President Armen Sarkissian met with the students and faculty of the Otto von Guericke University of Saxony-Anhalt region in Germany.
Speaking about significance and advantages of being young, President Sarkissian said,
“We start to age when we stop to learn, when we stop feeling happy about new discoveries, when we stop to explore and discover.
What does it mean to be young? I don’t think the number of years is an issue here. I am sure everyone of you have met people who are 16 or 20 but are already old, are disinterested and passive. At the same time, you have seen 60, 70, 90 years old people who are full of life. Physical activity is an indicator of being young. The more active life you lead, the younger you are.
It is important every day to learn something new.
Time is relative and depends on the individual’s speed.
It is up to us to be young and live a full life, regardless of our age.
The 21st century is the young people’s time.
Why is it so important to be young in the 21st century?
Because the 21st century will be different. I am finishing my book which I named the Quant Behavior of the Global Risks. It doesn’t mean we will apply the laws of quant physics to explain everything. It means that the events and politics will not develop in the classical way. Events happening in the world today prove it. The 21st century is young people’s time, in the 21st century you will be governing in a totally different way than we used to do in the past. I hope you all will stay young.
In conclusion, I would like to say that to stay young one has to learn new things every day, need to be happy and get surprised with every day discoveries.
When you come to Armenia, I will be happy to show you that Armenia is a country of the 21st century indeed, moving very fast. The country lacks huge natural resources but possess a huge human potential and good education.
Armenia is the leader of the region in information technologies. All this constitutes power of the country, power of a small country but a global nation.”
The President responded also to the questions raised by the participants. Responding to the question of the Azerbaijani participant related to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, President Sarkissian said, “From the humanistic point of view, things that have happened in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno Karabakh are tragic. I will not dwell on history. Armenia has a new government and a new Constitution. I am the head of state but not the head of government. Currently, Armenia is like Germany.
According to the Constitution, it is the head of government who will negotiated with Ilham Aliev. My role can be in providing advice. I would like to stress another important thing: People died not only in Azerbaijan but in Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia. I believe, we need to do everything we can to create a fair and peaceful environment to solve the problem. Is it easy to achieve? No. But we need to try to do it today, otherwise your and our children years later will be forced to ask the same question.
The time has come to solve the issue.”
