President Armen Sarkissian proposes to look at the reality soberly and to overcome the difficulties together

President of the Republic Armen Sarkissian held a remote meeting with representatives of a number of cultural, educational, and public youth organizations of Shirak region and the city of Gyumri and answered their questions.

The questions, particularly, referred to the vision of Armenia's development after the war, the steps to make the country powerful, as well as the role of education and reforms of the sphere, and the preservation of national and historical-cultural heritage.

“We cannot forget the great human tragedy,” said President Sarkissian, referring to the devastating earthquake of 1988, “We are forced to look ahead, because we need to build our country, we need to rebuild Gyumri, Spitak, and Vanadzor. We have no other way but to get on our feet and move forward.”

Referring to the situation in the country, the President said that we are living in a period of crisis; moreover, we are talking about several crises, the first of which is the defeat in the war. The President pointed out the demographic crisis as well, emphasizing, in particular, that over the past twenty-six years, Artsakh should have had at least three or four times more inhabitants. “We also lost the information war; if you follow the international public opinion, you will notice that, unfortunately, our adversaries and enemies have worked much better,” said the President. “This is the result of our failure to work. The information war continues today as well. We have lost the war of information and public opinion, even in the countries that are very important and friendly to us, first of all in Russia, also in Europe and the United States. Instead of participating in that information war all together, and trying to reduce our losses, we are busy criticizing each other, pouring dirt on each other, and swearing each other on a national scale in Armenia. We continue to deal with it, after these immense difficulties and this great misfortune, after the loss of thousands of lives.”

The President also spoke about the economic crisis, which, in addition to the war, had been already caused by the coronavirus, thus giving rise to the health crisis. “We have a great humanitarian crisis. Thousands of our compatriots came to Armenia from Artsakh. People have no home, no place to live, no income, and it is already winter and cold,” said President Sarkissian, “We have a moral-psychological crisis. If you do not work every day, and pretend that you do, then returning to a normal life will take as long as restoring Gyumri. Thirty-two years after the earthquake, there are still demolished houses, there are people who live in ‘tiny’ houses. In these difficult times, we must all join hands together, not swear at each other. We must realize that there is no such man, personality or party that can get us out of this situation. We can overcome this situation if we are all together. If we are to sit and wait for someone to save us, in this case, indeed, may God protect us.

We should all be together, trying to understand that being tactful, loving or tolerant of each other is not an ordinary etiquette. It is an absolute necessity in the conditions of our country because we are all in great difficulty. We should not talk about the individual, but we should do everything to follow the program, a program to which each of you or the majority will agree. In our country, there is no culture for the political leadership to present a program, not a wish list. Now we have come to the same crossroads. If there is to be a change of government, it must be planned; if not, the government must present a plan. That is, we must follow the idea, the thought, and the clear-cut plan of where we are going.

That program is not born from the air, it is the duty of statesmen to present that program. I have prepared a certain roadmap, which I will try to put up for a discussion and then present to the public. According to the Constitution, this is not my job, but when there are no such programs, you cannot sit idly by.”

According to the President, if people have a strong system of self-defense, they overcome difficulties and get out of them stronger and more protected. “Misfortune is one of the ways to get stronger and protected,” said the President, “I am saying this so that you too believe that when we go through this misfortune and difficulty, we have the opportunity to get out stronger.”

“There are many steps to be made. One of them is to stop lying, to stop accepting the unreal instead of the real. Often, they are just simple lies that exist in society; they spread, and they are fake. It is simply immoral to lie and make people believe things that look like real, but do not exist in reality; this is one of the most painful aspects of our society. Of course, new technologies are very important: today you cannot live without the Internet and communication. However, there is the opposite side of it, when the same technologies are used for evil: to sow hatred, contempt for each other, swearing, etc. If in virtual life, you allow yourself to swear and to be aggressive, the same will reflect in your ordinary life one day. There is another face of lies, which is about our desires and dreams. We must try not to confuse our dreams and desires with reality.

What happened from 1994 to 2020? The following happened: the wine of victory intoxicated us, and we began to believe that if in 1994 we had the most powerful army in the region, it would last forever. We should have done our best to make our army outmarch our adversary 1-1.5 years, but we did not. We came in 2020, and reached from the army to volunteers. What can a volunteer with a gun do in the 21st century against a drone? Meanwhile, we not only had to have drones, but also drones with artificial intelligence, which would not work with the help of an operator, but independently navigate.

If we try not to talk about it now, try to cover it up, say that we have the best science in the world, and start deceiving ourselves, we will have worse days. We need to reappraise our main issues and values. We have to look at the army and see what we have; no matter how bad it is, we must be honest and rise to our feet from that bad place again. In 1991, we did not have an army, but we organized it through daily professional work. It's the same now.”

The President of the Republic emphasized that without science there will be no defense tomorrow. “Future wars will be wars of scientists,” said President Sarkissian, “Education is becoming one of today's priorities. It has always been, but today, moreover, because tomorrow's war is not a war with guns and cannons.” Can we expect everything to start at school? Answering this question asked by a participant, the President said: “If you want to establish a strong state, you must have a strong system of education. The education system should start at an early age, the preparatory school. If we have reformed the education system for thirty years, then today we should have one of the best education systems in the world. Are we going to make reforms for another thirty years not to reach the place again? Let us not reform, let us just change. Perhaps, very often the said reform does more harm than good.”

In that context, referring to the powers of the President under the conditions of the parliamentary system, Armen Sarkissian particularly noted that he is not an executive president. He does not have the powers that the previous presidents had; he cannot, say, give instructions to the Minister of Education, except for advice. “There are no mechanisms of balance and restraint in the current parliamentary system. Today, the President of the Republic has almost no leverage so that if the Government or the National Assembly adopt wrong decisions, he could stop them.”

The President of the Republic once again emphasized that we, the Armenians, are the greatest wealth, but do we allow the Armenians to achieve success? “No! Why do we not use that wealth: the man? We are a small country with a population of three million, and three or four times more Armenians live abroad. I am sure each of you has several relatives and friends abroad. This is an untapped potential. “There are fantastic people among them,” he said, “Now we are talking about the coronavirus.” There are several solutions in the world: vaccines presented by German, American, Chinese, Russian, British and French companies. There are also the two largest American companies: Moderna and Pfizer. The chairman of the board of “Moderna” is Noubar Afeyan. Can he become the Minister of Education and Science of Armenia if he wishes? No, we have a Constitution that says that Noubar Afeyan cannot be a Minister in this country, because he is a US citizen, he must have lived in this country for four years, and give up his American passport... We have to change a lot. It is time to wake up. We need to look into the eyes of the truth and to live a true life.”

In his online talk with the people of Shirak, President Sarkissian informed them that he has a program related to Gyumri. “I applied to the Government to provide the area in front of “Mother Armenia” to build a park - Merkulov and Gurdjieff Centre, which was supposed to be a research and social centre,” said the President, “That centre was to become a research centre, also a centre for social sciences, religion and public diplomacy, in general. Two days ago, the Government informed me that the land would be given to someone else for commercial purposes...

All the same, I will do that program, if not there, then in the adjacent area. I think I will see supporters and like-minded people among you to do it together. Gurdjieff and Merkulov Institutes will be in Gyumri. We will build it with you. Gurdjieff and Merkulov are the symbols of Gyumri, they are a symbol of the immense potential that we have. You, the people of Gyumri, are artists and scientists, and are such philosophers that you are able to find humour even in adversity.