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Press Review


“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that law-enforcement authorities are investigating “possible abuses” committed by Hrayr Tovmasian, the Constitutional Court chairman who is at loggerheads with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, in the past. The pro-government paper dismisses opposition claims that this is part of broader government efforts to force Tovmasian to resign. It alleges, for its part, that Tovmasian and most other Constitutional Court members are “subordinate to the former authorities.” It goes on to accuse Tovmasian of seeking to free former President Robert Kocharian from prison.

“Zhamanak” says some civic groups and individuals are increasingly calling on the current authorities to make a “political evaluation” of Armenia’s former governments. The paper says the authorities need to understand first “political and consequences” of such an assessment and decide to gauge former officials’ responsibility for questionable things done in Armenia. “For example, is a teacher involved in electoral fraud a victim or accomplice of the former system?” it asks. It also says a formal condemnation of a handful of former officials would be a “self-deception” on the part of Pashinian’s government.

“Zhoghovurd” says that there has been an increase in allegations about ill-treatment of LGBT people in Armenia lately. The paper dismisses these allegations as a ploy by gay rights groups “buoyed” by the authorities’ intention to have Armenia’s parliament ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence signed in Istanbul in 2011. It says that such public relations “shows” organized by those groups are meant to serve as a further justification for the ratification.

“The sad thing about this affair is that our country’s image abroad is damaged in the process,” “Zhoghovurd” goes on. “People abroad are left with the impression that in Armenia [LGBT] people are caught, beaten and tortured in the street. Yet the fact is that homosexuals, transgender people and other representatives of that category have become quite active after the [2018] revolution and are now enjoying freedom. They even dared to attack a police station [in Yerevan] and got away with that.”

(Lilit Harutiunian)

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