Vardan Oskanyan: “Destruction of a nation’s heredity is equivalent to ending its memory”

“We aren’t the only ones who have stood on this stage and said that the destruction of a nation’s heredity is the same as ending its memory, its history, its individuality. Unfortunately, we have neighbors who base their individuality on history not so correct. And we see from that their trauma and instability,” Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan said at the recent session of UNESCO in Paris.

In his words, as borders in the region often change, movements of people naturally follow. Preserving the ancient Armenian monuments and churches is every important for historians and artists, but still more important for the world, who needs to remember its history, and needs to remember the heredity of those nations who have come and left the pages of history.

The foreign ministry’s press department informed that the minister said that Armenia is a country that is proud of its education and science, as well as its ancient history, but now finds itself in an active era of reforms. He notes that this second generation of reforms is difficult, perhaps the most difficult to bring to realization.

In Oskanyan’s words, diplomats, artists, and representatives from culture benefit from dialogue, and perhaps it is because of this that they feel obligated to look in other direction than tradition to find themselves a peaceful life.

“Diplomats and those working in culture, like different groups in society, live as neighbors who are not subject to these change and reforms, as memories can’t be put to rest, as experience shows. For this reason people try to tear down blockades from the past, as they thing that there needs to be dialogue between countries and cultures,” Oskanyan said.