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‘The History of Armenian Church” and “The History of Armenians” should be taught separately at public schools since they are unique in terms of forming national identity, academician Ashot Melkonyan, Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Science told Panorama.am in an interview.

Melkonyan’s remarks came in response to comment on the new public education criteria adopted by the Ministry of Education which among other things envisage removal of “History of the Armenian Church” from school curriculum and integrating with the “History of Armenians.”

Speaking on the justification that the school subjects duplicate each other, Melkonyan said: “The History of Armenians presents the narrative of political history, while the second subject presents the History of the Armenian Church based on the history of world religions. Certainly, repetitions in content are not excluded, yet the same happens in subjects such as World History and the History of Armenians. An example of this is the History of Russia in Transcaucasia where you may find episodes related to the Armenian history as well. Do you suggest to drop one of the subjects? I consider repetitions normal as they are aimed at fortifying the knowledge."