GOVERNMENT JUSTIFIES ITS SONS
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.am
29 Aug 06

The Armenian government is a surprising thing. It never forgets what
it needs, but it often forgets about things that the society needs.

Or it does not know what is necessary most of all for the society
in Armenia. It is law, or as it is accepted to say, only say, the
rule of law. It is when everyone is equal before what was written
and accept what was written. But lo and behold, the government does
everything to create inequality before the law. The purpose is clear.

By placing equal categories of people on different hands of the
scales of the law the government insures itself. The point is that
by dividing the society the government justifies, "legalizes" its
separation from the law.

The examples are many and there is no need to look for them because
these are offered to the public almost every day. So we have a
fresh example, which is a month old but seems to have just become a
subject of public debates. It is the government decision on deferment
of military service in three universities in Yerevan, the Slavic
University, the French University and the European Regional Academy.

The government did not forget what it needs and returns to the idea of
drafting students. This idea, which is 2 years old, occurred to the
head of the Ministry of Defense. At that time all the universities
were affected, the graduate students, which gave rise to a surge of
protest among students. The government had to give up the idea of
drafting students in the middle of their studies, because in the same
period the opposition was also very active, and there was danger that
the students would spark a movement of the opposition.

This time they seem to have decided part by part, not the whole
at once. But the problem is the phenomenon, which is unclear and
simply unfair. The point is that the students of three universities,
in fact, appear to have unequal rights compared with the students of
the other universities. In other words, the suspension of the right to
defer military service breaks the Constitution because the basic law
obliges the government to provide for equal economic competition. The
government may say that there are other universities where military
service is not deferred. Of course there are, and this affirms that
either military service should be deferred in all the universities
or not deferred at all.

The next unfair thing is a connotation of the decision of the
government, which allows making a number of suggestions. In the
Slavic University, the French University and the European Academy
the right to defer military service was not taken away fully. The
Slavic University is given 200 places, the French University 70 and
the European Academy 30. In other words, even in this case there
is no equality. Why? Is that because the Slavic University is a
Russian university and the other two are European? But our relation
with France is no less "strategic" than with Russia. Consequently,
we deal with another motive.

The government gives one reason – the army. And it could not give
another reason. It is beyond doubt that the army needs soldiers. But
it appears that especially the soldiers of the abovementioned three
universities are appreciated highly by the defense ministry. In fact,
it is rather pleasing for the students of these universities that
the defense ministry appreciates them as future soldiers, but these
students will also ask why only them. Or for instance why the defense
ministry does not appreciate the sons of public officials, generals and
other officials of the Command as future soldiers. Aren’t their sons
for military service, or does the defense ministry consider military
service a "low mission", not worthwhile for sons of generals? The
government should answer these questions, otherwise many other
questions occur. It is necessary to explain why the legal demand for
military service is distributed unevenly to everyone, including the
students of Yerevan State University, the University of Economics and
other universities. Is this an effort to justify the unequal state
of their sons?