On the 20th anniversary of the RA Armed Forces and on the May three-holidays the ASPU Faculty of History and Law, in cooperation with the Student Council, arranged an
intercollegiate students’ conference headed “The 20th Anniversary of the Armenian Army (on the crossroads of history)”.
The Vice Chancellor of Science and Postgraduate Education, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor Ara Yeremyan greeted those present and said, «We long dreamt of having an independent state and private stable army. The formation of the Armenian army is connected with such occurrences in the period of creation of the Armenian state, as the establishment of various formations of the Army despite the will of the state. Further on, it was the establishment of those formations that laid foundations for the creation of the RA efficient army which now preserves the RA territorial integrity and security».
Besides the University students, among the participants of the conference also were students from the Military Academy after Vazgen Sargsyan and from the European University.
During the conference reports on the following subjects were delivered: «Movses Silikyan and the Battle of Sardarapat», «The Battle of Avarayr», «Work of Garegin Njdeh during the World War II», «The 21st Century Armenian Army», «Peculiarities of the Armed Forces of the Kilikian Armenia», and «Turkish Characteristics in Armenian, Turkish and Other Nations' Proverbs».
Further on, the topics about the history of Armenian-Russian federative relations, the Shushi liberation, the formation of the Kilikian Armenian troops and the Bagratuny army were also discussed in the conference.
The Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Mher Karapetyan denies the decades on admitted false viewpoint that Armenians are only a nation of literature, pen and books. He is assured that Armenians are also a nation of weapon, of which the historiography of formation of the Armenian nation is bright evidence.
As a proof that the Armenian history started with armour and battles, the professor reminded those present about the Haik and Bell Armenian legend.
«The fight of an Armenian against the foreign invaders has never been of expansive nature; they were more self-defense fights», says Mher Karapetyan and complaints that while speaking about the established Army of the first republic, Armenians forget about its prehistory. «There is no period in our century-old history, when the nation did not have army and did not fight a victory battle against its enemies. The 1916 re-formation of the voluntary regiments into infantry regiments is the brightest evidence of the above mentioned».
Afterwards, David Karapetyan, who studies at the Military Academy after Vazgen Sargsyan, introduced his report on the subject «Turkish Characteristics in Armenian, Turkish and Other Nation's Proverbs» at the conference. After thorough study of the historic and collective image of Turks, he tried to discover their nature. And today Davit, who traced back the historical holes, considers that the judgments of the pioneer of Armenian liberation war Raffi which say that Turks are impolite barbarians but that they will become much more outlaw and dangerous after getting educated, is still quite actual.
Moreover, the Dean of the Faculty of History and Law, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor Edick Gevorgyan also welcomed the conference undertaking and
expressed his hope that it will promote the sense of patriotism and develop the perception of civil dept among the students.
The historian also ensured that the collaboration between the Pedagogical University and the Ministry of Defense will be continuous and will strengthen the Armenian Army.
Additionally, the latter granted diplomas to all the reporters hoping that the reported subjects will appear in the collection in close future.
And more to the point, Hovsep Mkrtchyan, the Major of the second battalion of the N military unit of the MD, who was also invited to the conference, expressed his acknowledgement to the Pedagogical University for the contribution to reinforcement of army-society and university- army relations.
