I would like Armenia to become a country of masters, when being a master is the highest honour

American writer and journalist Nina Burleigh spoke with President Armen Sarkissian within the framework of Kemurjyan-100 Conference, dedicated to the 100 years of the world-famous Armenian engineer Alexander Kemurjyan.

She asked President Sarkissian, in particular, about the contribution of Armenians to the world science, and the opportunities for Armenia's technological development, as well as the 6th STARMUS Science and Art Festival planned for Armenia next year. President Sarkissian also answered the questions of the conference participants.

Below, we present the main questions and answers.

Question: How do you see the Armenian inventions and engineers have contributed enormously to science in the world? You are a scientist, what in your view, is the most important scientific contribution that Armenians have given to the world?

President Armen Sarkissian: I do believe that the biggest and most important contributions to the world science and technologies will be made in the future.

Here (at the conference), I met young boys and girls; I saw their energy, enthusiasm and interest to do something to be involved in what is happening in the world in the 21st century. I think this nation has some advantages. It is not only the history. Armenians can be found everywhere, in every sphere. You are an American. There are two vaccines against the coronavirus in your country: Pfizer and Moderna. An Armenian professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created Moderna. Of course, this is a great contribution. A couple of days ago, another Lebanese-born Armenian received the Nobel Prize.

Armenians have done many important things, and one of them is Kemurjyan's contribution. We are a people whose most evaluated asset is man. Today's Armenia is a continuation of what we had before.

Unfortunately, the number of Armenians killed due to the Genocide was huge. We lost large numbers of talents and geniuses. Were it not for the Genocide, we might have more geniuses around the world contributing to art, music, technologies, and science.

The Genocide was the reason for the expansion of the Armenian Diaspora. At present, Armenia is a small state, but a global nation. And the most evaluated asset we have is people. The question is, do we manage that resource properly? My answer is no, we do not manage it well.

There are several reasons, one of which is the Constitution. It does not allow Armenians living abroad to come to Armenia and serve the country. According to the Constitution, he must return, live only in Armenia for the last four years, have only an Armenian passport, which is an absolute nonsense in the 21st century. That is why, I am speaking now, insisting that we should change the Constitution. The moment we open our doors and start using our greatest resource, we will see the real prosperity of the Armenian people all over the world.

We do not use our main resource: people. We must do everything to establish relations between the state of Armenia and the network of Armenians living worldwide to work much more effectively.

The short answer to your question is the following: I expect our young boys and girls to make enormous contributions to science and technology in the future.

Question: The tech industry in Armenia is very vibrant. Can you point out any current or upcoming developments in the tech industry that might be useful in space exploration?

President Armen Sarkissian: I, both, agree and disagree with you on the tech industry. In Armenia, we really believe that we have a high level of IT sector, which, I think, should be formulated differently. We have great potential to have a large IT industry, but we do not have it yet. We have a lot to do to make sure we have a vibrant IT industry. Everyone has work to do here, including the government.

As President, I have some initiatives, one of which is the Armenian Summit of Minds, which brings people together in a place like Davos, to discuss geopolitics, the 21st century, the future, and new technologies. Net week, the third Summit will be held in Dilijan.

We also have the ATOM (Advanced Tomorrow) Initiative. I think we have many talents who need support. The aim of this initiative is to bring large enterprises and manufacturers to Armenia, to create joint ventures with companies such as Google, IBM, Dassault, Thales, Siemens, Munich, Moscow State Universities, etc. Such large organizations will always need young scientists, startups, and the presence of such companies will stimulate the development of our education system.

There must be an area that will encourage the younger generation. This is difficult, of course, but we have no alternative. The future of our country is in the 21st century; it means that we must have absolutely modern biotechnologies, artificial intelligence, and we must develop modern agriculture. Young people need to understand that living in a village, they can live the life of a modern person, and comprise part of the world.

I think that whatever we do in Armenia should be based on high technologies.

Question: Next year, STARMUS 6 is coming to Armenia. Can you tell what it means to Armenia, and what it is?

President Armen Sarkissian: STARMUS 6 is a great achievement. The idea is certainly great, but the idea is only one percent of success. 99% is dedication, energy, work, the ability to engage other people, and to share ideas.

I am glad that during STARMUS 5 in Zurich, I invited this festival to Armenia, and they accepted it.

