Aravot.am asked the Head of the Chair of YSU Iranian Studies, Vardan Voskanyan, to interpret as an orientalist about the reliability of the news that a certain Arsen Safaryan, who graduated from the Theological Seminary of the city of Qom, Iran, is elected a religious leader of Muslim Armenians in Armenia and Artsakh, whether there are Muslim Armenians in Artsakh and Armenia and, in his opinion, why the same information is “revived”. “First, it is necessary to find out whether such an institution generally functions of not, whether there is such a person or not. The news was spread out in May by one media resource, from which it was taken and reprinted, and for no reason, now, when there is an opportunity for the information, the same news is “revived”.
If we look at the content of the news, or, more precisely, the disinformation, then we would see a strange thing in it, allegedly a person graduating from the Theological Seminary of the city of Qom, Iran, is elected a Mufti, while Shiite does not have an institution of Mufti as such. To make it clear for our citizens what it is about, it should be noted that it is approximately the same as let’s say the graduate from the Theological Seminary in St. Etchmiadzin is elected a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, which is actually absurd. There are no Muslim Armenians in Armenia, maybe there are individuals but not a community as far as I know. Certainly, we have Hamshen Armenians in the Turkish territory, but the existence of such a community in the territory of Armenia is highly questionable,” said the orientalist.
As for putting the news back to the circulation, he believes that its aim is to attract the readers’ attention to this resource. “I do not think that there is any intention or something planned in advance. However, I think that it would be right to carry out a journalistic investigation and find out whether there exist such a person or such a community, and where is the source of such information”, said the Head of the Chair of Iranian Studies at Yerevan State University, Vardan Voskanyan, to Aravot.am.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
