Famous actor Vardan Petrosyan has not been allowed to meet with the students of the French University, and young professor Ararat Mirzoyan who demanded the resignation of
the rector’s assistant has not been allowed to give lectures at Yerevan State University. These cases are not similar, because the French University is a private institution with foreign management, and it is hard for me to say according to what standards they didn’t allow the talented actor to enter the university. Whereas Yerevan State University lives, exists at our, taxpayers’, expense and it should be fully accountable to society. However, that very university is too much preoccupied with the dogmatic “Republicanism,” more than any other university. At, say, the Pedagogical University, where I give lectures, I haven’t heard of cases of “the rector’s political revenge” in recent years. At YSU, at the so-called “Mother University,” which, it seems, should set an example for the other universities, stereotyped, “square” mentality dominates. The YSU historians write a book, in which they take a more pro-government attitude toward the events of March 1 than the government itself. And one cannot speak of “academic freedom” here, because it is not an ordinary book, it is a textbook. For some reason, many “Komsomol” careerists wearing pins, including the above-mentioned assistant to the rector, who can only utter false “Nzhdehist” formulas, are concentrated in very YSU. It won’t be fair to say that this university has some unique dogmatic traditions. When the Communists were in power, along with negative phenomena characteristic of that period, there were possibilities of free creativity at YSU. I can surely say about that, because my parents gave lectures on philosophy at that university for decades. They didn’t oppose the system of the time, but their views were quite liberal and lacked any stereotypes. (I think their students will confirm that.) However, there were lecturers at YSU who opposed the Communist regime and were persecuted by the latter – for example, Edmon Avetyan and Rafael Papayan.
Why has the Mother University become so small-minded, petty, if you like? Many people look for some personal explanations here. I think that the problem is deeper, systemic and stems from the YSU history of the past 20 years. However, it is a different subject.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