I want STARMUS 6 to become a new level STARMUS. STARMUS has always been about science, especially astronomy and music, especially rock music. But I want STARMUS 6 to be the start of a new era for STARMUS, as we talk on science in a broader sense. In other words, I want STARMUS 6 to encourage not only astronomy, but also science in a broader sense. Next year, our discussions will be on artificial intelligence, biotechnology and other topics.

STARMUS 6 will also be a music festival, not only of rock, but also of modern and classical music. This was my vision, which I talked about with Garik Israelyan. It will be a big international festival, I will be happy if thousands of visitors come to Armenia and participate in this big festival of science and art.

Question: As the only president in the world who dreams of flying into space, what do you think are the prospects for space tourism?

President Armen Sarkissian : Before becoming president, I seriously considered becoming a space tourist. I still have the dream. When I was in Chamonix, at the French Summit of Minds, another space company approached me, and now, I have three offers.

When I was a small child, I saw the positive energy and the joy of the people of Armenia when Gagarin flew into space. After that day, a virus spread inside me, saying that I was part of the universe. Maybe that was one of the reasons I became a physicist.

Very soon, in a few years, most young people will fly into space, flying in space will be the same as a flight on an airplane today. I am happy that there is a generation now that will have that great opportunity. This is also important to understand that this planet is a small space, that we must take care of each other, and that we cannot allow things that are beyond our comprehension. We must understand that this planet is too small to show irresponsible behaviour, and not to think about future generations, clean water and air.

Question: You spoke about the advantages and priorities of the IT sphere in Armenia. Do you think there are gaps in the education system that prevent Armenian scientists from working and creating? What can we do to change it so that we have a better education system and more scientists?

President Armen Sarkissian - I think we should start with the vision. We need to find the answer to whether we really want to make Armenia a country of high technologies. We must seriously consider that new technologies are paving the way for progress. The moment we realize this, we will have a vision.

When you start moving forward, you must remember that the world is very fast, and it is constantly changing. We need to understand exactly where we are and where we want to be in 2045 or 2050. To shape all this, you need to understand what the world will be like in the future. We must think about what the world will be like in ten years, what the world market will be like, what I will sell there to make money. It is important to have a vision that we will all believe in. We should all have the same goal, vision and program, in which everyone should be involved.

If we want to make Armenia a country we all like to see in ten years, we must not only make our society healthy, but also instill respect for success, we must make the whole environment competitive for young people; any success must be celebrated, the society must show its respect and esteem for it. When Academician Hambardzumyan was walking down the street, everyone looked at him with respect. There is a good word in our vocabulary: master. We have had many masters.

I would like Armenia to become a country of masters, when being a master is the highest honour.

We must have the best education, we must study the educational systems of others, and create a system that is the best of all.

Question: Don't you think that we should first think about the problems in the world, the wars, the discrimination, and only then consider flying to Mars?

President Armen Sarkissian: Let us go back 100 years. At that time, the world was a mess again, there were questions about poverty, but research received funding. At that time, the question arose as to why scientists and physicists received so much money to discover atoms when so many people were hungry. Those scientists discovered quantum physics, which was used in the US-Soviet Union competition. What we have today, from microphones to telephones, was created by quantum physics. And if we had not contributed to that area, we would not have reached anywhere. Were it not for computers, many people would not have jobs in quantum physics.

Thus, investing in science and flying to the moon or space is not just for fun, it is a fundamental investment in science because you cannot fly to the moon without strengthening and developing technologies. By flying to the moon, you are investing in high technologies, you are investing in new technologies that create thousands, and millions of jobs. The language of the future is the language of science and technologies.

Question: What do you think the approach should be to attract more young students and scientists in the field of technology to unite our full potential? Young people often come up with innovations that others have not thought about. The combination of the old and the new frequently leads to better results. How do you think this should be done?

President Armen Sarkissian: I think we are on the correct track, you will be convinced of that if you talk to young people. Some time ago, I was in Vanadzor, met with schoolchildren and asked what they wanted to become. Some of them wanted to become diplomats and some wanted to become programmers. We need to encourage and explain that to have a better life, we need to think more broadly.

Second, it is important that everyone in our country, from the president, prime minister, and government should appreciate and respect those who are talented.

This conference was to honour Kemurjyan, to introduce who he was and to thank him. But this was needed to encourage young people to repeat what Kemurjyan had done, or to do more.

We should all have great respect for young people because, as I said at the beginning, I believe that the greatest achievements of my people will be tomorrow.