Smbat Gogyan: 'I Left the BOC Six Months Ago and Am Writing About It for the First Time'

The former president of the BOC, Smbat Gogyan, wrote on his Facebook page: "I left the BOC six months ago and am writing about the BOC for the first time. Unfortunately, during these six months, a president has not been appointed, and the organization lacks leadership.

On May 22, 2019, I told Petros in the H1 studio that we found extensive excerpts in the dissertation of a Ministry of Education and Science employee, the BOC did not issue a diploma for academic degree to him, and he complained to the minister. The minister initiated an administrative proceeding and formed a commission. Despite the commission confirming the fact of the excerpts and finding even more extensive excerpts, the minister accepted the complaint and instructed the BOC to make a new decision. And I said on air that in the case of rejection, the employee would go to court and a plagiarizing judge would defend him. Many interpreted this as an action against the judicial system, but for me, it was no matter. I was talking about something else: my superior was not being an ally in the fight against plagiarism. That’s what I was saying, while almost no one heard it.

I had personally suggested to the applicant to change the dissertation, re-edit it, bring it to an acceptable state, and defend it again. But no, his goal was to obtain a candidate of sciences diploma with that plagiarized dissertation. During 2019-2020, the minister accepted the complaint four or five times and instructed the BOC to make a new decision, and every time, the BOC rejected the Ministry’s employee’s request for an academic degree diploma.

He understood that he wouldn’t succeed in court, and this could go on indefinitely if I hadn't left the BOC. For more than a month now, the applicant has received his academic degree, of which the BOC’s website is silent. Materials related to the defense process have disappeared from the site, instead, the record of a candidate of sciences has appeared next to the applicant’s name. This is probably a record and a first case in the world since typically either the facts of plagiarism appear after the academic degree is granted or the facts are revealed and the academic degree is not awarded. If last year we saw that the first type was something our society lived peacefully with, then the second type’s normality is just being proven now.

Oh, and a few days ago, the professional council that had held those defenses flooded with plagiarism was reopened. It reopened with the same council president, without any assessment of the past.

After all this, I only have one question: Well, why was I needed by you? Why did you steal those two years of my life? I am indifferent to all these plagiarizers, I have no personal feelings towards them, I was just trying to protect science. And the new regulations for awarding degrees developed in 2019 and discussed with the scientific community were never implemented by the minister, even though they would have had a sufficiently positive impact. Unfortunately, after the 2018 revolution, we as a society did not learn to name things by their name; instead of the judge saying he didn’t understand, he made a mistake, instead of the rector’s deputy saying that he made a mistake but personally guarantees that no one under his leadership will make such a mistake again… we denied our past flaws and pretended that everything was fine. But pretending that everything is fine always collapses and does so very painfully. And the issue is not on the past-present spectrum; the issue is ours. Please do not politicize this."