RA FOREIGN MINISTER: PROBLEM OF TOLERANCE IS ACUTE IN ARMENIA TODAY
arminfo
2008-02-25 12:59:00
ArmInfo. The problem of tolerance is especially acute in Armenia
today and is more than vital, RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
said today at the international conference "Problems of Tolerance and
Xenophobia in the South Caucasus Region, Challenges to Establishment
of Peace and Trust" in Yerevan, dedicated to the 20th anniversary
of he Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait. The
foreign minister said that the problems, marked by the conference
organizers, should be viewed in three plains: Armenia, region and
global scale. Unfortunately, the problem of tolerance has become
vital for Armenia today, as the society turned out to be split
during the election campaign and the post-election processes, and
there was a struggle not among the ideologies but between the past
and the present. It has already been several days a group of people
demonstrates intolerance at Liberty Square in Yerevan, meanwhile,
under conditions of the challenges facing the country, "we have no
right to split the society into ours and aliens", V.Oskanyan said. He
expressed hope that the party, which lost at the election, will show
courage and "offer its hand" to the election winners.
Touching upon the situation with tolerance and xenophobia in a global
scale, V. Oskanyan said that the world faces such demonstrations
from a "small scale" to organization of Genocides. This is an
evil the whole mankind fights against, and Armenia should become
a flag-bearer in this fight, as these demonstrations undoubtedly
leave a trace on such small countries as Armenia. He emphasized that,
in view of the events around Kosovo, when the whole world community
talks of the right of nations for self-determination, a parallel with
Nagorno Karabakh conflict is inevitable. "In view of this, today’s
onference is more than urgent. You see, f not the events in Sumgait,
the whole process of Nagorno Karabakh settlement could follow another
way. Nagorno Karabakh has to show that there is and can be no return
to the previous status", V.Oskanyan said.