The former director of the Hovhannes Tumanyan Museum will sue the Minister of Education

Ani Yeghiazaryan, the former director of the Hovhannes Tumanyan Museum, will sue the Minister of Education. On October 27, Zhanna Andreasyan terminated Ani Yeghiazaryan’s employment contract for going on a business trip abroad without his permission.

“I will protest in order to express my disagreement with the decision,” said Ani Yeghiazaryan in an interview with “Azatutyan”.

A signature collection has started on the Internet in support of Ani Yeghiazaryan. A number of representatives of the cultural sphere consider the minister’s decision unfair and demand to restore Yeghiazaryan to the position of the director of the museum.

However, the ministry has no intention of retreating. A few days ago, it was clarified that the minister had not approved Yeghiazaryan’s request for permission to participate in scientific conferences on the Tumanian theme in Latin America. Yeghiazaryan, after applying for the second time, did not wait for the ministry’s response and voluntarily left the country without an order or permission.

Deputy Minister Araksya Svachyan says that the problem was not presenting Tumanyan, as the former director hinted, but ignoring the employer’s order.

“Any director who goes on vacation or on a business trip has the right to carry out his activities by order of the minister,” said the deputy minister.

“If there was an absolute refusal, that my absence from the country is inadmissible in any way, and especially the implementation of such a program, then at least I should have received a document of that type, so that I could also properly convey my refusal to the inviting parties. “People bought plane tickets and tickets for internal movement, boat transportation, that is, there was quite a serious financial investment from that side,” he said.

Yeghiazaryan, who worked 14 different positions in the museum, admits that there was a violation of the law, but it was neither preceded nor followed by any reprimand, disciplinary penalty, he was fired immediately.

“I have not had any comments until this moment, there have been very good working relations,” he remarked.

“Jov. Quoting Tumanyan’s thoughts or daring to speak about him outside the borders of Armenia is considered an unforgivable step and will be punished by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports,” Yeghiazaryan wrote on Facebook immediately after his dismissal.

There are also many quotes from public figure Tumanyan on the page of the former director. Maybe the parallels with today’s reality upset the minister coordinating the sphere of education and culture? Yeghiazaryan not only does not think that the words of the most famous Armenian writer of the 20th century can harm, but also reminds him who was mentioned by the Prime Minister himself in his New Year’s address.

“Bringing Tumanyan back into our lives in any difficult situations has only been beneficial to the extent that the thinker’s proposals are put into the domain of public speech, because the similarity of situations also seeks solutions to them, and we, the Tumanyan Museum, which is ultimately called to the function of spreading Tumanyan’s legacy, was not could remain aloof and Tumanyan’s presence in the events happening around us would not have provided our lives. That would mean that we have not read him either, we are not aware of him either, that in case of so much identity, we do not respond to all that in his words. It is very interesting that at the beginning of the year, the RA Prime Minister started the year with the messages of our two great intellectuals, Hovhannes Tumanyan and Yeghishe Charents, that two of our most important thinkers are present in our lives today, so that we can be guided by them in these difficult periods of our life and our country.

By the way, due to renovations, the museum stopped receiving visitors at its permanent address for 3 years and has been temporarily operating in the “Hrant Matevosyan” cultural center-museum since September. The museum does not have a new director yet, instead, there are problems that need to be coordinated quickly, says Yeghiazaryan. The former director asked the Minister of Education for an honest conversation without intermediaries, 8 days have passed, but there is still no response.

“Truth is never lost,” according to Tumanyan, Yeghiazaryan countered the silence of the Minister of Education.