Part 1                                                                     Part 2

More than a hundred guests were present at the public discussion on “Vulgarity vs. Political Debate," organized by the Civilitas Foundation on July 7, 2009. The speakers were Artsvik Minasyan, member of the ARF faction of the National Assembly, Hranush Kharatyan, a noted ethnographer and public commentator, and Naira Melkumyan, former foreign minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and founder of the “Aybengir” publishing house.

Opening the discussion, Civilitas Foundation director Salpi Ghazarian spoke on how the absence of a culture of political debate within Armenia forces us to seek platforms elsewhere. Thus when we do not have the means to defend our rights in Armenian courts, we are compelled to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, or if there is no possibility of debate in Armenia’s parliament, the issue moves to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Part 3