Europe is afraid
Two mutually exclusive phenomena are the most serious challenges facing the European family today.
"One of them is globalization which is bringing people closer together and the other is nations' return to their origins, which is isolating them. Europeans are afraid of those who are different from them with their faith and systems of values," Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thornbjorn Jagland said today at the Forum for the "Future of Democracy".
Jagland stressed that the Council of Europe was created based on the idea that is above the ideas of the state and the nation, that is, democracy.
According to Mr. Jagland, Europe must overcome its fear in order to solve the number one issue today. "We have to be interested in people who are different from us." He says a brilliant example of that was the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which he considered a "technical revolution".
Mr. Jagland assured the forum participants that all issues can be solved through democracy and that the right to freedom of expression lies at the core. "The right to freedom of expression is the mother of all truths."
The last to speak today was RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan who addressed the participants and said: "Armenia's and the Armenian people's relations with Europe are as old as Europe. They trace back to centuries, the times when the enlightened sons of our nation were participating in the formation of a system of values that we now call European values."
Mr. Nalbandyan informed the guests that Armenia will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary. "The past 20 years have been a period of serious reforms for Armenia and Europe and we tried to go through that period hand-in-hand."
