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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #709
Nov 8 2013
Armenian Lawmaker Denounces Threats
Parties trade jibes after parliamentarian alleges head of state has a
gambling problem.
By Armen Karapetyan - Caucasus
An opposition politician in Armenia has been assigned police guards
after facing ferocious criticism from ruling party members because she
asked the president whether he indulged in gambling.
Zaruhi Postanjyan, a member of the Heritage Party, used the October 2
summit of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
to ask President Serzh Sargsyan whether it was true he had lost 70
million euro in bets at a casino in Europe.
Sargsyan flatly denied this, saying he had not visited any casino in
Europe and did not have that kind of money. `I do not gamble in
casinos,' he said.
Members of the president's Republican Party, which dominates
parliament, were furious, and Postanjyan was sacked from the Armenian
delegation to PACE and replaced by a politician from the Rule of Law
party..
The speaker of Armenia's parliament, Hovik Abrahamyan, issued a
statement condemning Postanjyan's remarks.
`The guaranteed right to free expression of one's political beliefs is
one of the cornerstones of democracy,' he said. `However, the
expression of political beliefs is not an absolute right. Article 66
of the Armenian constitution states that the right of a deputy to free
expression is limited by the inadmissibility of defamation or
slander.'
Other members of the Republican Party also severely criticised her,
both in public statements and on their Facebook pages.
Khachik Asryan, deputy minister for sports and youth affairs, and a
member of the party's ruling council, comparing Postanjyan to Ramil
Safarov, an Azerbaijani officer who murdered an Armenian at a NATO
meeting in Budapest in 2004.
`Zaruhi Postanjyan should be burned alive on a bonfire, but not like
Joan of Arc - like Ramil Safarov,' Asryan said in an interview for the
www.yerkir.am news site.
The next day, Asryan qualified his remarks, saying he had meant the
politician should be burned in effigy. No disciplinary action was
taken against him, but his comments infuriated Postanjyan and her
allies.
`Armenia's laws forbid defaming or threatening people,' Postanjyan
told IWPR. `These laws also set out the punishment for such things.
However, we can see that the police and the prosecutors in Armenia are
taking absolutely no action when I am defamed and criticised by
representatives of the current government. It reminds me of the
inquisition in the Middle Ages, when people were burned to death for
their faith.'
Postanjyan's Heritage party has not filed a legal complaints against
the alleged incitement, but demanded that the government `halt its
political persecution and abuse, and punish all officials who have
threatened her'.
Subsequently, in mid-October, two police officers were assigned to
guard Postanjyan.
In an interview for IWPR, Galust Sahakyan, deputy head of the
Republican Party, said, `You see - the government does worry about the
opposition member's safety. Now no one can raise a finger against
Zaruhi Postanjyan.'
Sahakyan declined to comment on the threats and criticism made towards
her, saying only that `we are human, too, and we could hardly fail to
respond to Postanjyan's defamation of the president'.
That was not good enough for Artur Sakunts, head of the Vanadzor
office of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, a human rights
organisation. He told IWPR that Armenia was now a country `where
government representatives can openly issue threats and go
unpunished'.
`These events show once again that Armenia not only has an
authoritarian regime - you don't even have the right to ask questions
that are displease the person at the head of this regime - it also has
laws that don't work,' Sakunts said. `Someone can threaten to burn a
person to death and still go unpunished. If the police acknowledge
that a threat exists and send officers to provide security for
Postanjyan, then why don't they follow the threat to its roots?'
Armen Karapetyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenian-lawmaker-denounces-threats
From: A. Papazian
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #709
Nov 8 2013
Armenian Lawmaker Denounces Threats
Parties trade jibes after parliamentarian alleges head of state has a
gambling problem.
By Armen Karapetyan - Caucasus
An opposition politician in Armenia has been assigned police guards
after facing ferocious criticism from ruling party members because she
asked the president whether he indulged in gambling.
Zaruhi Postanjyan, a member of the Heritage Party, used the October 2
summit of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
to ask President Serzh Sargsyan whether it was true he had lost 70
million euro in bets at a casino in Europe.
Sargsyan flatly denied this, saying he had not visited any casino in
Europe and did not have that kind of money. `I do not gamble in
casinos,' he said.
Members of the president's Republican Party, which dominates
parliament, were furious, and Postanjyan was sacked from the Armenian
delegation to PACE and replaced by a politician from the Rule of Law
party..
The speaker of Armenia's parliament, Hovik Abrahamyan, issued a
statement condemning Postanjyan's remarks.
`The guaranteed right to free expression of one's political beliefs is
one of the cornerstones of democracy,' he said. `However, the
expression of political beliefs is not an absolute right. Article 66
of the Armenian constitution states that the right of a deputy to free
expression is limited by the inadmissibility of defamation or
slander.'
Other members of the Republican Party also severely criticised her,
both in public statements and on their Facebook pages.
Khachik Asryan, deputy minister for sports and youth affairs, and a
member of the party's ruling council, comparing Postanjyan to Ramil
Safarov, an Azerbaijani officer who murdered an Armenian at a NATO
meeting in Budapest in 2004.
`Zaruhi Postanjyan should be burned alive on a bonfire, but not like
Joan of Arc - like Ramil Safarov,' Asryan said in an interview for the
www.yerkir.am news site.
The next day, Asryan qualified his remarks, saying he had meant the
politician should be burned in effigy. No disciplinary action was
taken against him, but his comments infuriated Postanjyan and her
allies.
`Armenia's laws forbid defaming or threatening people,' Postanjyan
told IWPR. `These laws also set out the punishment for such things.
However, we can see that the police and the prosecutors in Armenia are
taking absolutely no action when I am defamed and criticised by
representatives of the current government. It reminds me of the
inquisition in the Middle Ages, when people were burned to death for
their faith.'
Postanjyan's Heritage party has not filed a legal complaints against
the alleged incitement, but demanded that the government `halt its
political persecution and abuse, and punish all officials who have
threatened her'.
Subsequently, in mid-October, two police officers were assigned to
guard Postanjyan.
In an interview for IWPR, Galust Sahakyan, deputy head of the
Republican Party, said, `You see - the government does worry about the
opposition member's safety. Now no one can raise a finger against
Zaruhi Postanjyan.'
Sahakyan declined to comment on the threats and criticism made towards
her, saying only that `we are human, too, and we could hardly fail to
respond to Postanjyan's defamation of the president'.
That was not good enough for Artur Sakunts, head of the Vanadzor
office of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, a human rights
organisation. He told IWPR that Armenia was now a country `where
government representatives can openly issue threats and go
unpunished'.
`These events show once again that Armenia not only has an
authoritarian regime - you don't even have the right to ask questions
that are displease the person at the head of this regime - it also has
laws that don't work,' Sakunts said. `Someone can threaten to burn a
person to death and still go unpunished. If the police acknowledge
that a threat exists and send officers to provide security for
Postanjyan, then why don't they follow the threat to its roots?'
Armen Karapetyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenian-lawmaker-denounces-threats
From: A. Papazian