Armenian philologist: History and culture war begins

Panorama, Armenia
Dec 7 2020

From a scientific point of view, Azerbaijan’s viewpoint regarding the presentation of the churches in Artsakh as Afghan will not stand a chance against criticism, but the Armenian side has a lot of work to do, Director of the Institute of Literature after Manuk Abeghyan at Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Philology Vardan Devrikyan told a news conference on Monday.

"We must present our well-grounded viewpoint to the world. It is possible to do it through interdisciplinary means, which entails specific efforts by the Institutes of History and Archeology, as well as ethnography," he said.

According to the philologist, Armenia lost the information war during the recent war with Azerbaijan, and the country is factually losing the cartographic war now.

"Azerbaijan also takes a favorable position over our country in the cartographic war. I announce that a war of history and culture is starting. Under these conditions, if the draft law “On Higher Education and Science” is adopted, it will push us to a direct defeat in this war.

“Why is such a bill introduced to the National Assembly? Do the people who submitted the bill realize this or do they contribute to our new defeats?” he asked.

Vardan Devrikyan. who took part in the Artsakh liberation war and the April 2016 war, but not in the recent war, found it hard to outline the reason for the defeat of the Armenian side.

"We heard different contradictory statements. In any case, the atmosphere in our country was not favorable in any way for us to win the war and show more effective resistance. The split in society, the self-confidence in many issues… History is the greatest judge, it will raise those issues, but in any case now we must be able to take a sober look, we are in the process of defeats every day.

“We must stand firm at one point and try to move forward. All our efforts today must be aimed at it. If it is not done, I will reserve myself the right to think, like many others, that this defeat was premeditated,” Devrikyan added.