Tuesday,
Ruling Bloc, Opposition Spar Over LGBT Rights In Armenia
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Anti-LGBT activists demonstrate outside the parliament building in
Yerevan, April 8, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s alliance and the main opposition Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK) on Tuesday continued to blame each other for a transgender
activist’s unprecedented speech in the Armenian parliament which caused a stir
in the socially conservative country.
Pashinian also hit out at former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party
of Armenia (HHK), saying that some of its senior members are “gay activists.”
The scandal broke out during last week’s parliamentary hearings in Yerevan
chaired by Naira Zohrabian, the BHK-affiliated chairperson of a parliament
committee on human rights. They were attended by lawmakers, government
officials as well as representatives of local non-governmental organizations.
One of those groups, Right Side, champions LGBT rights. Its transgender leader,
Lilit Martirosian, also spoke at the hearings, complaining about widespread
hostility and discrimination against sexual minorities in Armenia.
The presence of an LGBT activist on the Armenian parliament floor visibly
surprised and angered Zohrabian. She berated Martirosian for bringing up issues
which she said are not on the agenda of the hearings.
Zohrabian claimed afterwards that the hitherto little-known activist was
invited, without her knowledge, to the hearings by Maria Karapetian, a
parliament deputy from Pashinian’s My Stem alliance. Karapetian and other
pro-government lawmakers denied that, saying that all participants of the
discussion received written invitations from Zohrabian. The BHK parliamentarian
rejected those claims as “blatant lies.”
The bitter recriminations came amid furious reactions to Martirosian’s public
appearance from nationalist and conservative groups hostile to the Armenian
LGBT community. More than a hundred members and supporters of those groups
rallied outside the parliament building on Monday. Riot police stopped them
from entering the building and protesting inside it.
Armenia - Naira Zohrabian, the chairwoman of the Armenian parliament committee
on human rights, speaks during parliamentary hearings in Yerevan, April 5, 2019.
Pashinian weighed in on the controversy on Tuesday, accusing Zohrabian of
staging a “political provocation” against the parliament majority loyal to him.
He said a security agency protecting the parliament building shared with him a
list of individuals, including Lilit Martirosian, invited to the hearings,
which was signed by the Zohrabian.
The prime minister went on to challenge the BHK to consider recalling Zohrabian
and naming another head of the parliament committee.
The BHK’s parliamentary faction, which is the second largest in the National
Assembly, was quick to hold an emergency meeting and voice strong support with
its embattled member.
“Our faction believes that Naira Zohrabian did not violate any rules of ethical
parliamentary conduct or provisions of the parliament statues or any other
legal norm,” said Gevorg Petrosian, another senior BHK parliamentarian known
for his vocal opposition to LGBT rights.
The BHK’s top leader, Gagik Tsarukian, threw his weight Zohrabian on Monday.
Tsarukian described people’s non-traditional sexual orientation as a “vice”
which must not be allowed to “spread” in Armenia.
Another BHK deputy, Vartan Ghukasian, went farther, saying that all “perverts”
must be expelled from the country. “Send them to Holland,” Ghukasian told
reporters. “We want … females to be females and males to be males. You can’t
mix female with male. It’s shameful.”
Pashinian’s bloc was also attacked by Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for the
former ruling HHK. “Yes, something has changed in our country. Under the HHK, a
transgender person would not have delivered a speech in the National Assembly,”
Sharmazanov said in a video statement posted on Facebook on Friday.
Pashinian countered that Martirosian had legally changed her previous, male
first name, Vagharshak, during Sarkisian’s rule. He said that the transgender
activist’s current passport issued in 2015 identifies her as a male. “Is it a
common practice among the Republicans to have men named Lilit?” he scoffed.
“When I was telling them that ‘you are gay activists’ they did not believe me,”
Pashinian added mockingly. “They just can’t avoid that status and this is
further proof [of that.]”
Meanwhile, the fallout from Martirosian’s public statement prompted serious
concern from the European Union. In an extraordinary joint statement issued on
Tuesday, the EU Delegation in Armenian and the Yerevan-based embassies of EU
member states condemned “hate speech, including death threats directed at Ms.
Lilit Martirosian, her colleagues and the LGBTI community as a whole.”
“The EU calls on all in Armenia who promote and believe in the universality of
human rights to condemn hate speech and on law enforcement agencies to take
urgent steps to guarantee the physical safety of Armenian citizens and to
investigate allegations against those suspected of perpetrating hate crimes,”
said the statement.
