For many years the problem of racism, xenophobia and intolerance is on close inspection of Europe, Armenia's Foreign Minister, Edward Nalbandyan, said at the opening ceremony of the international conference "Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Europe" held in Yerevan, 21 October.
"There is such a problem not only in Europe but also outside it. And it is becoming more and more relevant in the information technologies century", - Nalbandian said.
For his part, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland said it is necessary to draw out programmes to change human mentality which will make it possible to stimulate combating racism and xenophobia. He also added that the display of xenophobia and intolerance in the statements by politicians and in mass media is inadmissible, as they promote dissemination of these processes even more. We should be brave enough to combat these problems, he said and added that the political power should understand that racism ruins the society, and we have to fight it jointly, Jagland said.
He also added that the display of intolerance is a serious obstacle on the way of democracy development, and we need joint efforts to fight it.
High level conference "combating Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Europe" is being held in Yerevan on 21-22 October.