YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of the Armenian parliament Eduard Sharmazanov has slammed the new education and science minister for “political myopia” over his plans on abandoning the military-patriotism education doctrine.

Arayik Harutyunyan, the new minister, had earlier announced that he plans to abandon the doctrine which was developed by the former government in order to encourage patriotism in school children from early ages.

The former government mentioned several challenges to be the reason why the doctrine is a necessity. It  mentioned a wide range of challenges, such as the exposure of school children to slang language and bad “street” behavior, interaction with foreign cultural values. Challenges also included the term “sexual perversion”, although the document didn’t specify any details.

Basically the doctrine was a tool to promote patriotism and conservatism, military service and healthy lifestyle.

 Sharmazanov told reporters that he is concerned over the minister’s opinion regarding the doctrine.

“In a country where there is a task of building national society, which faces the danger of war from Turkey and Azerbaijan, abandoning the military-patriotic doctrine is to say the least a political shortsightedness,” he said.

The Vice Speaker also slammed the minister for claiming he had explained school teachers how to withdraw from the Republican Party. “I would urge the minister of education and science to mind his own business, deal with education and science and not interfere in the people’s free constitutional right. Be it a school teacher, a reporter or a janitor, it is exclusively they themselves who decide to be a member of a party or not,” he said.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan