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The Armenian communities must have the corresponding will to address the issues related to national minorities. For decades, an imitation of problem-solving has been created, while the problems still persist.
«Armenpress»- reported that this opinion was expressed by MP Rustam Bakoyan during a discussion organized by the joint efforts of the Human Rights Defender and the Council of Europe.
He emphasized that, for example, early marriage is considered a major issue in the Yezidi community and recalled that in 2018, a law was adopted in Armenia allowing girls to marry at the age of 16. «When I was already in parliament, I worked for about six years to present a draft law prohibiting early marriages with my colleagues.
For this purpose, we raised the marriage age threshold to 18, but that is still not enough.
Our government partners must be able to bring this issue out of the community and make it a subject of broader discussion with civil society and national minorities. When we studied this issue specifically in the Yezidi community, our scope of research expanded, and we noticed that this problem also exists in many other rural areas of Armenia,» Bakoyan said.
He particularly highlighted the issues of the Yezidi community because, according to his assertion, adding up the number of all national minorities and multiplying it by three would yield the number of Yezidis, where the issue of early marriages is more pronounced. Bakoyan added that they have worked on a reformed version of the «Law on National Minorities» and have brought new proposals to ensure that it is included in the agenda of the new parliament in its reformed state. The MP insisted that as a representative of the Yezidi community, he has sufficient will to implement changes, having certain opportunities in the form of legislative levers.
«The obstacles present in the communities of national minorities are at the core of our observations; we strive for women to have broader opportunities to defend their rights. In communities where the number of national minorities constitutes 75 percent or more, people will have the opportunity to receive education in their native language, conduct cultural events in their native language, and be educated in various groups. This is very important for the preservation of identity.
I would not want to see an illiterate community in Armenia; it may sound harsh, but it is a straightforward statement, therefore it is necessary to eliminate early marriages in the Yezidi community, which will allow girls to receive education, work, be prepared for married life in the future, and raise their future children well-educated and well-mannered,» Bakoyan said.
According to him, there are still many problems, but consistent and joint efforts must be made in the path to their resolution. Bakoyan emphasized the importance of cooperation with the Human Rights Defender in this regard. In his opinion, attributing the solution of the problem solely to the government will not yield effective results.
* This text was automatically translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
