- Susan Badalian
A farmer critical of the Armenian government has been detained and held in police custody for 24 hours following a bitter political argument with a pro-government blogger who pledged to have him imprisoned.
The incident occurred at a wholesale agricultural market in Armenia’s Armavir province early this week. The little-known blogger, Aram Avetisian, visited it to talk on camera with farmers selling fruits and vegetables there about the impact of Russia’s ban on agricultural imports from Armenia. He blamed former President Robert Kocharian for the sanctions and assured them that “this problem will also be solved” by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
“Is this the traitors’ information outlet?” Arman Kalashian, a farmer selling watermelons, asked when he noticed Avetisian’s video interviews.
“Who are the traitors?” wondered blogger.
“The ones who surrendered our lands,” replied Kalashian, clearly alluding to the country’s current leadership.
The tense exchange escalated into a furious row, with Avetisian resorting to personal insults and Kalashian responding in kind. The blogger then promised to send the farmer to prison.
“You’ll be put on trial right after I leave this place,” he can be heard saying in a video of the incident posted on his YouTube page.
Kalashian was arrested by police on Thursday in what another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, described as a criminal inquiry into “hooliganism.” He was released without charge on Friday.
Kalashian’s lawyer, Gurgen Grigorian, said that he did not commit any crimes. Fellow traders at the Armavir market also defended the young father of two living in the nearby village of Zartonk.
“He is not guilty of anything,” one of them told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We all are ready to stand by him till the end.”
Avetisian insisted, meanwhile, that he did not report Kalashian to the police. He also said that investigators have not questioned him as part of the probe.
Kalashian’s detention is the latest example of Armenian law-enforcement authorities swiftly cracking down on vocal government critics. No supporters of Pashinian have been prosecuted for offending or voicing threats against opposition politicians and other critics of Armenian officials.
Just recently, an Armenian prosecutor blocked criminal charges against one such supporter who publicly called for the murder of Catholicos Garegin II last December. Pashinian himself has repeatedly insulted his political foes and vowed to jail and “take out” them.
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