Yesterday Stepan Safaryan, the secretary general of the Heritage Party, released a statement on his Facebook page, which reads: “There is information that during the election campaign, parent meetings are organized in different schools and kindergartens around the country, and meetings of employees, students and professors are organized in manifold institutions and universities…. What the principles and rectors talk or/and are going to talk about,
besides the problems of students and institutions, we all know quite well – it’s a small world, let alone Armenia…. Copies of passports are also collected, violating the right to privacy of personal information.” www.aravot.am inquired during a conversation with Mr. Safaryan whether they had concrete evidence, facts. He went into detail: “I participated in such a parent meeting myself, and the principle was confused, didn’t know what to say. The principle paled and talked nonsense for half an hour, and the parents didn’t understand why they had been summoned. We have another concrete fact that employees of an institution have been instructed to provide their passport data. They are close friends of mine; I cannot tell you their names, since they will be fired. In order that those people are not put under pressure, I released the statement, which was welcomed by many people. We will provide the headquarters with all the information, and the headquarters will decide what to do.” Artur Baghdasaryan, the head of the public relations and information department of the Ministry of Education and Science, informed www.aravot.am that they hadn’t get such information on their hotline. As for the released statement, they said: “The chairman of the pedagogical council can convene meetings; they are common processes to discuss schoolchildren’s problems, problems with discipline. However, since no concrete school is mentioned, we cannot check whether that statement is grounded and accurate.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
