PM Pashinyan on the Demands for the Resignation of the Minister of Education: 'One Could Look at Their Mustaches and Claim They Are Satanic'

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, addressed the criticisms surrounding the performance 'Excitement and Bell' during a parliamentary session, emphasizing the need for a different policy in the field of arts and culture.

“Grant programs have been implemented. This is one of 22 projects of that program. Now, considering the criticisms, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport is thinking about further steps to improve that mechanism, not only to have a conceptual understanding of the performance on paper but also to visually see what the scene will look like. That is exactly what art is, which is not always unambiguous,” said Pashinyan.

He also mentioned that during these days he has tried to understand what 'satanism' means, but has not yet been able to comprehend it.

“In Armenia, there is a struggle between narrow-mindedness and openness. Let’s state that humanity has seen a history where a person said, 'the Earth is round,' and they burned him. Now, the ideologues of those burners still live in the 21st century, doing fine, but that doesn’t mean we should give logs and matches to their hands and say, 'burn whoever you want,'” Pashinyan added. Referring to those demanding the resignation of Minister Araik Harutyunyan, he stated, “Now you are saying they are satanists, but among the people demanding resignation, there are individuals who, if one looks closely at their mustaches, could say, 'they are satanic mustaches,' and no one can prove otherwise.”