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June 20, 2002 For Immediate Release The National Citizens' Initiative
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"The Bases of National Ideology" were the focus of the first presenter, NCI Councilman Moushegh Lalayan, who also edits the "Dardz" journal. "It has not been nationally recognized that all reform starts from the individual, from the formation of his or her spiritual-ethical character. We will constantly complain about deficiencies in legislation, their imperfection, imprudent economic policies-unless we forge a moral value system and derivative norms of conduct for the Armenian, as national and as citizen. All this must be etched into the hearts and minds of our people," he said.
Political analyst Armen Aghayan followed with a survey of "The Essence, Principles, and Priorities of National Security." "Speaking about conceptions of national security, we have to delineate the various levels of threat it faces. For this there are two preconditions: the context of relations with other nations and the objectives and goals of our nation."
Philosopher-sociologist Valeri Mirzoyan discussed national ideology and linguistic-cultural security issues. "Upon reviewing recent works that pertain on the one hand to national ideology and on the other to language policy and linguistic-cultural issues, we can discern a definite space or even a barrier between these two fields," he noted with alarm.
Samvel Manoukian, a specialist from the National Assembly of Armenia, spoke about the methodology of framing the military and other concepts of national security.
The formal presentations triggered questions, answers, and a brisk debate among Constitutional Court Justice Valeri Poghosian; member of parliament and former Prime Minister Vazgen Manoukian; political scientist Stepan Grigorian; NCI councilmen Sos Gimishian and Professor Haik Sargsian; university lecturers Gayane Markosian, Samvel Shahinian and Samvel Harutiunian; director of the Center for Fundamental Sciences Dr. Simon Kamsarakan; cultural policy expert Ludwig Khachatrian; Helsinki Committee representative Avetik Ishkhanian; and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K. Hovannisian.
In his intervention, Raffi Hovannisian proposed that "our national security is as vertical as it is horizontal, as content-anchored as it is spatial. The scientific-educational, economic, cultural, and spiritual value system of the Armenia that has reclaimed its statehood is an integral contemporary component of that very same security. The corollary challenge is how to reconnect the Armenian individual and collectivity with our material and spiritual values that abide beyond the borders of today's Armenia."
NCI coordinator Hrach Hakobyan summed up the day's deliberations.
The National Citizens' Initiative is a public nonprofit association founded in December 2001 by Raffi Hovannisian, his colleagues, and fellow citizens with the purpose of realizing the rule of law and overall improvements in the state of the state, society, and public institutions. The National Citizens' Initiative is guided by a Coordinating Council, which includes individual citizens and representatives of various public, scientific, and educational establishments. Five commissions on Law and State Administration, Socioeconomic Issues, Foreign Policy, Spiritual and Cultural Challenges, and the Youth constitute the vehicles for the Initiative's work and outreach.
For further information, please call
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