Pashinian Rages At Customs Officers
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits a customs terminal in Yerevan,
April 9, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian publicly ordered the sacking of several Armenian
customs officers on Tuesday after accusing one of them of showing a lack of
respect.
“When the prime minister approaches, you must stand at attention,” Pashinian
told the officer while inspecting a customs terminal in Yerevan processing
imported cars. “Not like this,” he said imitating what he saw as the officer’s
relaxed posture.
Pashinian also berated the same officer when he went into an adjacent office
room and saw an unwashed Armenian national flag.
“This is unacceptably dirty, terribly dirty facility,” he said after emerging
the room. “This is an attitude towards people, towards our flag and
coat-in-arms.”
“How many people work in that room?” he asked a more senior official running
the terminal. “Everyone working in that room with such a flag must not work
[for the customs service.]”
Another customs official, Hayk Martirosian, tried to justify the lack of
tidiness there, saying that the officers only recently relocated into that
office and received the flag from another agency.
Pashinian defended his extraordinary order in an ensuing Facebook post. “If I
have to fire tens of thousands of people I will fire them,” he wrote. “But I
will not tolerate such an attitude towards the national flag.”
Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist, insisted that Pashinian has no legal
right to order such firings. “It is the head of the customs service, the head
of the State Revenue Committee, who must first and foremost bears
responsibility for those circumstances,” said Sakunts.
Armenian ‘Fake News’ Suspect Charged After Arrest
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia -- The entrnace to the to the National Security Service building in
Yerevan.
An Armenian social media user highly critical of the government has been
charged with incidting “ethnic, racial or religious hatred” after being
arrested as part of a crackdown ordered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The director of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), Artur Vanetsian,
reported the arrest on Friday. He said that the suspect “hid behind” a Facebook
page called “Dukhov Hayastan Open Society.”
The page, which has more than 2,200 followers, contains derogatory and even
offensive posts on Pashinian and his associates. It was most recently updated
on Thursday evening.
Earlier on Thursday, Pashinian ordered Vanetsian to clamp down on “criminal
circles” which he said “spend millions on manipulating public opinion through
the press and social media.” “That’s a matter of national security,” he said,
singling out “fake” social media users.
The NSS said on Tuesday that the suspect has been formally charged and remanded
in pre-trial custody. It again declined to identify him or her.
The charges brought against that individual carry between three and six years’
imprisonment. The NSS did not cite concrete Facebook posts covered by a
relevant article of the Armenian Criminal Code.
An NSS spokesman said earlier that the National Bureau of Expertise, which is
part of Armenia’s law-enforcement system, has looked into the Facebook page and
concluded that it contains calls for violence against “Armenia’s politicians
and citizens.” The bureau also found “negative evaluations” of an unnamed
Armenian national hero and an ancient cathedral in Echmiadzin as well as
statements undermining “interethnic relations.”
Some opposition politicians and civil rights activists have expressed concern
about Pashinian’s order, saying that it poses a threat to freedom of expression
in Armenia. Shushan Doydoyan, the head of the Yerevan-based Center for Freedom
of Information, on Friday criticized it as hasty and unfounded. She said the
NSS, which is the successor to the Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB secret
police, must not deal with mass or social media content in any way.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” says that one year ago Nikol Pashinian and his supporters moved to
create a “total chaos” in Armenia in their bid to topple Serzh Sarkisian. “Time
has showed that the method chosen by them worked,” writes the paper. Now, it
says, Pashinian’s political foes are trying to exploit controversial government
decisions to try to create a “chaotic situation.” “It is impossible not to
notice the hand of a skilled manipulator who tries to use public discontent
with government decisions for speculative purposes,” it says, pointing the
finger at the country’s former rulers.
“Aravot” defends a bombshell speech that was delivered by a transgender
activist in the Armenian parliament last week. “The life, security and rights
of all of our citizens must be protected, regardless of the specificities of
those citizens,” writes the paper. It cites and dismisses critics’ arguments in
favor of “protecting our national values.” “When it comes to national values,
everyone has their own priorities,” the paper’s editor, Aram Abrahamian, says.
“For me, the supreme value is the Armenian state and its constitution, Article
29 of which prohibits any kind of discrimination.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” comments on protests that were staged in Yerevan on Monday
by furious critics of gay rights and employees of the Spayka company whose
owner, Davit Ghazarian, was arrested on tax evasion charges. “These two events
were certainly not connected to each other,” writes the pro-government paper.
“The only connection is that in both cases the events which caused the protests
were not commensurate with a propaganda outcry accompanied by manipulations.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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