Shirak Marz physicians, officials and German diplomats were solemnly celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the foundation of the “Berlin” polyclinic in Gyumri. The event was also attended by Matthias Kiesler, Ambassador of Germany to Armenia. Aravot.am asked the Ambassador how often he visits Gyumri, and in addition to cultural programs, whether there is any economic program that Germans would like to accomplish in this city. “I am trying to visit Gyumri at least once every two months. This month and the next month, I will visit quite often. I always want to be in this city more often because Gyumri is a cultural city, it is the second city, and we are trying to bring all programs outside of Yerevan as much as possible and to have more programs here.
Certainly, we accomplish many cultural programs in Gyumri with “Gallery 25” (note that this gallery is located in the “Berlin” art hotel, it has 16 active members and artists – by N. A.) German speakers’ “Artfogen” Club but so far, there are no economic projects. Recently, I have had meetings with the investors, of course, all of them are more interested in making investments in Yerevan, we are trying to direct them to Gyumri. Certainly, there are many projects that are underway, such as the Lake Arpi National Park which was created with the help of German Economic Partnership Organization, is not completed, it is in progress, and there are other similar projects,” – the Ambassador said.
We asked Matthias Kiesler about his opinion of whether the newly appointed Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan will be successful to fight against oligarchy and monopoly which the Germans succeeded to do. Note that recently, by the invitation of the “Berlin Journalism School”, 10 journalists from Armenia visiting Germany and meeting with investigative journalists, asked a question whether there are oligarchs in their country. In response to our question, the investigative journalists said, “The word oligarch has come out of our vocabulary long time ago, it is a forgotten word, there are rich people in Germany who have become rich by their hard-working and honesty.”
Ambassador Matthias Kiesler said, “I cannot forecast the future, we are trying to examine the projects, their requirements and support. Surely, there are many challenges and Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan often addresses them. In reality, indeed, it is a very important issue, the real healthy society is the economy based on the small and medium enterprises and crafts economies, and Germany is one of the best examples.”
Nune AREVSHATYAN
