ARMENIAN ACADEMICIANS URGE SPEAKER TO SACK EDUCATION MINISTER

A1+ web site
March 5, 2004

Armenian Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan, at the request of Armenian
academicians, received them and heard their demands and questions.

Speaking on behalf of members of the National Academy, the director of
the biochemistry scientific and research institute, Konstantin
Karagezyan, said: “A minister like (Science and Education Minister)
Sergo Yeritsyan does not befit our science.” The academicians were
outraged by Sergo Yeritsyan’s statement that science did not need the
funds provided by the government.

The academicians suggested that “Sergo Yeritsyan and (Minister of
Culture and Youth Affairs) Tamara Pogosyan’s responsibilities be
merged to set up a department for culture and education, and the funds
allocated to the ministry be channeled into the development of
science”.

Artur Bagdasaryan’s reaction to the proposal was rather anxious and he
said that there was no intention to relieve Yeritsyan of his post.

(Passage omitted: academicians want to set up ties with colleagues in
other countries)