Monday,
Armenian Ombudsman Alarmed By Online Hate Speech
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan speaks to RFE/RL, March 13, 2019
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, expressed serious concern on
Monday about growing hate speech on social media, saying that it has reached
alarming proportions in the country.
“All over the world intolerance on social media is considered a serious
challenge to freedom of speech,” said Tatoyan. “One of the worrying problems of
2019 was the spread of insults, hatred and degrading speech.”
“This vicious phenomenon has reached inadmissible proportions on social media.
Particularly serious is aggression that is spread by fake users and groups,” he
added in in an annual report on his office’s activities and human rights
practices in Armenia presented to the parliament.
Tatoyan urged Armenians to avoid online debates featuring insults, threats or
hateful statements.
Such content posted by local users on Facebook, other social media platforms as
well as comments sections of online media outlets has become widespread in
recent years. Supporters and opponents of the Armenian government routinely use
abusive language to attack and even threaten each other or politicians from the
opposite camp.
Pro-government and opposition politicians regularly accuse each other of running
troll factories to bully and discredit political rivals. They both deny doing
that.
In January this year, a member of Yerevan’s municipal council representing the
ruling My Step bloc caused outrage after urging fellow government supporters to
attack Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian’s daughter on Facebook. My
Step forced him to resign.
In March, Armenian parliament passed legislation criminalizing public calls for
violence or attempts to justify it.
Former PM Karapetian Rules Out Political Comeback
Armenia - Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian chairs his last cabinet meeting
in Yerevan, 3 May 2018.
Former Prime Minister Karen Karapetian said he disagrees with many policies of
the current Armenian government but has no plans to return to active politics
when he made a rare public appearance on Monday.
“I don’t want to engage in politics,” Karapetian said after testifying before an
Armenian parliamentary commission investigating the April 2016 hostilities in
Nagorno-Karabakh. He refused to give any details of his testimony, arguing that
it included state secrets.
Karapetian said on Monday that he monitors political developments in Armenia “to
a certain degree and not in a systematic fashion.”
When asked to assess the current government’s track record, he said: “Today I
wish the government success so that we come out of this situation with minimal
losses because the [coronavirus] problem is really serious. But I don’t agree
with the government on many issues.”
He did not elaborate.
Karapetian was appointed as prime minister in September 2016 by then President
Serzh Sarkisian. He ceded that post to Sarkisian and was named first deputy
prime minister in April 2018 after Sarkisian engineered Armenia’s transition to
a parliamentary system of government.
Karapetian became the country’s acting prime minister just one week later, after
Sarkisian resigned amid nationwide street protests against his continued rule.
But he too had to step down after the Armenian parliament reluctantly elected
the protest leader, Nikol Pashinian, prime minister on May 8, 2018.
Karapetian has kept a very low profile and made no political statements since
then. He resigned as first deputy chairman of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK) in June 2018 and left the HHK altogether December 2018.
Sarkisian’s dramatic resignation came one day after the arrest of Pashinian and
his associates which only intensified the anti-government protests. Karapetian
personally negotiated with Pashinian hours before the latter was set free on
April 23, 2018.
The 56-year-old technocrat refused to shed light on their conversation.
“Whatever we agreed on with Mr Pashinian was our internal agreement,” he said,
adding that neither side has breached it.
Armenia -- Former Prime Minister Karen Karapetian attends the trial of former
President Robert Kocharian, Yerevan, May 8, 2020.
Last week Karapetian and two other former Armenian prime ministers appeared
before a Yerevan court to call for the release former President Robert Kocharian
from custody pending the outcome of his ongoing trial.
Commenting on that move, Karapetian said: “I respect and appreciate Robert
Kocharian’s contribution to the independence and development of Artsakh
(Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia. This judicial process has been going on for
almost two years and it may well last much longer. That is why I submitted a
petition for his release.”
“I think that this process is quite agitated and politicized,” he said when
asked whether he thinks the coup and corruption charges leveled against
Kocharian are politically motivated.
Kocharian strongly denies the charges, having accused Pashinian of waging a
“political vendetta.” Pashinian and prosecutors deny any political motives
behind the high-profile case.
Last December, then Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev appointed Karapetian
as a senior member of a body advising the Russian government on key economic and
social policies. It emerged at the time that Karapetian now also works as an
adviser to the chairman of Russia’s Gazprombank.
Karapetian already held senior positions in Gazprombank and other subsidiaries
of Russia’s Gazprom energy giant when he lived and worked in Russia from
2011-2016. He managed Armenia’s Gazprom-owned natural gas distribution network
from 2001-2010.
Pashinian Accused Of Inciting Violence Against Opposition Lawmakers
• Astghik Bedevian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Deputies from the opposition Bright Armenia Party attend a parliament
session in Yerevan, January 20, 2020.
A major opposition party has accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of condoning
and inciting violent attacks on its members following an ugly brawl that
disrupted a session of Armenia’s parliament on Friday.
