Change in Terminology Regarding the Incorporation of Eastern Armenia into the Russian Empire in New 8th Grade History Textbook

Concerns have been raised regarding the use of the term "annexation" in one of the headings of the 8th-grade history textbook. Tamara Sargsyan, head of the General Education Department of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (MoESCS), discussed this with journalists.

“We have received various alerts expressing concerns, after which a discussion took place with the authoring group, and it was suggested to review this approach. As a result, the authoring group has revised the title and aligned it with the terminology used in the subject program for the course ‘History of Armenia.’ Currently, the revised version of the textbook has been sent to the National Institute of Educational Technologies, and after that, the modified version will be posted on the website and sent for printing,” she stated.

When asked if this was a mistake, the department head replied, “It’s not really a mistake; perhaps they had not considered the issue from that perspective. We have a very important regulation: after the textbook is guaranteed, it is placed in the ministry’s resource repository or on the National Institute of Educational Technologies' website. A two-week period is given for teachers, parents, and the public to familiarize themselves with the textbooks. This gives us an additional opportunity to review the material and make revisions if there are any errors before it goes to print,” Sargsyan added.

She emphasized that the main complaints were related to the title rather than the content, as the content expresses the events that occurred sequentially in the 19th century.