Karine Danielyan: The women who prefer being mothers deserve the same respect as female politicians

 In 1991-94, you were the
Nature Protection Minister of the Republic of Armenia. Do you remember when you
started tackling environmental issues?

Before being appointed minister, I took an active part in an
environmental movement. As far as I remember, a decision was taken to involve
the movement activists in the Government. Moreover, a survey was conducted at
the relevant universities and institutes. 

To be honest, I was not so much eager to become a minister, because I
was sure that a minister’s post was not for my temper. A year before that, I was
Vice Mayor of Yerevan and I managed to realize all the difficulties of such
activities. The ministerial position simply became a disaster for me.      

We should not forget what hard situation Armenia faced in the early
1990s. The Karabakh war, the energy crisis… It was almost impossible to speak
of nature protection and make the Government take some decisions amid the war
in Karabakh.

Say, they would release water from Lake Sevan for energy needs. I would
come to the Government and say, “What are you doing?” They would reply, “Do you
want the people to die? We cannot supply the population with electric power even
for 2 hours a day.”   

In the meantime, we were able to involve Armenia in almost all the
international processes and to adopt some laws and by-laws… But in the reality,
it was very hard, if not impossible, to do the nature protection minister’s job
under those conditions.  

I constantly felt distress. I did not sleep for almost 4 years – a year
at the Municipality and three years of work at the Government. I was thinking
all night long: there was no money, no fuel, no machines… no monitoring could
be conducted… As a result, I seriously fell ill and left the Government.

You have said that you were
afraid the minister’s position was not for your temper. What aspects of your
personality do you mean?

I do not like heavy-handed people at all. I prefer a friendly and
consensus-based method of management. On the one hand, that method has a lot of
advantages, but on the other hand, there always emerge people who abuse that
confidence and stop performing their duties. This leads to a chaos. The best
way out is to find the aurea mediocritas.   

You are still engaged in
active environmental activities. To put it crudely, you have to fight with men
to attain the goals set.

It is noteworthy that they constantly speak of discrimination against
women, but I have never felt that discrimination myself. I only felt some
discomfort when I attended the Government’s sessions and I was the only woman
there.

One day the then prime minister – I don't even want to give his name –
reproached me undeservingly at a governmental session. I answered
him back. He said something else,
and I answered him back again. It
grew into something unpleasant. Then he said, “So, what shall I
do now? Shall I
apologize?” “As you wish,” I replied. During the break, all the
men approached me and said, “What kind of people, you, women, are! You are reproaching
and scolding us constantly, but you cannot stand being reproached”.     

And how do you manage to make
the Government, the Parliament and the Yerevan Municipality defer to your
opinion?

Well, I cannot say they defer to my opinion so much. But my professionalism
plays a certain role, as a matter of fact.  

Do you think the woman should
be engaged in active public activities, politics or do you believe she should
make her choice in her family’s favor?

I think there should be some women in the power structures to balance
the viewpoints and positions. On the other hand, in most cases, men don’t want
their wives to be stronger or to earn more money. Certainly, some men perceive
such activities of their wives quite normally and they are proud of such
women.     

I believe that everything should be balanced. I respect the choice of
the women, who prefer being mothers and bringing up their kids rather than
being engaged in the politics, science, etc. Such women deserve the same
respect as the female politicians.