NORAVANK LECTURES GEVORG POGHOSYAN: MODERN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

Within the framework of the scheduled series of readings “Armenia and Armenians in global Developments: Recent trends and challenges” on March 12, 2008 “Noravank” Foundation organized a lecture on “Modern Social Developments in the Republic of Armenia” with the participation of more than 30 experts and students, and lectured by the Director of RA NAS Institute of Philosophy and Law, President of “Armenian Sociological Association”, correspondent-member of RA NAS Gevorg Poghosyan.

The main attention was divoted to the up-to-date society making a comperative analysis among the Soviet period social structures and those demographic, economic and political fields of the states which had any influence on the formation of our society.

According to the lecturer 15 nation states appeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which, according to their constitutions proclaimed themselves as democratic nation states. The famous American Philosopher and Sociologist Daniel Bell called the emergence of more than 120 states after the WWII a historical process of transition of a big empire into sovereign national states. This process is still continuing today. As the speaker noted, “the emergence of new nation states is the biggest historical phenomena. At the same time, there is another tendency – integration of sperate sovereign states. In fact, from the one hand the empires collapse because the nations included in them aspire to have free, sovereign states and from the other hand, we witness the formation of different unions (EU, SCO, GUAM).”

The lecture was folowed by an active discution.