We sent 18-year-old soldiers to the front to defend us but failed to take care about them – Nairi Sahyan

Panorama, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

“The Armenian spirit is at risk, as the science and culture are being systematically destroyed, which is the result of the policy run by current leaders,” expert in literature Abgar Apinyan stated at a discussion organised by Tovmasyan Foundation on Wednesday. The event brought together arts and culture representatives to discuss actual topics in the sector and the state policy on culture. 

Playwright Liana Antaranyan, present at the discussion, reminded there were honour and respect during the previous authorities. “Over the past three years we were humiliated. This disaster knocked on our doors three years ago when he shut down the ministry of culture,” said Antaranyan, speaking of PM Pashinyan and the ruling force. She called on all colleagues to go to street and stand bu the people in their struggle to remove the authorities. “They have no right to live in our country as they caused whatever damage they could, the issue is about having a state or not, since we are facing the risk of losing the motherland. Go to the square!” said the playwright. 

Nairi Sahyan, the son of prominent Armenian poet Hamo Sahyan, in turn, spoke of the Armenian culture, comparing it to a wall, which has been built over centuries by input from generations. 

“What are we witnessing in culture today? The generations who actually built that wall are ignored. How I see the future of our culture? We should be a fertile soil to get the God’s kindness.” Sahyan noted , adding that people should be governed  by those who have compassion, love their motherland and are ready to sacrifice themselves for it. 

“We sent 18-year-old guys to the front to defend us but failed to care about them and are unable to defend them to date. We are constantly failing to do what we ought to do,” stressed the poet.

Homeland Salvation Movement announces car rally to Masis and Artashat towns

Panorama, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

The opposition Homeland Salvation Movement announced a car rally to be held on February 25. “Tomorrow, on February 25, at 13.00 a car rally is planned to start near Continental restaurant at the beginning of Artashat highway to head to Masis and Artashat towns,” the statement by the Movement said.

It also called on citizens to join the rally which is calling for the resignation of PM Pashinyan and the ruling force. 

President Sarkissian refuses to sign Judicial Code amendments into law

Panorama, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian refused to sign two bills into law and asked the Constitutional Court to pass judgment on them. As the President’s press service reported, the Armen Sarkissian refused to sign the bill on Making Amendments and Addenda to the Constitutional Law the RA Judicial Code and on Making Addenda to the Law on Justice Academy, citing “apparent legal-constitutional problems” emanating from them.

The legislation was approved by parliament on February 3 and submitted to the president for signing on February 4. According to the source, based on the examination of the administration and expert opinions, the president has submitted the bills to the Court along with legal justifications to determine their constitutionality.

To note, the legislation envisaged to increase the number of the judges in the First instance, in the General Jurisdiction and in the Appeal Criminal Courts. According to amendments, the number of the judges in the judicial system will be increased by 17, at least 8 of them in Yerevan. The amendments also established the institution of judges, which will only consider cases related to control over pre-trial proceedings, including those related to arrest as a preventive measure, establishing the legality of detention.

The opposition slammed the amendments  as “political, anti-constitutional,” claiming that pro-government judges will be appointed to the newly created positions.

Newspaper: Civil Aviation Committee chief on vacation in Maldives amid Armenia aviation scandal

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: While the Armenian society is discussing another Armenian aviation scandal over the hijacking of a Boeing 737 and its landing in Iran, the Civil Aviation Committee is issuing a statement that, “The Committee is aware of the location of the aircraft and is currently working closely with the aviation authorities of the countries concerned.”

However, the whole issue is that the chair of the Civil Aviation Committee, Tatevik Revazian, is not in Armenia these days; she has gone on vacation with her family.

On February 7, according to our information, she left for the Maldives islands—on board a Yerevan-Dubai-Maldives flight—to have a rest.

They expected her to return [to Armenia] the day before, but she has not returned yet, albeit the committee has long reconciled with the reality of working without a leader.

Newspaper: Anarchy reigning in Armenia

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: We would not be wrong to say that anarchy reigns in Armenia for several months now, and it manifests itself differently on different days.

