By Արամ ԱԲՐԱՀԱՄՅԱՆ
Copyright aravot
What matters is not the words we utter, but the substance of a phenomenon. Take the word “peace.” Whether we say it or not, Azerbaijan’s aggressive threats will not cease; our compatriots tortured in Baku will not return home; our sovereign territories will not be restored. Call it “peace,” “ceasefire,” or “heavenly kingdom”—the situation will not change, even if we issue daily statements about peace and deliver endless speeches in its favor.
The same goes for the word “corridor.” Whether we use it or not, Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s ambitions remain unchanged. Negotiations and signed papers exist precisely so that both sides agree that term X means phenomenon Y. If they each mean something different, or say, “I interpret it this way, let him interpret it that way,” then clearly the negotiations have not been successful.
The same logic applies to education. Of course, education in itself is important and necessary. But if education becomes nothing more than a campaign of flattery toward the ruling couple, then it has no positive content whatsoever. If it is merely about receiving a high school or university diploma, that too means nothing. After all, there are plenty of ignorant doctors of science and illiterate professors.
I note all this in connection with the recent debate in parliament about whether a permanent committee chairmanship in the National Assembly requires higher education. It is, of course, possible that this particular MP is a self-taught expert, a natural talent, who by some innate intuition understands what health care legislation should look like.
But the problem lies not in this individual case. It concerns genuine education, an educated person, thought, knowledge, intellect. And here, it must be said, Civil Contract’s approach is profoundly anti-educational. Sometimes it is expressed bluntly, sometimes through veiled hints. At its core is a primitive Bolshevik thesis: though we have not finished your universities, we instinctively feel and understand what the people want, because we are tied to this people by the umbilical cord, whereas you, the false elites, are alien to them.
Those who claim to have such a mystical bond with the people, naturally, have no need for education at all.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
