Armenia at the crossroads of the collision of civilizations

ArmRadio
24.03.2006 17:00

Philosopher Ashot Voskanyan and culture expert Hrach Bayadyan tried to
explain today which is Armenia’s role and place at the crossroads of
the collision of civilizations. People often talk about Western
values, however it is not clarified which are these European or
Western values.

The world is gradually becoming universal, however, in this
universality there are differences. Before there were socialistic and
capitalistic systems, and Armenia knew where it belonged.

Today the question is about Western or Eastern values. Collision of
civilizations occurs everywhere. Being a homogeneous country, Armenia
does not have any idea about the co-existence of diverse
cultures. Although Hrach Bayadyan considers that the time is near when
this will be understood in our country as well.

According to Hrach Bayadyan, the West is just the outburst of the
East, that is to say that the roots of the Western civilization go
much farther.

In the worlds of Ashot Voskanyan, when we say Europe, we often
understand Christianity; however, according to him, it is
enlightenment.

Ashot Voskanyan is convinced that Armenians should apply the Western
outlook in order to have the issues be resolved more easily, since the
Eastern way of thinking is more emotional.

There is, however, another question here: we have an undeveloped
society and we should not forget that for a ling time we have not even
had society. Here Hrach Bayadyan attaches importance to the role of
the intellectual class, which, unfortunately, does not exist in
Armenia.