“In all countries revolutions are carried out by young people. You should be aware of the problems and challenges your country is facing and offer your solutions,” Deputy Speaker
of the Armenian National Assembly, Eduard Sharmazanov, said at the Philological Faculty of Armenian State Pedagogical University. “Not only the future of the country, but also its present are in the hands of the youth. We should enter into dialogue with you, listen to you and learn from you. The statesman who ignores the youth and does not want to hear their voice, will appear in the Barrel of Diogenes,” he continued.
During his meeting with the Faculty students, Mr Sharmazanov attached importance to the dialogue with the youth, in particular with the students of the University he graduated from.
In his the lecture entitled “The internal and external challenges of Armenia,” the NA deputy speaker stressed the importance of surmounting the crisis in the country's security and system of values.
He noted with regret that sometimes we attempt to compare Armenia with countries that do not have security-related problems. Eduard Sharmazanov is convinced that before taking a decision each of us must think about the country's security. In this context, Israel is the only country to take lessons from where democracy did not develop at the expense of national and state security.
“Our core objectives should be ensuring border security, protection and development of our nation and strengthening of Armenia. Many perceive patriotism as an abstract concept, but each one of us must realize that the greatest happiness is to live in a country where the Armenian Tricolour (the national flag consisting of three horizontal bands of equal width, red on the top, blue in the middle, and orange on the bottom) is fluttering,” he said.
Referring to the recently observed attempts to distort the system of values and disagreeing with the opinion that traditional and modern are not compatible, the NA deputy speaker cited Garegin Nzhdeh’s words that an Armenian statesman should have one of his hands placed on the nation's moral code, and the other in the West in order to master the achievements in education and science.
Mr Sharmazanov notes that low values are imported to Armenia under the guise of high values, which aim to cut generations from their roots but history has proved that we lost when we demonstrated consumer’s thinking, putting spiritual and national values in the second place.
“The 21st century is an open and public era, a period of globalization and information flow: wars are virtual rather than real, they have moved from the military sphere to the ideological field,” he said.
The NA deputy speaker believes that problems often arise because of unawareness and stresses the role of the Internet in this regard, which, he says, can become a virtual platform for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
The meeting was attended by heads of Faculty chairs, lecturers and students who asked the guest numerous questions.
