Inner strength is a key factor

Editorial

Yerkir/arm
11 March 05

Recent talks about the functions of the Armenian studies among the
scholars and especially historians mostly are about challenging the
foreign infringements against our history and culture.

But without preserving and developing the science, education and
culture, it is hard to imagine how we can challenge the infringement
on our heritage. Moreover, it is even harder to say which of those
infringements are more dangerous: the ones made in foreign countries
or those that are aimed at setting “nests” in this country. What’s
more important for the Armenian studies, preservation of national
values or their preservation from external aggression?

Hence, the third and fourth functions of the Armenian studies —
preservation and development, and the “export” — are so interrelated
that it is crucial to defy which of those functions do not belong to
understanding our identity through developing the science, education
and culture but those that include our reaction to the policies
conducted from outside.

To balance the external front or to implement joint projects by
clarifying our task of making our national organism healthier, we
would be able to preserve the functions of the Armenian studies and
meanwhile ensure a “joint front” against the infringements of the
outside world.

Only by uniting the three functions against the fourth would make the
struggle more meaningful regardless how strong it is. So the struggle
against the outside strategies would be as efficient as the “inner
strength is.