By Edik Baghdasaryan,

Today, the Armenian authorities consider the media and journalists to be their number one enemy. It’s because they are not afraid of the opposition. They are only afraid of journalists.

A few years ago, under the tenure of the current authorities, Hetq published an investigation into the real estate properties owned by the head of Armenia’s 7th Police Department (Internal Affairs) in Dubai.

A few days later, the head of the department expressed his desire to meet with me privately. I proposed that he meet with the author of the article. The author went to the meeting. The official explained how he acquired his Dubai homes. During the meeting, he told the journalist where his wife works (the information was incorrect), and that the son of the editor of Hetq got into a fight when he was a student.

In short, the official had collected all our personal data and wanted to imply that he could use it because he has connections in the media. The head of that department was removed later and now occupies another position.

The ruling Civil Contract (CC) party in the National Assembly collects data on journalists. As they say, among themselves, they gather dossiers.

Today, the authorities consider the media and journalists to be their number one enemy. It’s because they are not afraid of the opposition. They are only afraid of journalists.

Journalists inform the public about the “heroic” work of officials. The government blames the media for everything. Nikol Pashinyan voices this at every opportunity, and his teammates, following their leader, target journalists almost every day. The CC doesn’t want any publication about them, where team members are accused of corruption, illegalities, and abuses. CC members haven’t understood that as officials they are targets. When you listen to their briefings and interviews, you understand that this catastrophic state of state does not bother them at all.

CC MP Vahagn Aleksanyan made a “disclosure” today. During the briefing, he excitedly informed journalists that according to his information, Hetq’s deputy editor bought a house in Yerevan’s Byuregh district. Aleksanyan “forgot” to mention the size of the apartment, 52 square meters.

Let me inform Vahagn Aleksanyan that the editor of Hetq also bought an apartment in Yerevan’s Tzarav Aghbyur district years ago. Knowing this, you don’t have to overwork your sources. It’s 56 square meters. Vahagn Aleksanyan believes that only officials can buy a house. Others shouldn’t.

What’s the reason for this latest attack on journalists?

Defense Minister Suren Papikyan bought a house in Yerevan’s Yeraz district with income tax. It is reflected in his financial declaration. In 2022, he bought a second house with a mortgage in the Byuregh district. The apartment is 165 square meters. Hetq wrote about it. We wrote that it was purchased at a very low price. The CC now asks why we wrote about this, disturbing their tranquility?

Let me explain why we’re disturbing your tranquility. It’s because fifteen soldiers burned to death in a shelter in unknown circumstances. It’s because soldiers at many units lack night vision devices. (We can specify these locations if necessary.) We write all this because there is nothing left of the army. We write because instead of dealing with the country’s protections, you target journalists.

Ask about anything you want to know. We’ll answer.

I can provide other information about myself. I’m deep in debt to a hospital and to my friends. I intend to launch a social program with one of my friends for people from the surrendered territories of Artsakh now on the streets. If you need more details, you can contact me. I will answer your questions.

Source: https://hetq.am/en/article/154350

By Wally Sarkeesian

Dr. Moumdjian was frequent Guest on Gagrule.net we will miss him RIP

He was Ottomanist and an archival historian working on several topics, such as Armenian-Young Turk relations, Armenian Kurdish relations, Hidden Armenians and their origins…

Moumdjian has served on the ARF Western USA Central Committee and was a long-time member of the ARF Pasadena Lernavayr Chapter.

As a historian, Moumdjian authored numerous articles and made academic presentations on the Armenian Genocide.

He served as principal of the Armenian Mesrobian School and as Vice-Principal of the Vahan and Anoush Chamlian School.

Moumdjian was a member of the Asbarez editorial board and continued his participation in the newspaper’s effort as a regular contributor.

In addition to his contributions as an academic, Moumdjian was also a staunch advocate of advancing the ARF’s ideology and its principles.

“The Azerbaijanis have prepared quite seriously. that road was considered the road of life during this siege and was a little path of hope, which to a certain extent connected Artsakh with the outside world and most likely protected Artsakh, I don’t think Azerbaijanis had just learned about that road”, Lisagor dirt road by Azerbaijanis about being occupied, said Vigen Hakobyan, a civil technologist, in a conversation with “Hraparak”.

