Tuesday, April 4, 2023 Radical Oppositionist Insulted, Threatened By Pro-Government Lawmakers • Gayane Saribekian Armenia - Edgar Ghazarian (right) and pro-government deputy Artur Hovannisian attend a paliament committee meeting, April 4, 2023. Pro-government lawmakers shouted verbal abuse and threats at an opposition candidate for the vacant post of Armenia’s human rights defender as he harshly criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government on Tuesday. The two opposition groups represented in the Armenian parliament reluctantly nominated Edgar Ghazarian, a maverick activist, late last month despite lacking votes to install him as the country’s next ombudsman. Ghazarian as well as the ruling Civil Contract party’s candidate, Deputy Prosecutor-General Anahit Manasian, appeared before the parliament committee on human rights ahead of the ombudsman’s election expected next week. Opposition parliamentarians were conspicuously absent from the meeting, underscoring their apparent reservations about their candidate and Manasian’s almost certain election. The meeting descended into chaos after Ghazarian lashed out at the government in his opening remarks. He urged Armenians to oust a “criminal regime whose tenure has been marred by widespread human rights abuses.” Artur Hovannisian, the number two figure in Civil Contract’s parliamentary group, interrupted the speech to protest against that characterization. Ghazarian further infuriated Hovannisian and other pro-government deputies when he described the 2018 “velvet revolution,” which brought Pashinian to power, as the root cause of Armenia’s current problems. “The obvious decline of all democratic institutions and human rights in our country is the result of the Turkish-Azerbaijani revolution that happened in Armenia in 2018,” declared the radical oppositionist. “We will cut the tongues and ears of anyone who will dare to call our people an Azerbaijani-Turkish group,” shouted Hovannisian. “By describing the events of 2018 as a Turkish-Azerbaijani revolution I don’t mean the behavior of the Armenian people. I mean the beneficiaries of those events,” clarified Ghazarian. The Civil Contract deputies attending the meeting doubled down on insults, taunts and ridicule directed at him. One of them, Narek Ghahramanian, noted mockingly that Ghazarian was beaten up by unknown assailants outside his home last October. “Nobody is going to beat you up here,” Hovannisian told the opposition candidate. “But don’t provoke us. Come on, get out of here!” Ghazarian served as a provincial governor and Armenia’s ambassador to Poland during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule. He became the chief of the Armenian Constitutional Court staff after Sarkisian was toppled in the 2018 “velvet revolution.” He lost that post in 2020. Ghazarian, who is currently not affiliated with any party, set up a fringe opposition group last summer to campaign for Pashinian’s resignation and prosecution on treason charges. It rallied several hundred supporters in Yerevan in August. Ter-Petrosian Demands ‘Notorious’ Parliament Speaker’s Ouster • Naira Bulghadarian Armenia - Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian speaks at a press conference in Yerevan, June 10, 2021. Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian on Tuesday condemned parliament speaker Alen Simonian in unusually strong terms for allegedly spitting at an opposition heckler and said he must be ousted. A Canadian-Armenian member of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party claimed that Simonian ordered his bodyguards to overpower him and then spat in his face after he branded the latter a “traitor” on a street in downtown Yerevan on Sunday. Simonian did not deny spitting at the activist, Garen Megerdichian. He said he was gravely insulted and responded accordingly. Leaders of Armenia’s main opposition groups condemned Simonian’s actions as a “hooligan” act that warrants criminal proceedings. Ter-Petrosian added his voice to the condemnation in an article posted on ilur.am. He blasted “the notorious Alen Simonian’s unforgivable deed” as a “national disgrace.” “As for the word traitor, it is not a domestic curse or a personal insult but a purely political assessment which should be countered by a correct and reasonable response, rather than vulgar speech or saliva … There has never been a leader of a more or less democratic state in the world who was not branded a traitor by his political opponents,” he wrote. “I am not exaggerating at all: his action is the biggest damage done to the reputation of our statehood which can be eliminated only by his removal from office,” Ter-Petrosian went on. “This is the only way to restore the honor of our people in the eyes of the international community.” He said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party, which controls the National Assembly, should initiate Simonian’s ouster “in order not to finally ruin its standing with the people.” Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen Simonian (right) meets Slovak lawmaker Marian Kery, Yerevan, April 4, 2023. Lawmakers representing the party on Monday defended the speaker and blamed the opposition activist for Sunday’s incident. Simonian, who is a senior member of the party and close Pashinian associate, was quick to hit back at the 78-year-old ex-president who had ruled Armenia from 1991-1998. “I’m not a traitor, I never was and never will be,” he wrote on Facebook. “The historian president should know well what the unforgivable mistakes are and the price paid by country leaders who committed unforgivable mistakes in history,” he said. Simonian, 43, is no stranger to controversy. In particular, he angered the families of Armenian soldiers taken prisoner during the 2020 war with Azerbaijan with disparaging comments made about them in late 2021. Last year, Simonian defended his mother after she was caught on camera spitting at opposition protesters and showing the middle finger to them from the balcony of her Yerevan apartment. Pashinian’s Son Denies Assault Claims Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his son Ashot, May 26, 2018. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s son Ashot flatly denied on Tuesday claims by his father’s political allies that he was physically attacked in Yerevan at the weekend. “There was no political or other attack against me,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, I have to personally refute the false information circulating about me.” “As for the spread of the ‘information,’ I think the most surprising thing is who is quoting whom. I don’t even care why,” Ashot Pashinian added in what looked like a jibe at government loyalists who alleged the assault. Parliament speaker Alen Simonian was the first to do that on Monday. Simonian said the “attack on the Armenian prime minister’s son” was part of “a series of provocations” organized by Armenian opposition groups. One of those “provocations,” he said, was Sunday’s incident in downtown Yerevan during which Simonian allegedly spat at an opposition activist who branded him a traitor. The embattled speaker refused to comment on Ashot Pashinian’s strong denial of his claim which was echoed by another senior pro-government lawmaker. Unlike his mother and two of his sisters, the 22-year-old Pashinian Jr. has kept a low profile and not made political statements in recent years. Nor has he been seen accompanying his father on official or working trips abroad. Yerevan To Have No Mayor Until End Of 2023 • Narine Ghalechian Armenia - Former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian attends a session of Yerevan's municipal assembly, September 23, 2022. The post of Yerevan’s mayor will remain formally vacant until the next municipal elections slated for this fall, Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party announced on Tuesday. The tactical decision is clearly designed to boost the party’s and its mayoral candidate Tigran Avinian’s chances in the elections. Yerevan’s last mayor, Hrachya Sargsian, stepped down on March 17 after only 15 months in office. The Armenian capital has since been effectively run by Avinian, one of its deputy mayors. Under Armenian law, the city council controlled by Civil Contract has to meet by April 11 to elect a new mayor. The council majority leader, Armen Galjian, said that he and the other pro-government members of the municipal assembly will boycott the vote and thus make it null and void. “Our faction has decided not to elect a new mayor given that only a few months remain before the next elections,” said Galjian. Isabella Abgarian, an independent member of the council, deplored the boycott. She said Armenia’s political leadership opted it for it simply because Avinian is not a council member and therefore not eligible for the post of mayor now. “They can’t nominate someone else because that person could develop ambitions after becoming mayor, which would interfere with their plans,” Abgarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Avinian will thus remain Yerevan’s de facto mayor and exploit his power of incumbency during the mayoral race, she said. None of Armenia’s major opposition groups have fielded mayoral candidates so far. The last municipal elections were held in September 2018. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s won the overwhelming majority of seats in the city council and installed TV comedian Hayk Marutian as mayor. The council ousted Marutian in December 2021 after he fell out with Pashinian. Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.