The brawl broke out in Pashinian’s presence during a speech delivered by Edmon
Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), on the parliament floor.
Marukian lambasted pro-government parliamentarians and was punched by one of
them before dozens of other lawmakers representing the LHK and Pashinian’s My
Step bloc joined in the resulting melee.
Addressing the National Assembly later on Friday, Pashinian deplored the
violence but effectively blamed it on Marukian’s party. He said that his
political allies should not have succumbed to what he described as a LHK
“provocation” aimed at discrediting the Armenian government.
The prime minister went on brand Marukian’s party as “parliamentary servants” of
former Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian.
In a statement issued on Monday, the LHK condemned Pashinian’s speech, saying
that he thereby “justified, legitimized and encouraged” violence against his
political opponents.
“The incident showed that it took the revolutionary prime minister only two
years to completely dismantle and demolish the ideas, values and principles
declared by that revolution,” it said, referring to the 2018 protest movement
that toppled Sarkisian and brought Pashinian to power.
Armenia -- Pro-government and opposition deputies brawl on the parliament floor,
Yerevan, May 8, 2020.
The LHK, which is one of the two opposition parties represented in the current
National Assembly, also strongly denied having ties to Armenia’s former rulers.
“The prime minister is deliberately labeling Bright Armenia as representatives
of the ‘former regime’ in order to justify the hooligan behavior of his deputies
in the eyes of his supporters,” it charged.
“What is more, My Step members portray all of their opponents and critics as
enemies of the state and the people and anti-state elements who can be
legitimately assaulted,” added the LHK statement. It claimed that this
“totalitarian mindset” could eventually lead to authoritarian rule in Armenia.
In a weekend video address livestreamed on Facebook, Marukian similarly accused
Pashinian of “encouraging” his loyalists to assault opposition figures. “This
speech [by Pashinian] demonstrated that their clock is ticking,” he added.
The brawl occurred one day after Pashinian and Marukian held an unexpected
one-on-one meeting in the parliament building. The opposition leader claimed
afterwards that they only discussed recent developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.
Pashinian said in his parliament speech, however, that they also spoke about
domestic political issues. He said he told Marukian that he has “grounds to
suspect that you and your activities are an integral part of a plan to use
psychological, moral and, ultimately, physical violence” against Armenia’s
political leadership and its allies.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) talks to a parliament deputy from
his My Step bloc, Yerevan, May 6, 2020.
In his Facebook transmission, Marukian admitted that Pashinian alleged possible
ties between the LHK and the former regime during their conversation. He
suggested that the premier might have been angered by his remark that Armenia’s
next government will be formed by the LHK.
Hrachya Hakobian, a My Step lawmaker, accused the LHK leader of lying about the
agenda of Thursday’s meeting with Pashinian. Hakobian, who is also Pashinian’s
brother-in-law, defended the prime minister’s and the parliament majority’s
stance on Friday’s incident.
Levon Barseghian, a veteran civic activist who actively participated in the 2018
“Velvet Revolution,” said, meanwhile, no “provocation” can justify the violent
response to Marukian. He said that Sasun Mikaelian, the My Step deputy who was
the first throw a punch, must be “held accountable.”
Barseghian also argued: “The same opposition people formed, together with Nikol
Pashinian, the opposition in the [former] parliament and they also harshly
criticized the [former ruling] Republican Party.”
Pashinian and Marukian used to co-head the Yelk bloc that challenged Armenia’s
former leadership. The bloc fell apart after Marukian and his party refused to
join mass protests launched by Pashinian in April 2018 against Sarkisian’s
attempt to extend his decade-long rule.
Armenia -- Parliament deputy Sasun Mikayelian speaks to journalists, Yerevan,
October 27, 2019.
Meanwhile, Mikaelian remained unrepentant and blamed Marukian for the brawl on
Monday. He also dismissed calls for his resignation from the parliament. He said
he will quit only if Marukian does the same.
“It was [Marukian’s] fault,” declared the 62-year-old veteran of the
Nagorno-Karabakh war. “If he’s man enough to hand his mandate I’ll hand mine
too.”
A senior member of Marukian’s LHK, Gevorg Gorgisian, dismissed the offer as
“nonsense.” “It’s like catching a robber and the victim of a robbery and
prosecuting them on the same charge,” he said.
Mikaelian also set another condition. He demanded an apology from Marukian’s
younger brother Edgar who insulted him in a Facebook post which was subsequently
deleted by the latter.
“Young man, your mother is sacred for me, but if you don’t apologize for what
you said … you all know who I am, my actions, my words, and nothing good will
await you,” Mikaelian warned in the parliament.
Gorgisian condemned the warning as a threat of fresh violence. He said that
unlike Edgar Marukian, Mikaelian is a state official and must behave
accordingly. “The National Assembly is not the place for a language of threats,”
Gorgisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
