15:37, 11 November 2019

Opponents of Minister of Education stage a march in Yerevan

Opposition activists and protesting students the building of the government of Armenia. A poster says: "Araik, go away". Photo by Tigran Petrosyan for the "Caucasian Knot"

Students and teachers took part in the procession along streets of Yerevan. They demand resignation of Araik Arutyunyan, the head of the Ministry of Education.

On November 4, the youth wing of the ARF "Dashnaktsutyun" Party demanded his resignation. On November 6, in Yerevan, hundreds of students, also dissatisfied with the minister, went on strike; and the next day held a rally outside the government building.

The Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, told the activists, who demanded Arutyunyan's resignation that he disagreed with them and "strongly doubted that the society would support them."

Activists protest against Arutyunyan's initiative to make the study of the history of Armenia, the Armenian language and literature an option at universities.

Gor Sargsyan, a member of the youth wing of the ARF, has treated it "normal" that Pashinyan was defending Arutyunyan.

The students' demands are outside the political sphere, said Associate Professor, Arshaluys Galstyan, who joined the protesters. "We are solving the issue of our language and nation, while authorities are trying to transfer the problem into another sphere, that, allegedly, this is a political struggle," he explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 11, 2019 at 10:34 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Author: Armine Martirosyan

Source: CK correspondent