In Arman Ghukasyan’s opinion, violence is a violence in itself
On October 1, on Thursday, the “Violence against Women” Coalition organized a campaign at the Republic Square related to the National Day to Combat Domestic Violence.
President of “International humanitarian development” NGO, Arman Ghukasyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am, told that there is no such problem in Armenia. “Should you see the possible indicators that exist, at least official, focusing the attention of the whole world on the fact that women in Armenia are harassed, it seems to me it is not right for us to create the image of an Armenian woman and give characters of victims to our women when Armenia is officially considered the last in the list of the CIS and NATO countries, where violence is used against women. To say that it is necessary to adopt a law in Armenia on the state level, to pass a law at the National Assembly on violence against women, I believe, is raising the issue artificially and attracting the attention of the whole world. We ourselves should be surprised that this law in necessary in Armenia in general, because, in my opinion, there is no such necessity at all.”
According to the police, in the first half of 2015, the number of domestic violence makes 447 cases. We asked Arman Ghukasyan whether this official data is low, he replied, “Firstly, this 400 is a very small number if we compare with other countries where a similar law is passed. Secondly, let us understand what is meant by violence, a domestic violence. Violence is a violence in itself. What is the difference of whether it was conducted outdoors, at work or at home? Let’s take these 400 cases, let us go deeper and understand, a man has shouted to his wife, and the wife has picked up the phone and called the police, there can be such a case of course, it is recorded as a family violence against the wife. I do not think that it is a violence. First of all, we must understand what is meant by violence, secondly, the concept of family violence is also an artificial concept for me, and we must understand which of these 400 cases can be regarded as a domestic violence and which can be considered something else.”
To our observation that almost every day we can see programs on TV about domestic violence, Arman Ghukasyan replied, “There is no country in the world where there are no murderers, thieves and people who do violence to other people. But I repeat once again, what is a domestic violence? Such a notion, for example, is not clear for me because violence is a violence in itself. What does it matter? Let us, then, formulate one more new similar concept – a labor violence. It is the violence that occurs in the workplace, or a school violence, or a street violence. Why is the attention focused on the phrase of domestic violence? Can you explain this to me? I as a citizen of the Republic of Armenia do not understand at all that if all of this make a very small number in Armenia, then why are we passing a law at the state level?”
In the end, he added, “I’m calling on behalf of my organization for our human rights organizations not to be involved in introducing a new culture into Armenia, but to preserve our national values, and present the image of the Armenian woman as it is rather than as a victim or mistreated.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
Photo from Arman’ Ghukasyan’s Facebook page
