Opinions have sharply changed after the recent meeting that Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Arayik Harutyunyan had with university professors. This is what Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan told journalists today.

“I don’t see any need or reason for Arayik Harutyunyan’s resignation. I see political motives,” he said.

When told that the professors had stated that there was no substantive discussion and that the minister had even posed a threat, the deputy parliamentary speaker said the most important component of the discussion was that the public saw and heard about the reality.

As reported earlier, students of the Faculty of Armenian Philology at Yerevan State University have been protesting against the bill on higher education and science for over a week and continue the student strike that they launched last week, and young members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun are holding a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.

Fifty-eight professors of the University had declared a symbolic workers’ strike to express their support to the students with their protest against the bill on higher education and science by which the subjects “Armenian Language”, “Armenian Literature” and “Armenian History” won’t be mandatory in non-specialized faculties of universities.