Epress.am News from Armenia
Army is a rather sensitive topic: people are often afraid to come out and say what they actually think. This blah blah blah about science and learning, for example, is nothing but an unsuccessful disguise of real thoughts and feelings. The youth do not want to serve in the army (and they are quite right not to) because no one from the leadership of the country or the army can guarantee the provision of several key and very important conditions:
- normal existence (clothes, food, warmth, personal hygiene; why should parents send soldiers underwear, socks, soap, toothpaste and a brush, or food once a month?)
- tolerable conditions, particularly on the front-line, and justice (Why are the sons of the poor always the ones sent to the front-line? Why are the sons of officials always sheltered in warm places and why do they enjoy special treatment from the leadership? Why does not a single crime committed in the army receive a just punishment?);
- dignity (Why can’t beatings, humiliation, killings and driving to suicide be prevented?)
- not a waste but a correct use of time (Why don’t soldiers learn new professions, languages in the army? They have a lot of time for that.)
- and, of course, the most important thing is the threat to life, which is mainly connected not with the enemy, but with a weak defense organization, lack of weapons and ammunition, and the weakness of preventive measures, which in turn derive from the colossal corruption and theft in the army.
That’s what we should talk about, not about education and science. We should come out and demand that before taking all and everyone to the army, they prosecute the thieves in the military, confiscate their means looted from the army, organize normal conditions for service, introduce the principle of justice. Until then, I believe that students must fight.
Yu. A.
Photo taken from PanArmenian.net