I remembered a story told by my father that reminds me of the struggle of the current male students of not going to the army. He has been accepted to the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Moscow at 17, in 1945. His coursemates were the young men who had returned from the Great Patriotic War, from whom my father singles out Evald Ilyenkov. A harpsichord was standing in his house and Ilyenkov played classical compositions rather fluently. The hell of the war did not impede him from becoming a remarkable scientist (read his books, you will enjoy greatly), a skilled intelligent, it did not hinder him from preserving his skills of playing the harpsichord even.
And why should the knowledge evaporate from the future scientists after the Bachelor’s degree during the army service, is not understandable. Especially when the regime of the suggested service will give an opportunity not to cut off from books, of course to those who are indeed committed to the science and do not pretend as if they are concerned with the future of the science in Armenia. Within the frameworks of this topic, the behavior of one of the young men, our fellow Armenian who had finished his army service was also noteworthy.
Harutyun Badalyan, participant of April War, the knight of the Military Cross, has recently expressed his opinion also implying that army service cannot impede education and science. However, I especially was in favor of how he was speaking about it – “I was studying at Agrarian University before the army service, the service helped me to decide and I now study at Economic University. I am not a “fidai”, “I am a soldier”, “a freedom fighter”, “I am a soldier who has fought”, “I have poured blood”, from which we should infer that such man can be permitted and forgiven everything. No, “I have served in the army, now I am a student” – that mentality seems to me not solely more modest and decent, but also more proper to a citizen, as compared to “Caucasian hat”, “bandolier” and “the dance of the mauser holders”.
The contemporary army needs people with higher education, education and science are a requirement to the army, and for the development of the latter the army can and should become a promoting force. No one seems to dispute the interconnectedness of these fields. A debate is in process on who has served how and not served in the army at all, instead. This is, in contemporary language, a “trolling”.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
