During the official visit to Italy, the delegation headed by RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited San Lazzaro Island in Venice, the Mother Monastery of the Mekhitarist Congregation. According to Armenpress, the RA Prime Minister was welcomed by Venice Deputy Governor Federico Caner, RA Ambassador to the Holy See Karen Nazaryan, and RA Honorary Consul in the Venice province Gagik Sarukhanyan.
First, a narrow-format meeting was held with the pontifical delegates of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice, after which Nikol Pashinyan toured the Mother Monastery and then made an entry in the Congregation’s “Golden Book.”
“We have come to express our solidarity with the Mekhitarist Congregation affected by the flood, and I am glad that no irreparable damage has occurred. I also want to express the Armenian people’s appreciation to the Mekhitarist Congregation, which is one of the sources of our modern education, science and art. At a time when Armenian identity was endangered in the Homeland, the Mekhitarist Congregation became one of the temples of the preservation of our language, history and identity,” wrote Pashinyan.
Afterwards, the Prime Minister had an expanded-format meeting with the abbots and representatives of the local Armenian community.
Armenia and the Armenian people must not agree to be in the backwaters of world education and science. It is necessary to have competitive education and science, he said at the meeting.
“The role of the Mekhitarist Congregation is invaluable; it has a huge scientific heritage and has become a scientific temple. The basis of the programme formed by the political force I represent is the preservation and development of identity. I want to emphasise that, in essence, very often under shiny slogans we harm our identity and lose our perceptions about the future. I consider it the mission of our government that we know ourselves fully and appreciate our potential. I am convinced that there is still much material to research in the Mekhitarist Congregation. And they can be at the centre of attention of Armenian scientific circles,” said Pashinyan.
He noted that during working visits he mainly includes a meeting with the Armenian community in his meetings. He believes that Armenia will become stronger if it presents itself not only as a representative of RA citizens, but of the entire Armenian nation.
“Armenia is the state of the Armenian people. Every Armenian, regardless of whether he or she lives in Armenia or not, must live with Armenia. During the days of the revolution, the support of the entire Armenian nation was great. In those days I received a large number of letters regarding various support events organised in Mexico, Russia, Uruguay and Central Asia. And that was not simply correspondence; a pan-Armenian process was taking place. Today that situation has not changed,” said Pashinyan.
He emphasised that every government must have a national agenda. In his words, the national agenda they propose today does not coincide with the perceptions of certain circles, because for years, under that formulation, some have established corrupt orders in Armenia. They have formed a convenient roof for accumulating wealth and lowering the quality of the educational system.
“The quality of education has dropped to such an extent that in Armenia, in essence, there are no competitive universities or competitive departments. Today we have a problem of professionalism in various fields. These are the problems we must solve. Indeed, science and education are very important for our identity. We must not agree to be in the backwaters of world education and science,” he said.
