RAU RECTOR ILL-DISPOSED TOWARDS CANCELLATION OF CONTRACT OF ‘MATENADARAN’ INSTITUTE-MUSEUM AND AMERICAN COMPANY
Arminfo News Agency
2007-05-10 18:49:00
Rector of Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, ex- prime minister
of Armenia, Armen Dartbunyan, is ill-disposed towards cancellation
of the contract with an American company that aimed to digitize
the manuscripts stored at "Matenadaran" Institute-Museum of Ancient
Manuscripts.
Delivering a public lecture at RAU on Thursday, Rector Darbinyan
mentioned that if digitized, the library would become a distributor
of the information stored at "Matenadaran." The digitization cost
dozens of millions of dollars, including 10 million dollars were
required immediately to start the process.
After the contract was made, it has been criticized for three
weeks. Armen Darbinyan called groundless the arguments that Armenia
would transfer its national heritage to the USA and will lose monopoly
of the manuscripts. The criticism made academician Sen Arevshatyan,
head of "Matenadaran," to annul the contract. Americans could not
understand the motives of such avid turn-down of so progressive
initiative, he said.
He believes that the Armenian people and the country must inform the
world of the Armenian culture as profoundly as possible in order to
change the attitude to the Armenian people as a victim of the genocide
of 1915 and as the people that succeeded in trade and not so much in
intellectual initiatives, RAU Rector said.