Turkologist Hakob Chakryan sees a trap in the news, which says that an Armenian Muslim leader has been elected
In recent days, a rumor is circulated citing the Caucasian Review, according to which, a religious leader of Muslim Armenians of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh has been elected. The interpretermag.com has also reported about it. This has caused a great fuss and has become a subject of discussions in the social media. But in all opinions, in thing is highlighted: there are no Muslim Armenians in Artsakh and Armenia. For example, one user of the Facebook wrote, “Forcibly Islam converted Armenians, who find strength in themselves to come back to their true faith, there are no substantiations and sense to blame these people. But creating a mufti with the hands of Armenians on the Armenian land is not logical. In the future, the issues like building mosques and having classes of Koran at schools and so on and so forth will be raised, which will lead our country surrounded by Muslim world to a complete destruction…”
Another user writes, “The Georgians are using this concept long ago, thanks to which Hamshen Armenians who converted Islam and reside in Adjara province were declared Muslim Georgians and were gradually assimilated, while Armenians were expelling Islamized Armenians, who had to dissolve in the Muslim impersonal mass.” The third one expressed bewilderment, what religion you are talking about in this educated century. To the point, the Caucasian Review and the interpretermag.com mention that the Muslim meeting in Armenia approved Arsen Safaryan, a graduate from the Qom Seminary, also Masters of Islamic philosophy, to take the position of the religious leader. There are no other information about Arsen Safaryan, it is not clear when he was born, what works he has written, although in the article, he is presented as a serious scientist and an author of a number of theological publications. According to the same sources, currently, Armenia’s mufti is a fully independent organization in term of religion.
Turkologist Hakob Chakryan, in the conversation with “Aravot”, was puzzled about the news and especially stressed that there are and have been no Muslim Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia to establish such an organization. As said by Mr. Chakryan, “It is excessive to talk about Mufti. Mufti is the head of the mullahs, in other words, to appoint a Mufti, there should also be mullahs, it is like with us something like a team leader, all the mullahs, the Muslim clerics obey the Mufti. And if there are no Muslim Armenians, there are no Muslim clerics too. So how come Mufti? I do not know what news is this, maybe Arsen Safaryan personally will give answers to some of the questions.” The Turkologist says that in any case, this rumor deliberately put into circulated “smells” a trap. “There are thousands and one questions: a Shi’ite-Sunni conflict and I do not know what. And there are no Shiites and Sunnis in Armenia, in short, it is incomprehensible …”
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Back to the idea in the news that allegedly Armenia’s mufti is a fully independent organization in terms of religion, Hakob Chakryan again insisted, “There are no Muslim clerics and functioning mosques, in other words, it is excessive to talk about mufti. Only the Blue Mosque functions in Armenia, which is under the patronage of the Embassy of Iran to Armenia, there are no Armenian Muslims in Armenia, this mosque is visited only by Persians. There is no hidden Armenian in Armenia, Armenians are hidden in Turkey because they fear and in order to save their lives, they had to accept Islam, some of them is now returning to the sources.” To add that the city of Qom, where the hero of the shocking news, Arsen Safaryan, studied is the administrative center of the province of Qom in Iran. Qom is the holy city of Shiite Muslims, where the highest spiritual religious schools, the mosques, function here. “Aravot” tried to get a comment from the Holy See regarding the news. Head of the Information System of the Mother See, Priest Vahram Melikyan, was on vacation, and Fr. Zakaria Baghumyan promised to make a comment later.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
“Aravot” Daily, 18.08.2015
