“It isn’t Fair, Sakunts”, concluded N. Malyan
13:13, January 23, 2013 | News | Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces
Human rights protagonist Artur Sakunts, Chairman of HCA-Vanadzor made the below mentioned post on his Facebook page: “625 Apostolic Church clergymen have been exempted from military service or received deferments by the resolution of RA Government, while 444 representatives from a religious organization “Jehovah’s Witnesses” have been convicted to imprisonment because of renouncing military service since 1998. While, at the public level it is an overstated fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses demolish the army, go against the national interests and etc… However, the numbers represent a completely different image.” This post received a sharp and abrupt response by political technologist Narek Malyan. Slaq.am tried to clarify what this is conditioned by in an interview with N. Malyan.
“Sakunts has tried to compare two quite unrelated numbers and via such a comparison he has attempted to form some attitude towards the Armenian Apostolic church, or to put it this way, to predispose the society against the Armenian Apostolic church”, Narek Malyan began his response by such a statement and then justified, “The numbers are as follows: With a light movement of his hand, Sakunts compared the number of individuals having taken a deferment with the number of those having renounced military service. It is clear and explicit for any reasoning person that people holding different statuses are meant. I think, to compare an individual who, supposedly, must go to the army in September instead of May with another person who renounces serving in the RA Armed Forces, to put it mildly, is unreasonable and I see a certain tendency here. I do not want to think that Artur Sakunts isn’t good at reasoning; I am more inclined to think that he has deliberately compared different numbers. As in a well-known anecdote where 28 is divided by Friday and yields 9. It is very similar to the rolling of thimbles in front of GUM market only in a more global shape.
To our question on what goal Sakunts pursues, if he is a member of “Jehovah’s Witnesses” religious organization, Narek Malyan brought about the conjecture, according to which, “During his teen years Sakunts hated the Apostolic church and was keen on Jehovah’s witnesses. And I cannot let anyone think that Sakunts can afford just a human’s ridiculous rig in return to a few pennies. The whole gist is to formulate a negative attitude of the society towards the Armenian Apostolic church. How ethical is that, I will leave it for public judgment? I anticipate that Sakunts will more specifically present the number of Armenian Apostolic Church clergymen, who have avoided military service. I will see and then compare. Sakunts, it isn’t fair”, stated Narek Malyan by directly turning to Sakunts. “It isn’t significant to me who is lying or driving the society into delusion, let it be an oligarch or a self-appointed human rights activist”, concluded Narek Malyan.