FR. MESROP ARAMIAN: “WE SHOULD BOLSTER THE PRESENT”
April 22, 2015 10:13
EXCLUSIVE
On the threshold of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, Mediamax
continues a series of interviews with the intellectuals of Armenia
and the Diaspora. It is an attempt to collect opinions as to whether
the Armenian Genocide Centennial will serve a certain “New Beginning”
for Armenians or not.
Our today’s interlocutor is Fr. Mesrop Aramian.
– What significance does the centenary of the Armenian Genocide bear
for you?
– It’s difficult to give one clear definition. Since childhood it
has been an oppressive topic for me and I have always had the desire
to liberate myself from it. But is it possible to liberate from the
memory, which is a constituent of your identity?
When shooting “From Ararat to Zion” movie I had the chance to be in
the land of my ancestors. I visited Mush and went to Holy Apostles
Church of Mush. It was a frightening feeling… there were bones
scattered around as some are constantly looking for the “gold of
Armenians.” You don’t know who those bones belong to. Do they belong
to Movses Khorenatsi or to David the Invincible? No trace of the
grave of our greatest figures remains.
I had the feeling of a stolen history. Genetically, we are an ancient
nation, but in reality there is the abyss of the Armenian Genocide
between our antiquity and present. The Genocide severs our natural
link with our antiquity and complicates our communication with our
own history over-the-top.
In this regard, we are also new nation and our present is somehow
accounted by the Genocide. This tragedy has rifted our identity and
it’s hard to understand how we should treat it.
The Centenary should serve as a new beginning and new thoughts. Memory
is a sanctity for us owing to which we should purify ourselves and
get rid of certain complexes and realize that our power should be in
creation. It has been the significance of our nation. We have been
a creative nation for ages. For many ages we have managed to create
our own in the sphere of art, education and spirituality. We have
managed to leave unique traces in everything. Owing to that, we can
overcome the implications of the Genocide, the complex of a victim.
The Genocide severs our natural link with our antiquity and complicates
our communication with our own history over-the-top.
I would like the millennium to be a millennium of a creative soul
for Armenians. The challenges are a myriad – we live in a painstaking
period. Nowadays, spiritual, cultural and educational genocides can be
implemented without shedding blood. Nations that will not comprehend
the gravity of the moment will very quickly appear in the margins of
the history.
-What should be done to shun it?
-Nations should be united not only by their history and present
but also by their future. If we understand where we are heading to
together and if that path is encouraging, then we can forget the
current contradictions as the goal is stately and inspiring.
Any program for future depends on human qualities and resources.
Unfortunately, Armenia and the Diaspora love erecting buildings but
they very often forget to inhabit those buildings with capable people.
Investments made in projecting human resources and creating relevant
qualities are very poor. It is vivid in the education sector. We must
understand what type of person we are preparing through education to
carry out that program.
We tend to think that if our fathers were smart, then we are ensured
against stupidity. But we are not.
What has made us strong through the ages? Which is the phenomenon
of Armenians in the history? It’s our unique spiritual values and
education. It’s owing to what we have survived at least in the
last 1500 years. In the 21st century that all people have entered a
phase of rapid development of education we have no right to cede our
positions. Today we cannot claim to be one of the leading countries
in the education sector just like we used to be in early 20th century
when the Armenian schools of Constantinople, Tbilisi and Moscow were
deemed to be the best.
Our attitude to the spiritual also needs to be changed. We tend to
think that if our fathers were smart, then we are ensured against
stupidity. But we are not. Wisdom was carved out owing to a certain
soul. If we have that soul, then we are its successor, if we don’t,
then we are poor.
Very often parallels are drawn between Armenians and Jewish people.
There do exist similarities but there are also a number of
differences. They are well obvious in the attitude of Jewish people
to their religion and spiritual values, and it’s what transforms them
into a powerful force in the world.
Culture is not just a heritage. It should be alive and live in the
human’s life. When you take something for a sacred object, you stand
ready to fight for it.
– Can the National Program for Education Excellence developed by you
contribute to overcome the mentioned issues?
– The National Program for Education Excellence is one of the most
important programs among reforms in the education sector. Based on
the elaborations and practices of Ayb Educational Foundation and
Ayb School we have worked out a program, which is competitive in all
terms. Reputable international experts and organizations assert this.
We had the wish to make our best practices available for all the
Armenian children for no child to be deprived of that opportunity.