We witnessed the last three [respective] episodes during two days. First, on February 22, Armenia was disgracefully presented at the Abu Dhabi military-technical exhibition. In particular, there were no exhibits of Armenian military equipment in the pavilions of Armenian companies, and there were only booklets, whereas in the adjacent pavilion Azerbaijan had presented samples of a large amount of ammunition. And it is ridiculous that the RA Ministry of High Technology had disseminated a message that there were logistical problems and [that’s why] the exhibits [of Armenia] did not reach Abu Dhabi.

Before digesting this, too, Hakob Tshagharyan, former adviser to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, announced yesterday morning that an Armenian plane had disappeared. It turns out that the American plane is in Tehran, whereas the Civil Aviation Committee [of Armenia] is not even aware of it and is trying to conduct an investigation and find out; that is, a plane had disappeared from our country, and we learned about its reasons and fact from a former state official, and again we heard funny explanations.

In parallel with all this, yesterday we were finally convinced that the Prime Minister of Armenia will no longer be able to travel freely in Yerevan, as he used to do before—by traveling on a bicycle or on foot and going on live broadcast. His visit to the Ministry of Environment yesterday morning turned into a movie.

Hundreds of police officers were patrolling Republic Square from all sides, snipers were on the roofs of buildings, and Pashinyan’s bodyguard convoy was reinforced. Besides, he passed that short way under the insults of the demonstrators—and this is already the second case; Pashinyan entered Yerablur [Military Pantheon] in this way on December 19, too. The situation is getting more heated.

Yerevan.Today: Furious police state in Armenia with silent accompaniment of US, EU, CoE ambassadors

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

In fact, there is a caricature, a junta, an anti-democratic, and an anti-popular police state regime in Armenia. Today [PM] Nikol Pashinyan had organized a “police rally” in the center of Yerevan. In addition to the fact that it is a disgrace in itself, it was also a confession-demonstration of the self-destruction of Pashinyan and his “[My] step team.” The thing is that in the past, Nikol Pashinyan and his “step members” used to talk about the large number of police officers, the danger of turning Armenia into a police state, and so on, in the most scurrilous ways, whereas Nikol Pashinyan himself turned Armenia into a ruined, failed country where he still remains in power only with the help of the police-state regime. Analyst Armen Hakobyan wrote about this on Yerevan.Today website.

Moreover, Pashinyan himself, as we see, surrounds the “walkway” with several thousand policemen to walk 100-150 meters in the center of the capital.

By the way, in the past—that is, at the time when Nikol Pashinyan was an oppositionist and shouted about the police state—he and others like him were actively accompanied by the ambassadors of the United States, Great Britain, the representatives of the EU, the CoE [(Council of Europe)]; in general, organizations representing “international human rights.” They are stubbornly silent now. They are silent like a courtesan. Yes, like a courtesan, not a partisan.

What’s really going on?

First of all, it should be noted that since March 2020, the country was under a state of “emergency” for half a year, as if to fight the [corona]virus. In fact, on September 27, 2020, the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war broke out and “martial law” was declared. On November 9, the war ended with Nikol Pashinyan’s capitulation act secretly signed behind the people., whereas the martial law continues for the fourth month already.

On what grounds? None. The government says that you know the [army] General Staff wants that, as if there is still a danger of resumption of hostilities. However, let us remind both our government and the ambassadors of the bastions of democracy that, for example, in Georgia, during the 2008 hostilities, martial law was imposed for only 15 days, and in Ukraine, martial law was maintained for only 30 days during all that time. And the only reason, in my opinion, is that Nikol Pashinyan thinks that under martial law, being surrounded by police, he will extend his rule for still some time, perhaps fulfilling some of his commitments assumed before the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem and to complete the absolute destruction of Armenia.

What is noteworthy?

There is unprecedented police boundlessness in Armenia, absurd and unfounded “martial law,” persecution of opposition figures, active citizens, and public figures is being carried out on the orders of the government on trumped-up charges. On Nikol Pashinyan’s direct instruction, the police use violence against demonstrators in most brutal manners, Andranik Kocharyan, a senior representative of the government, disrespectfully threatens to shoot peaceful demonstrations by people, they are detaining—under the fight against fake [social media accounts]—analysts, arrest a media manager, open a [criminal] case against the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition, and constantly threaten by the lips of various-caliber figures of the government. All this happens almost every day, after the end of the war, there is no political solution; power is kept only by police solutions.

