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Culture, sport, agriculture in Armenia invariably degrade

27 December 2018 17:57 (UTC+04:00)
Culture, sport, agriculture in Armenia invariably degrade

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The optimization of the government that is being conducted in Armenia under the new leadership has reached the point of absurd.

According to Armenian media reports, five ministries will be eliminated in Armenia: culture, sports and issues on youth, diaspora, energy and agriculture.

A representative of the Republican Party, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Arpine Hovhannisyan said on December 20 that the government introduced a draft law on amendments and additions to the law "On the Activity and Structure of the Government." According to the bill, five ministries will be eliminated and merged with other ministries.

Hovhannisyan considers that the project will cause the inevitable cut of a huge number of civil servants. Leaving people out of work in the New Year, "people-oriented" government of Armenia has once again confirmed that it is not the right decisions that are important, but the easy decisions, she said.

Educational expert Serob Khachatryan criticized optimization of the government. He noted that in rich and large countries, the role of ministers is very formal, since they have a well-established system, but Armenia cannot be attributed to such kind of countries.

The systems in Armenia do not function. “In such a situation, it is very dangerous to go for optimization, and this can lead to a decrease in the level of professional management, since we have yet to build and develop institutions in certain areas,“ explained Khachatryan.

Referring to the issue of liquidation of the Armenian Ministry of Culture, the expert noted that this decision was caused by the poor work of the department, since it, in fact, worked in the interests of certain individuals. However, he added, if there are people who do not work well, they can either be fired or in general change the approaches and working methods of the Ministry of Culture.

Khachatryan is convinced that the reducing the number of ministries is the most radical approach, and there are no guarantees that people will be dismissed from work not depending on any subjective circumstances.

In addition, Serob Khachatryan stressed that the dismissal of “bad specialists” could aggravate the already difficult social situation in the country, since people who lose jobs could go to extremes trying, for example, suicide.

The government has not yet fully decided on the issue of restructuring ministries. There are concerns that the entire state system may suffer as a result of hastily made decisions. In particular, there is concern about the unification of the Ministries of Health and Social Security, since the experience of other countries shows that this as a rule leads to the failure of social policy.

Pashinyan’s optimization has already caused a surge of indignation of the staff of these departments. Several actions have already taken place in Yerevan. Employees of a number of ministries of Armenia declared a strike against the abolition of departments and are ready to fight for their rights.

Informal leaders of the protest were representatives of the Ministry of Culture. One of them told reporters that the protesters wrote a letter to the Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in which they tried to explain why the Ministry of Culture should function autonomously, and not as part of other Ministry.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed that even before the early parliamentary elections, he had informed the population of the country about the upcoming reform and cuts. "I received a mandate from the people to carry out this process," he said at a meeting with journalists in Vanadzor. He admitted that he was alarmed by the statements of representatives of the Ministry of Culture, who say that culture has always been the hallmark of the Armenian people.

This is a very bad signal for a country. In fact, the Ministry of Culture identifies itself with the Armenian culture. So, it is interesting, what happens in the cultural sphere if there will be a strike for three months.

The social structure of Armenia is degraded, as a result of which the state has lost a single perception. Tens of thousands of Armenians are going mainly to Russia, trying to feed their family. Large plants, enterprises in Armenia continue to stop due to lack of investment. As a result of an irresponsible internal and occupational external policy of Armenian authorities, every year Armenia lose approximately 50,000 citizens. For a country of three million people, this statistic is sensitive.

The Armenian authorities should soberly assess the state into which they, thanks to their destructive policies, have led the country today. Otherwise, the results of the velvet revolution seem to be as previous ones: empty pockets and refrigerators of the Armenian citizens.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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