A new force has emerged in Armenia, which causes serious concern in the higher echelons of power - the students who have been protesting against abolishing temporary exemptions from military service for the second week, and their protest actions can have serious consequences, the Armenian media writes.
The youth of Armenia is ceasing to be manageable. Evidence of this were the protests and strikes that have lasted for the second week, young Armenians took to the streets to defend their right to temporary exemptions from military service, which means the right to peace and knowledge, which causes serious concern in the higher echelons of power. At the same time, the National Assembly of Armenia, with the exception of the members of the scandalously known Yelk block, did not even try to listen to the voices of young people: on November 15, they adopted the draft law "On military service and the status of serviceman" in the second and final reading with a majority of 86 votes. Only six members of the Yelk block opposed the draft law. Thus, the parliament deprived state-sponsored students of temporary exemptions from military service.
"The Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan convened a meeting with the participation of the rectors of the universities. He tried to find out how each of them control the situation in their universities and what measures are being taken to prevent mass strikes. The newspaper has been informed that the Minister of Education - a member of the Dashnaktsutyun party - ordered rectors to instruct their professors to register all student absenses, but at the same time the issue of expulsion of protesting students should not be spoken," the Zhoghovurd newspaper writes.
The Ayuts Ashkhar newspaper continues the topic: "Yesterday, like most part of this week, students from various universities held a protest against abolishing temporary exemptions from military service. On the day before the protesting students were received by the prime minister together with the ministers of defense, education and science. It is interesting that during this meeting the prime minister and the minister of defense stressed that there will be about 70 decisions of the government, based on the law "On military service and the status of serviceman", and protest participants were invited to join the working group, which will develop these solutions, presenting their proposals and approaches. The students did not accept this proposal. And the question is why?"
A convincing answer to this question is given by another Armenian newspaper - Hraparak: "While the public is protesting against abolishing temporary exemptions from military service under the law "On military service and the status of serviceman", and Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan is jumping out of his skin to stop the growing wave of protests, Armenian generals have gone underground and do not help the army and the leadership of the Defense Ministry. According to our information, Manvel Grigoryan left for vacation in Dubai at the beginning of the month, next week he will come back to participate in the four-day parliamentary sittings. And Seyran Saroyan, after spending several days in Armenia, returned to Moscow to continue the treatment of his legs. "
However, the generals should not worry: the authorities have already found "whipping boys", and the chairman of the Youth Foundation Karen Avagyan will be the first one," the Zhamanak newspaper writes. "A member of the parliament who has long said goodbye to youth, Karen Avagyan will be the first victim of student protest actions. The authorities annually give his foundation millions of drams to keep young people under his control and make them manageable, while the riot of students showed that Karen Avagyan and several officials paid from his fund have no influence on Armenian students. This can mean two things - either Karen Avagyan spent this money for other purposes, embezzling them, to put it mildly, or the students used this fund, but now they refuse to reckon with Karen Avagyan".