And the once most attentive US embassy ever, the representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe are strangely silent. They don’t even make a noise. Why?

That is, we can safely assume that in the past they were overactive not because they are advocates of democratic approaches, freedoms, human rights, their countries, and Armenia a member of the Council of Europe, but because they needed it that way to impose something on today’s/read— former/authorities. Or we can assume that the ambassadors are additionally funded by our hostile countries in order not to hinder the Nikol state, to prolong it as much as possible, to destroy Armenia and the people. Maybe their silence is concrete silver, perhaps reflected in their bank accounts? Otherwise, if it is neither one case nor the other, then how to explain the ambassadors’ silence towards this number of injustices?

By the way, if I am not mistaken, it is in the functions of the Council of Europe to monitor and respond if a state of martial law is maintained in a member state after the cessation of hostilities, effectively restricting civil rights and freedoms. In our country, I repeat, it is maintained for almost 4 months. And, you ask, where is that reaction?

No, it’s not that the hope is on their talk. But who are they after this silence of theirs?

Armen Hakobyan


Court denies lawyers’ appeal with demand to launch criminal case against Armenia PM Pashinyan

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan on Wednesday denied the appeal of lawyers Hovhannes Khudoyan and Aram Orbelyan, demanding to initiate a criminal case against Armenia’s PM Nikol Pashinyan.

Khudoyan told reporters that a criminal case should have been filed in one part of the appeal, and with the other part, the lawyers should have been given a reasoned decision. “We expect that from now on all such denials shall have proper grounds, all the grounds underlying the decisions shall be presented, so that people can see the possibilities of their appeal,” he added.

Lawyer Aram Orbelyan had submitted a report to the Special Investigation Service regarding Pashinyan’s statements. He demanded that a criminal case be launched against the PM—and under the Criminal Code articles on threatening to kill, causing serious damage to health or destroying large amounts of property; public calls for violence; obstruction of justice and investigation; and defamation of a judge, prosecutor, investigator, the person conducting the investigation, or the enforcer.

105 grand pianos to be placed in Yerevan’s Tsitsernakaberd Hill amid Armenian Genocide anniversary

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

105 grand pianos will be placed in Yerevan’s Tsitsernakaberd Hill amid the Armenian Genocide anniversary.

After the completion of the commemorative events, the pianos will be transferred to the music schools of Armenia, and 10 of them will be transferred to several schools in Karabakh.

The program was planned to coincide with the 105th anniversary of the Genocide. But in 2020, this program was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azerbaijani media continues to publish insulting articles about Armenia’s human rights defender

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

The Azerbaijani media continues to publish insulting and hateful articles about the Republic of Armenia (RA) Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, calling him an “official infected with the fascist bacterium”, “hypocritical” and so on.

Tatoyan took to his Facebook to share an article of the Azerbaijani media on the statements of the Ombudsman regarding the protection of the rights of residents of the border villages of Syunik.

“According to the article, the statements of the RA Human Rights Defender on these issues caused great dissatisfaction in the Azerbaijani media.

The article itself is such that it yet again clearly displays the foundations of anti-Armenianism.

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia will continue its mission for the protection of the rights of Armenia’s border residents—regardless of any pressure brought upon the legal initiatives undertaken from such duties—consistent with its mandate,” Tatoyan said.

Tiran Khachatryan relieved of his post as First Deputy Chief of General Staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian signed a decree dismissing Tiran Khachatryan from the post of First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Earlier the Yerevan.Today published remarks by Tiran Khachatryan in connection with the statement of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan regarding the Iskander.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a statement that arouses disputes in both Armenian and Russian media and political circles.

He commented on the statement of third President Serzh Sargsyan, as the latter was surprised why the Russia-made Iskander ballistic missile in Armenia’s arsenal was not fired on the third or fourth day of the recent war.

Thus, Pashinyan noted that Iskander missiles “did not explode” or “exploded by 10%.”

According to Russian and Armenian experts, Pashinyan questioned the efficiency of Russia-made weapons.

In response to the question, is it possible for the Iskander missile to explode by 10%, Tiran Khachatryan laughed noting that this is not serious.

A few hours later, the defense ministry issued a lengthy statement, claiming that Khachatryan’s words were distorted.