fight for information through the digital tools. In fact, all this talent and knowledge will be necessary to protect tomorrow social public because of cyberthreats of our times such as “fake” news. These are hackers’ attacks on the truth.

The real values of cybersecurity are secrecy, integration, and availability. This should be used also in our social life. From here we see that we live in two worlds – one is a classical, real world, the other is non-classical, quantum world in which our movements reach the speed of light. Gradually, we will be living more and more in a virtual world. Risks of the virtual world will have a direct impact on the material life. Thus, welcome to the 21st century. Welcome to a complicated life which will gradually become more and more digitalized. Digital speeds up risks, changes their nature. In my future book, which is titled “The Quantum Nature of Global Risks” and which will be published soon, I am trying to explain how global risks become quantum. To understand how we will live in the new world, we need to try to understand how human life manifests itself in a digital world. At the beginning of the 20th century the scholars were somewhat confused because they were discovering things, phenomena which were difficult to explain – the structure of the atom, elementary particles and their behavior and so on. All this was against the elementary logic. People were confused – what's going on, where are we heading to? The answer was simple: We need to understand and change ourselves. And what happened as a result was that we adapted to the new philosophy which was the philosophy of quantum physics. After that, everything became more clear and the risks of being not understood properly started to dissappear. Thus, to overcome risks, we need to get to their sources, their nature.”

In his remarks, President Sarkissian also said that we stand at the threshold of another revolution which will take place not only through scientific discoveries but also through the discovery of a new life which will be unconventional, it will be quantum. “Armenia is a classic example of a country of the 21st century,” President Sarkissian said.

“As the first Christians of the world, we have a rich history. We have always been a global nation. We had merchants engaged in trade in the early Middle Ages, traveling from China to Samarkand, Bukhara, and Manchester. I am proud that years ago, as the Ambassador to Vatican I was one of the organizers of the exhibition titled “Rome-Armenia: Republics 2000 year before.” I am confident that the 21st century will be the era of the countries like Armenia because natural resources will not be as important as in the past. There will be opportunities for innovation, adaptation, science, and technologies. We inherited and now have a high-level educational system for natural sciences – mathematics, physics, and others. Any revolution starts with kids, education. In Armenia you will see unique schools which we are exporting now to Paris, Berlin, and Moscow. That school is called TUMO. Besides, we have other schools called Aib, Quant, etc, and each of them provides a unique, innovative method of teaching kids. This is the basis of the future.

As the President of Armenia, I have my own initiative called ATOM (Advanced Tomorrow). Imagine a place where children can come and play and through it discover the laws of nature and acquire engineering qualities. A place where the young people can visit the Museum of Tomorrow. All this will be connected to science and technologies and not their history but the future. Here, one will be able to see major companies working with artificial intelligence, mathematical modeling, management of information, research in the area of cybersecurity. A platform where Armenian, American, Russia, French and other universities will conduct and coordinate their research. ATOM is a presidential initiative which is in the process of implementation. I invite you all to Armenia to become part of that project.

We have many achievements, including startups. The Seaside Startup is held in Armenia. In the framework of that project startups gather under one roof for a week, live together and communicate. From that point of view, I am confident that I am also president of a startup, and our startup is called Armenia. A young but ancient nation which has excellent qualities and knowhow, has ambitions to become big, just as any startup. I am proud to be the president of a startup, a country which strives to become one of the leaders of the world of the 21st century.

When my book is published, I will be happy to come and discuss it with you. At the same time, I would like to invite you all to Armenia, to invite Cybertech to Armenia. Cybertech should also be present in Eurasia, and Armenia is the center of Eurasia. We have very close relations with EU based on the Agreement, at the same time we are a member to the EAEU.

In Armenia, which is a truly European country and a European nation with excellent infrastructure, for instance, banks, and has ambitions to become a leading technological country, you will have a full support of the government and the president.
I hope that in coming years the Conference will come to Armenia; at the same time, I promise that next year, you will have Armenian participants here in the person of different organizations.”