Hermine Naghdalyan, a Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, not bearing Armenian National Congress (ANC) MP Hrant Bagratyan’s criticism during a discussion on science spending in the 2013 budget in the National Assembly today, tried to counterattack from her seat saying, “When you were the Prime Minister, you would answer like that too.” We inquired of Ms. Naghdalyan during a conversation with www.aravot.am what the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) had done in the field of science, since that field had been declared a high priority in our country and whether she agreed with Minister of Education Armen Ashotyan’s observation that it was ridiculous and nonsense that the wages of scientists were so low in our country. Ms. Naghdalyan replied, “I don’t want to say that it is ridiculous… or something like that. I understand what trick you use. The first thing to be done is to implement principles. There was a time when that principle was not there, it wasn’t a high-priority field.”
In response to our observation that although they had declared it a high priority, but nothing had been done for science, Ms. Naghdalyan said, “There was a time when I was an MP and in this hall, we discussed another issue – Armenia doesn’t need culture, because Armenia is very small and it cannot develop science. The scientific institutions inherited by us from the Soviet system should be closed. I saw some people present here talk about that in this hall. Our Cabinet was against it at that time too, so governors work and will work, in
order that this chain… [she means Hrant Bagratyan’s proposal to spend 1% of budget on science] it is a chain when something is provided for by the law, isn’t it? What is a law, it is an institute of coercion – one coerces that this must be by such percent, this much, that much. The Cabinet wants to be free of a chain, in order to have freedom of maneuver. Now you may ask why one needs maneuvers, whether it is pro-state, for the state. I will tell you that I agree with you that it will be unacceptable.”
As for the progress, according to Hermine Naghdalyan, the old days are gone and now we don’t discuss the issue that Armenia doesn’t need science, “We understood a long time ago that we see Armenia based on science and we want science to be a high-priority. Pavel Safaryan explicitly showed today that 1 billion AMD hadn’t been added to any field in the post-crisis period. The country that has serious problems maintains the priorities in the post-crisis period, nonetheless. It sees the social, scientific and healthcare fields as priorities.”
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In response to our observation that scientists are paid twice less than teachers, Hermine Naghdalyan said, “But has the budget differentiated? I offer to raise it too. I haven’t put it forward, but I will, in order that there are more discussions. Problems of science should be a higher priority. Certainly, I would like science spending to be higher, I will pursue that goal and try to make proposals; I will also try to show a source for that.”
In response to our observation that it was only about 350-400 million AMD, which wasn’t a big sum, Hermine Naghdalyan said, “Even more so, if it is like that – I think there are quite a lot of MPs in the hall who will join together and pursue that goal. Therefore, one shouldn’t turn everything into a joke.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