“They seriously prepared for it, that they had to try to do everything very quickly. Not only to capture those heights quickly, to take control of that dirt road as well, along with them, the engineering military units enter and start carrying out works to strengthen themselves there. In other words, they have taken a serious professional approach and are not solving such a tactical problem: let’s go and capture the height, stand there, but to strengthen it so that it is not possible for third countries or third parties to take it out from there already with political persuasions, even with the threat of using military force. In this sense, they are quite systematic, quite serious, quite operative and professional. Unlike today’s Armenian leadership, they are fundamentalists. That is, if their army is moving somewhere,

The gas technologist emphasized that Azerbaijan is trying to create unbearable conditions by means of pressure, from time to time by cutting off communications, gas, electricity, trying to conduct a policy of ethnic cleansing, so that when they suddenly open the way after successive concessions, a significant part of the people of Artsakh will leave Artsakh. And who will not leave, come to terms with the idea that, as some circles of Artsakh say and the leadership of Armenia says about it, the idea of ​​integration should no longer be nonsense for them.
“I think that they chose the moment quite well, because the Armenian authorities took another illogical and obviously anti-Russian step, when now, for some reason, the Constitutional Court of Armenia decided to ratify the decision to join the Rome Statute as legitimate within the framework of the law, which at the moment it will be perceived more than a political démarche by Armenia in Russia. As you know, it was decided literally the other day that Vladimir Putin should be arrested. And at this very moment, Armenia decided to take the process of joining the Rome Statute adopted in 1999 to the Constitutional Court and approve it there. The primitive explanations of the Armenian side that this is being done against the Azerbaijanis are of no importance, it is important that the world, first of all Russia, and maybe also how Putin himself perceives it. And they perceive that Armenia made another rather harsh and rude demarche not only against Russia, but also against Putin himself,” said Hakobyan.

The geotechnologist believes that against this background, the Azerbaijanis took advantage of Russia’s perception that the Armenian leadership made a direct countermeasure not only against Russia, but also against the Russian leader.

“Now the Russians are demanding that the Azerbaijanis leave there, they even went to stand in front of them, they are demanding, but practice shows that if the Azerbaijanis take something, a stronghold, a height, territory, including the territory of the Republic of Armenia, I am not saying the territory that they consider to be the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, they do not leave it in any way, because even the peacekeeper does not have any mandate to directly enter into an armed conflict with any party if he wants to,” stressed Vigen Hakobyan.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/efedad410e1d34238c69b45333f3e98b?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

Yesterday, the interview given by journalist Tatul Hakobyan to Petros Ghazaryan became a reason for heated discussions.

The point is that Hakobyan made a number of controversial statements that angered some sections of the public. Hakobyan specifically noted that the issue of moving 120,000 Artsakh residents to Armenia can be discussed if we feel that the danger of their destruction is real. The fact that Tatul Hakobyan is a great supporter of the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and Armenian-Turkish brotherhood is certainly not news, but how he imagines the process of moving 120 thousand Artsakh Armenians to the Republic of Armenia, on what principle it can be done, etc., we tried. find out from him. An impression is created that there are thoughts and proposals that, although they belong to the current authorities and Nikol Pashinyan personally, are voiced by other people.

We also recalled that in the fall of 2022, Tatul Hakobyan, together with a group of experts, regularly met with Nikol Pashinyan and had off-the-record conversations. In the conversation with us, Hakobyan confirmed that they met with the Prime Minister about three times. He even made publications from that meeting on his Facebook page, but noted that their content is confidential and not subject to publication.
We could not get from Tatul Hakobyan what kind of secret discussions they are, what their content is, and whether these meetings continue and Tatul Hakobyan’s statuses are written as a result of these meetings, whether yesterday’s interview was within those frameworks or not.

Today, when asked by “Hraparak” whether he is following the reactions of his interview yesterday, he said: “No, I’m not watching. I’m lying sick at home.” We asked, if you are sick, how did he give an interview to Public, he said he got sick after giving an interview. In any case, we tried to find out how he imagines the transfer of Artsakh Armenians to Armenia, Hakobyan mentioned that he has high blood pressure and hung up the phone.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/66cc7fa8237b9343d2013a289a2aeb07?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

Likud politicians blame the left, fighter pilots, heartless Ashkenazim, and their grandmothers for the resounding crash of the judicial coup and for the chaos in Israel. You barely hear a bad word about Netanyahu or Levin

On the sidelines of the earthquake in Israel, it is worth paying attention to the drama unfolding within the right in general and Likud in particular. Most of the party’s lawmakers and cabinet members are giving a tailwind to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who seems to be experiencing a severe disruption event of his own. (“It’s already getting into clinical territory,” says a very senior figure who worked with Netanyahu in several different periods and capacities.) Everyone said more or less the same thing: that if Netanyahu wants it, then he has their support.

