YEREVAN, MARCH 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The current problems in the humanitarian sphere and the prospects of further cooperation were discussed during the March 16 meeting of Armenian Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotian and the Georgian Ambassador to Armenia Grigol Tabatadze. A. Ashotian said that although numerous efficient projects between the two states have been implemented, there are also problems, particularly the protection of the educational rights of Georgian Armenians. Some problems arose last year during the retraining of teachers of Armenian language and literature and the history of the Armenian Church. Noting that such problems result from uncoordinated activities of the two sides, A. Ashotian informed the ambassador that this year the budget allocations for education were maintained so that the process would proceed smoothly. A. Ashotian also spoke about the problem of textbooks given to Armenian schools of Georgia. According to him, more than 32 thousand textbooks are provided to Armenian educational institutions in about 60 countries worldwide and no problem related to instruction and methodological literature arose anywhere, so it is strange that such an obstacle was revealed in Georgia. "If there is a need to co-ordinate the instruction processes in the given country, we are ready to discuss all the possible options to find mechanisms for ruling out such problems in the future," the minister said. The second problem he addressed was related to the idea of founding a joint Armenian-Georgian university in Georgia's regions populated by many Armenians. In this connection A. Ashotian stressed that the Armenian side has considerable experience in interstate university cooperation: an Armenian-American university, an Armenian-French one, an Armenian-Russian university operate in Armenia. "This problem is extremely important and should be solved at a state level. The university will become a unique educational bridge for intellectual potential of two countries and strengthen their political and economic cooperation," the minister stated. The press service of the RA Ministry of Education and Science reported that during the meeting A. Ashotian made a proposal to open a Georgian language instruction center at Yerevan State University or V. Bryusov Linguistic University. "The better we know each other and the more we work together, the easier and more efficient our neighborhood will be. We are always ready to discuss and jointly implement any program," the minister said. G. Tabatadze said the agreement on Armenian-Georgian cooperation in the sphere of education does not fully reflect the scale of the historically formed and current cooperation between the two countries. He underlined the necessity to deepen that cooperation and make it meaningful. He conveyed the Georgian education minister's invitation to visit the neighboring country in order to discuss the indicated problems and to give new impetus to bilateral relations.

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