The party’s parliamentary group claimed that Taguhi Tovmasian, the chairwoman of the parliament committee on human rights, “showed an indifferent attitude towards … hate speech in various situations, including a committee meeting chaired by herself.” It said Tovmasian must therefore be dismissed by the National Assembly.
The parliament’s pro-government majority referred to the April 4 meeting during which the committee discussed two candidates for the then vacant post of Armenia’s human rights defender. The meeting was marred by verbal abuse and threats shouted by some Civil Contract deputies at Edgar Ghazarian, the candidate nominated by the Armenian opposition.
Those deputies were incensed by Ghazarian’s claim that the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power was in fact a “Turkish-Azerbaijani revolution.” One of them, Artur Hovannisian, publicly pledged to “cut the tongues and ears of anyone” who would make disparaging comments about the regime change.
Hovik Aghazarian, another pro-government lawmaker, defended Hovannisian’s scandalous behavior at the April 4 meeting, saying that it was “two levels below what was admissible in that situation created by Taguhi Tovmasian.”
“I could not ban Edgar Ghazarian from expressing any view during the committee meeting just like I could not prevent Artur Hovannisian from publicly threatening to cut the opposition candidate’s ears and tongue,” countered Tovmasian.
“Lies have become the linchpin of the activities of the Civil Contract faction and the party as a whole,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Tovmasian, who is a former journalist and newspaper editor, claimed that Pashinian personally ordered his loyalists to strip her of the parliamentary post in retaliation against her defection from his political team following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan.
The National Assembly is scheduled to debate the issue on Tuesday. Tovmasian said she will not attend the session because of being on sick leave. She expressed hope that fellow lawmakers will not discuss her fate in her absence.
Despite a resulting uproar, law-enforcement authorities declined to investigate the threats. Nor did Pashinian’s party take any disciplinary action against its lawmakers involved in the ugly scenes. It appears to have decided instead to replace Tovmasian, who is affiliated with the opposition Pativ Unem bloc.
One of the parliament’s three deputy speakers, Ishkhan Saghatelian, and the chairman of the parliament committee on economic affairs, Vahe Hakobian, were ousted in July 2022 after weeks of anti-government protests organized by their Hayastan alliance and Pativ Unem. Another Hayastan deputy, Armen Gevorgian, immediately resigned as chairman of a committee dealing with “Eurasian integration” in protest. Tovmasian pointedly declined to follow suit.
