ARMENIA MAY WIN OF NEW RELATIONS DICTATED BY CIVILIZATION

Noyan Tapan
Mar 27 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, NOYAN TAPAN. “Armenians’ distinctiveness allow to
go into the present vortex of civilization, not being afraid of being
lost there, and instead of that Armenian may win.” Philosopher Ashot
Voskanian expressed such a viewpoint at the March 24 discussion on the
theme “Clash of Civilizations and Armenia” held at the “Hayeli” press
club. According to him, it is not enough right when an attempt is made
to exchange the contrast of former socialist and capitalist systems
by contrast of civilizations. “I’m afraid that we speaking about
civilizations a lot, leave aside the problem of historic development,”
A.Voskanian mentioned. In cultural critic Hrach Bayadian’s opinion,
clash of civilizations is not a new phenomenon in reality. According
to him, if not the clash but meeting of civilizations today happens
almost everywhere.

H.Bayadian mentioned the paculiarity of the Armenian reality,
Armenia, being strangely and exclusively ethnically clean, almost
homogeneous, has not good imagination about the world of many ethnics,
cultures. However, according to him, “today there are signs that the
world’s being of many ethnics and cultures will reach a level during
the coming years that it will allow us to feel difficulties as well
as differences of the state of many ethnics, cultures on ourselves,
and, according to that, to better undersand our role in that global
process.” A.Voskanian drew the discussion participants’ attention to
that reality that, according to him, “We have in Armenia an absolutely
undeveloped society, which is not developed also for the reason that
we just have no society practically for 100s of years.” H.Bayadian
mentioned in his turn that no stratum of intellectuals exists in
Armenia: “Today’s Armenian humanitarian, sociologist lives in the 19th
century, his voice is not in this world.” Even more, according to him,
the contemporary Armenian society has no elite as the authorities
has no legality to establish such an elite: “If the authorities give
any award to anybody, he is more defamed but doesn’t become elite,”
he emphasized.