In the publication entitled “There are no Muslim Armenians in Armenia and Artsakh” published in the August 18 issue of “Aravot”, we had addressed a piece of information put into circulation in recent days, according to which someone by the name Arsen Safaryan has been elected a religious leader of Muslim Armenians in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, who, according to the source is a graduate of the Theological Seminary of the city of Qom in Iran. Since the news caused divergence of opinions and has become a subject of heated debates, because many people doubt the existence of Muslims in Armenia, we asked the Acting Director of the Information System of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Fr. Zakaria Baghumyan (in the photo), to comment it. “The rumors circulated in the media that allegedly an Armenian has been elected at the Muslims meeting as a leader of Muslims in Armenia and Artsakh is an incomprehensible and frothy piece of information. According to our information, there are no Muslim Armenians in Armenia and Artsakh, hence we think it is senseless to comment. I would just inform a similar news was disseminated on the Internet several months ago, which was denied over the time. It is obvious that some forces are trying to distort the reality with the help of such fictitious news,” noted the Acting Director of the Information System of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
To the point, Turkologist Hakob Chakryan, also in the conversation with “Aravot”, had noticed a trap in the news, and the Head of the Chair of Iranian Studies at the Yerevan State University, Vardan Voskanyan, described it as absurd. According to Voskanyan, the news reprinted from other source contained several irrational thoughts and rough mistakes, such as the fact that an Armenian graduating from the Theological Seminary of the city of Qom, Iran, has been elected to be a Mufti, while a Shiite Theological Seminary is operating in the city of Qom, and the Shiite has not institute of Mufti. As worded by the orientalist, it is the same as a graduate from the Theological Seminary of Etchmiadzin is elected to be the Cardinal of the Catholic Church of Rome.
G. HAKOBYAN,
“Aravot” daily
