ARMENIANS ARE BOTH TOLERANT AND INTOLERANT

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[06:12 pm] 16 November, 2006

"The International Day of Tolerance is officially celebrated on
November 16. Let us reaffirm the wide-spread opinion that the diversity
of expression and religion is a valuable gift and not a threat. And
let us try to build tolerant communities based on this ideology",
this is an extract from Kofi Anan’s message.

The International Tolerance Day was introduced in 1996.

Today, Armenia has celebrates this holiday for the first time in the
Armenian Office of the UNO.

Tolerance is a challenge. Armenia is in the crossroad and the country
attempts to combat against corruption.

Besides, the country is directly engaged in the Karabakh conflict
settlement, and tolerance is but a necessary factor in this respect.

"I am really delighted by the fact that today mainly the young
will make reports as they are the future of the world", announced
Mrs. Consuela Vidall, coordinator of the UNO.

Lusine Hakobyan, member of "Areg Scientific-Cultural Youth Association"
NGO, held polling among 11 experts in order to find out the level of
tolerance in the Armenian reality.

"It seems that everything is clear from the first sight. But the
experts working in various spheres comment on the phenomenon in
different ways. Some of them maintain that it is an inborn feature,
others find close connection between tolerance and mentality", says
Lusine Hakobyan.

The reporters announced that Armenians are intolerant in everything,
starting from gender issues to political ones.

"Armenians are intolerant towards all changes but they are tolerant
to ethnic minorities as we consider ourselves to be a wise nation",
added Lusine Hakobyan.

As for the political tolerance, she mentioned that it is still too
early to speak of it as the political field isn’t fully developed
in Armenia and the political tolerance is on the lowest level in
our country.