By Harut Sassounian,

The U.S. State Department issued on March 20, 2023, its annual Country Reports on Human Rights for the year 2022. The report covered 198 countries and territories, including Armenia.

The Executive Summary of the report described the Parliamentary elections of 2021: “the elections were generally well managed, and contestants were able to campaign freely. The elections, however, were also characterized by intense polarization and marred by increasingly inflammatory rhetoric. The observation mission noted that ‘high levels of harsh, intolerant, inflammatory and discriminatory rhetoric in the period leading up to election day tainted the debate.’ Other shortcomings included incidents of pressure to attend campaign events, allegations of vote buying, blurring of the line between the ruling party and state, alleged misuse of administrative resources, inadequate campaign finance provisions, and the narrow standing allowed for submitting electoral complaints.”

Regarding various human rights cases of abuse in Armenia, the State Dept. wrote that there were “credible reports of torture by members of the security forces; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with judicial independence; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; restrictions on freedom of expression; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting civil society figures and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons; and the worst forms of child labor. The government took only limited steps to investigate and punish alleged abuses by former and current government officials and law enforcement authorities. There was no reported progress on government investigations of alleged abuses committed by Armenian armed forces or individuals during the 2020 hostilities.”

Regarding the 2022 attack by Azerbaijan on Armenia, the State Dept. wrote: “there were reports that Azerbaijani forces engaged in unlawful killings, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of Armenian forces in September.”

Under the subtitle, “arbitrary deprivation of life and other unlawful or politically motivated killings,” the State Dept. expressed concerns “regarding noncombat deaths in the army and the failure of law enforcement bodies to conduct credible investigations into those deaths.”

The State Dept. then detailed further problems with elections: “Reports of arbitrary arrests that appeared election-related continued. Law enforcement officials arrested two municipal employees affiliated with the opposition coalition, ‘Strong Community,’ in the Tavush region, on election day, September 25. These arrests followed the detention of four opposition-linked mayors in the Syunik region during and following the June 2021 parliamentary elections.”

There were also serious problems with the courts: “the judiciary was not viewed as independent or impartial due to its history of corruption and political influence, resistance to reform, and recent high-profile scandals. There were unconfirmed reports of attempts by the government to influence judges. The high case load, lack of public trust, and allegations of government pressure discouraged professionals from applying to judgeships. During the year, NGOs continued to report on judges who had acquired significant amounts of property and assets that were disproportionate to their salaries and continued to note that the absence of vetting of all standing judges based on objective criteria — particularly of those in the Supreme Judicial Council and Constitutional Court — undermined the integrity of the judiciary. They further noted that the annual asset declaration checks of sitting judges were limited in scope and did not help to remove corrupt judges.”

Section 2 of the State Dept. report covered: “Respect for Civil Liberties.” Under the subtitle, “Freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media,” the report stated that “the government generally respected this right, albeit with some restrictions.”

On the topic: “Violence and Harassment,” the report stated: “the local NGO Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression reported 14 cases of violence against 16 journalists during the year, most of which were at the hands of law enforcement and took place when the journalists were covering opposition protests.”

Regarding “Freedom of Peaceful Assembly,” the report stated: “while the government generally respected freedom of assembly, there were some restrictions, particularly disproportionate use of force by police against protesters, police brutality against protesters and journalists, and arbitrary detention of demonstrators…. On June 2, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women issued a statement condemning violence by police officers against protesters, violent apprehensions, beatings, and humiliating treatment of protesters, including women…. On the morning of September 21, special police used force and detained 37 relatives of deceased service members, mostly women, who had gathered at the entrance of the military pantheon and were waiting for the arrival of the prime minister and other officials.”

The State Department’s lengthy report on Armenia critically, but accurately, described the various human rights abuses in great detail.

While the State Department does not rank countries on a scale, the U.S.-based Freedom House rated Armenia on its Freedom Score as “Partly Free.” It is disappointing that five years after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power under the guise of establishing democratic rule, Armenia is still classified as “Transitional Hybrid Regime.”The only consolation for Armenia is that its two hostile neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, have much lower scores. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey are ranked by Freedom House on its Freedom Score as “Not Free.” In terms of democratic rule, Azerbaijan is classified as a “Consolidated Authoritarian Regime,” while the report on Turkey is still pending.

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS. A unit of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces attempted to advance towards the heights adjacent to the Stepanakert-Lisagor track around 09:00, March 27, the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Ministry said.

The Azeri attempt to advance was thwarted as a result of “preventative actions” taken by the on-duty Defense Army troops stationed in the area, the ministry added in a statement. 

The command of the Russian peacekeepers was notified on the incident.