“When the new parliament was presenting its program in July of 2018, I had announced that there was no mention of pro-Armenian elements or nationalism in the program,” the former Vice Speaker of the National Assembly and the spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov, said during a press conference at the Hayeli press club.
Sharmazanov is not surprised. Nikol Pashinyan had announced that his party does not believe in “isms,” so Sharmazanov concluded that “they do not believe in nationalism or patriotism.” He also said that there are many people in the My Step faction who do not believe in traditional values or who are against the church. He believed that the worst part was when the former National Security Advisor of the United States, John Bolton, said that it is important to get rid of “nationalistic ideas” and the authorities did not counter him. But what the Western politician and other institutions consider to be “nationalistic ideas,” according to Sharmazanov, are national values for Armenians, such as the Artsakh issue, recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and national institutions such as school, the church, the army, the family, and others.
The politician, who is a historian by profession, made several observations regarding the new standards and history textbooks. He stressed that the opinions of neither the history institution, the Yerevan State University’s Faculty of History, nor the Armenian State Pedagogical University’s Faculty of History were taken into consideration. “The homeland of the Armenian people is the Armenian Highland, which has been renamed Eastern Anatolia due to these standards. So, if this continues, these people may one day rename Ararat Aghri dagh and Yerevan Erivan.”
The other major mistake that he noticed was the omission of the Bagratuni dynasty. Only the Kingdom of Ani was mentioned in the new standards from that time period. In addition, nothing about the movements that took place in 1914 was included in the standards for modern Armenian history. “So, Andranik did not exist, nor did Dro, Nzhdeh, Keri, Vardan, or Hayk Bzhishkyan… only these people existed along with their Nikol…”
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Eduard Sharmazanov does not consider all of this to be a coincidence. He does not understand the justification that these standards are still being discussed and modified. He said, “Why should that have crossed anyone’s mind?”
“Their political father believes that nationalism is a fake category, so now they have come in to implement that,” Eduard Sharmazanov said, adding that spiritual leaders and other public figures need to publicly express their views.
Nelly Grigoryan
