The secondary school named after Gurgen Margaryan in Artamet will not be closed and will continue operating, according to Artamet administrative head Gor Ghazaryan.
He said residents had reviewed the list of schools proposed for consolidation by Armenia’s Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, which included the Artamet secondary school, Factor.am reported.
“After seeing that, we appealed to various institutions, including the Prime Minister’s Office. The letter was addressed to the Armavir governor’s office, and about a month ago, we received a clear response that the village school would not be closed. The village is small, with 35 students, including two preschool children. They wanted to merge it with the school in Vanand, where a new school is being built, and children from Artamet were supposed to study there. In response to a letter sent by residents, we were assured about a month ago that no merger would take place,” Ghazaryan said.
According to the administrative head, the issue of renaming the school was never even discussed.
Earlier, Narek Karapetyan, who heads the electoral list of the Strong Armenia alliance, wrote on Facebook that Civil Contract is closing the school named after Gurgen Margaryan.”
On February 19, 2004, in Budapest, Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov killed Armenian Armed Forces officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe while he was asleep. The two officers were participating in English-language courses in the Hungarian capital under a NATO program. A Hungarian court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without parole for the first 30 years, but on August 31, 2012, Hungary extradited him to Azerbaijan. He was immediately pardoned and celebrated as a hero in Baku. In response, Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary, which were restored only 10 years later.