The National Program for Education Excellence has two elements. One
of them is the educational program and the next is the teacher.
Obviously, the quality of education depends on the quality
of the teacher. Of course, the teacher should be armed with
relevant educational technologies. Our education program – “Ararat
Baccalaureate” – is currently being finalized. We are planning to
complete its international registration by late this year.
We are presently engaged in creating the procedures for teacher
training and are preparing the specialists. We are basically
establishing an entire institution, which should be able to prepare
new generation teachers.
The program has been debated over with all stakeholders in all regions
in Armenia and has passed a large phase of public discussions. The
interest to it was quite high. Thousands of people took part in
discussions.
During the discussions we felt respect, love and trust to what we
are doing. But people were coming not only to learn information about
the program but to regain their faith in doing something together.
Although the discussions were large-scale, I have observed great
lack of analytical and critical thinking and speech. In general,
the idea and speech have retreated in our society.
– What can be done to make speech and content more important in our
daily life? During one of discussions of your program you once said:
“In early 20th century, Adjarian, Manandian, Yervandian and Komitas
used to teach at Gevorkian Seminary. A meeting with them was enough
to revolutionize the souls of people and to light a fire in their
hearts.” But today we no longer have Adjarians or Komitases.
-There is really deficiency in intellectual authorities. But the
epoch has changed and today we live in an epoch of technocrat thinking.
Yes, we don’t have Adjarians and Komitases in our present-day reality.
But it does not mean we cannot have. Adjarians and Komitases should be
a result of and be born from public longings. When you live clinging to
certain ideals, in the end people complying with these ideals emerge.
If this nation has given birth to Narekatsi, it means there was
a huge army of people seeking perfection through prayers. Tens of
thousands of people had withdrawn from the world seeking spiritual
perfection and had asked the brightest and most brilliant person to
write a prayer guidebook for the spiritual life. It’s how the Book
of Prayers (a.k.a. the Book of Lamentations) was created.
We need a process which will “produce” people. I am sure that we are
continuously giving birth to talents and geniuses but they either
“dissolve” or “decay.”
Adjarians and Komitases should be a result of and be born from public
longings. When you live clinging to certain ideals, in the end people
complying with these ideals emerge.
Very often societies get caught in a trap of fake values. And today
as well the Armenian society has appeared in illusions of fake values.
You can see it from what children want to become when they are called
for interview for Ayb School admission. Almost all of them want to
become an economist and work at the bank, close to money. Obsession
with money has become one of the diseases of our society. Decadent
times happen but if people find the right impetuses, then the reality
changes. Sometimes people lie to themselves and end up confronting
their own “hollow.” What matters are the subsequent steps – how and
what to make up that hollow with.
A Greek philosopher once said “what I have is within me” and this
should be adopted as an important motto for and among our people. If
we want to be free people, we should first of all understand that what
we have is within us. Money can’t make us a fortune and neither can
it enlighten us. On the contrary, it can make us even poorer and blind.
-What should make the new generation feel proud of being an Armenian?
-Our heritage makes us one of the richest nations in the world. There
are very few nations that have managed to accumulate such values.
But we also need to bolster our present. We need powerful stories and
we also need to enlarge the scale of these stories. Ayb, Tumo Center
for Creative Technologies and UWC Dilijan College are among those
strong stories. There is need for such stories to increase and expand.
The National Program for Education Excellence is already a reality. We
hope to have the international registration of “Ararat Baccalaureate”
completed this year. It will be one of the few excellence platforms
in the world and the only one in Armenian. By 2019, we will have 13
schools of “Ararat Baccalaureate” in Armenia and Artsakh. Afterwards,
this education program will make its way to all high schools. The
Diaspora has also expressed its desire to join with several schools
to this network.
We must be proud to have overcome difficulties that other nations
did not manage to overcome and simply perished. After all, we have
overcome the Genocide and have become a surviving nation. Our today’s
life is the pledge of it. There is need to reinforce that life.
It requires a dream and a vision and not reveries and ungrounded
programs. A feasible dream is conceived from faith and is a service
for all of us. We have all preconditions for a big flight and great
human potential to overcome heights. All this is indeed possible. We
just need to have faith and creation will follow.
Ara Tadevosyan talked to Fr. Mesrop Aramian
:
http://www.mediamax.am/en/news/interviews/13944#sthash.ldnGljir.dpuf