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    Categories: 2020

Activist Narek Samsonyan charged over false crime reporting, Adekvad member says

Panorama, Armenia
Feb 15 2020
Politics 17:10 15/02/2020 Armenia

Adekvad party member Lilit Tumanyan denounced the summoning of Chairman of the Civil Consciousness NGO, activist Narek Samsonyan to the Special Investigative Service as “political repression”.

The opposition activist was summoned for questioning on Saturday following an article published on Antifake.am.

Speaking to reporters, Lilit Tumanyan said the activist has been charged as part of an investigation into an alleged false crime reporting case.

Tumanyan stated such charges have been levelled against no one in Armenia so far. She described the law-enforcement authorities’ move as ‘historical’ in negative sense.

“Now we need to understand whose interests we defend – the state, society, or government. Today we have ended up in a situation when these are different phenomena,” she said.

In Tumanyan’s words, not only Narek Samsonyan, but also other opposition figures who dare to criticize Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government are facing political persecution in Armenia.

"Any authoritarian regime that seeks to concentrate power in its hands and exercise total control will never tolerate free and independent media,” she said. “After the overthrow of the legislative, executive and judicial powers, the next in line is mass media.”

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS