YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–A meeting of the PACE Commission on Culture–Science and Education began at the Armenian National Assembly on Monday. Twenty-one deputies from 16 countries are attending the meeting.–and the chairman of the meeting is Commission Chairman Anatoly Rahanski.
Armenian Parliament Speaker Armen Khachatrian said it was a symbolic event that the PACE commission’s first meeting is being held in Armenia. Armenia was chosen partly because of its advancemen’s in the field of science–culture and education–and because Armenia is one of the countries that had culture still before Christ–and–despite numerous wars and interventions of foreigners–managed to preserve and develop its cultural heritage. It was pointed out that the Armenian people believe that membership in the Council of Europe is very important–and they consider their culture to be part of pan-European cultural heritage.
PACE Commission Chairman Anatoly Rahanski presented the agenda – culture and heritage–science and education.
Shavarsh Kocharian–the Chairman of the NA standing commission for science–education–culture and youth affairs–touched on the problem of these spheres–outlined ways to solve and presented the adopted laws.
Deputy Minister of Culture–Youth Affairs and Sport Karen Aristakesian–Deputy Minister of Education and Science Vardan Grigorian–Chief of the Department for Preservation of Monumen’s Grigor Gyurjian and others made speeches and answered the questions on the commission members.
During the interval the guests reportedly participated in the opening of an exhibition of photographs dedicated to the state of Armenian historical monumen’s in neighboring countries–in particular in Turkey–Azerbaijan–Georgia and Iran.