Author: Liana Toganian

Attorney Mikayel Shkhimyan posted the following on his Facebook page:

“A little while ago, with the purpose of staging a show in the building of the National Security Service (NSS), officers of the NSS threw my client to the ground in the obscenest way and videotaped him (my client is Mher Avagyan had come to the NSS building with me, his son is a veteran of the 44-day war in Artsakh and continues his military service, defending the borders of Armenia in the sector near Nakhchivan).

I will report other violations committed within the scope of the political case that has been launched.”

Various public and political figures are being apprehended and taken to the NSS for a few hours now. Earlier, masked officers of the NSS apprehended co-founder of Quartet Media, political analyst Karen Bekaryan in his house and took him to the NSS. Officers also conducted a search in the office of former chief of staff of the National Assembly Ara Saghatelyan and two other offices near that office, after which Saghatelyan was taken to the NSS. Azerologist Anzhela Elibegova was also apprehended.

Azerologist Anzhela Elibegova and constitutional expert Gohar Meloyan, who had been apprehended and taken to the National Security Service, exited the building of the National Security Service a little while ago.

“I have absolutely no idea what is going on and why I was taken to the National Security Service. The officers seized my mobile phone and my office computer, in which there was information, including information about Azerbaijan’s war crimes that I was going to submit to the Human Rights Defender,” Anzhela Elibegova told reporters.

Gohar Meloyan added that first the officers searched their offices and then took them to the National Security Service where the investigators refused to show the court decision by which they could conduct a search.

Meloyan said she still doesn’t understand why she was apprehended and only added that she and Elibegova were interviewed as suspects, but refused to testify.

I was one of the first among the politicians to announce that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was not going to resign, despite the fact that the government was trying to persuade both the public and the opposition to the contrary. Parliamentary opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP Naira Zohrabyan stated this in a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am on Monday, commenting on Sunday’s meeting between the MPs of the ruling My Step bloc and Pashinyan.

Zohrabyan recalled that Pashinyan was trying to reach an agreement with the parliamentary opposition by proposing a joint memorandum considering his resignation, but only if the opposition did not nominate a candidate for PM. “As it is known, the leader of our party, Gagik Tsarukyan, categorically refused this proposal,” the MP added.

She noted that the current government has tried to put forward an absurd notion that they can dissolve the parliament, but PM Pashinyan will remain in power and will continue to lead the country. “However, they realized that this is problematic, as the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and international organizations would oppose this initiative,” the PAP lawmaker added.

According to Zohrabyan, the government has become convinced that it cannot achieve the desired support either in the provinces or in the capital Yerevan, and this was also the reason why it decided not to hold early parliamentary elections.

Naira Zohrabyan agreed that the activities of the opposition have slightly decreased after the New Year, but she assured that their fight against the current government will resume with new force.