Human rights violations in Armenia since Pashinyan's rise-to-power Police brutality, political persecution, assassinations and more

Monitoring Group of Human Rights Organisations (MR) has released a report on the democracy and human rights records in Armenia from 2018-2023.

The report, which refers to multiple international and Armenian sources, grouped the democracy and human rights violation cases in Armenia into eight categories:

• Protest Actions. Police Violence and Arrests
• Brutality During the Rally
• Political Persecution and Arrests
• Diaspora Armenians Who Were No Allowed to Enter Armenia
• Freedom of Speech. Pressure and Attacks
• Death and Assassination
• National Minorities
• Pressure on the Media and Journalists

Protest Actions. Police Violence and Arrests

Following the Karabakh trilateral statement on 10 November 2020, thousands of people took to the Armenian streets, and hundreds stormed the Parliament building in Yerevan. Numerous protests and marches took place worldwide, organised by the 17-party opposition coalition. Protests continued until May 2021, with demonstrations in Yerevan and other cities demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

More than 580 incidents of detention of demonstrators by the Armenian police were recorded from November 2020 to May 2021.

Police used force in an effort to outpower the protestors. Demonstrators and media representatives were subjected to physical attacks and insults. Garnik Petrosian (b.1993), one of the protesters who entered the Parliament building, was found dead under a bridge on November 13, 2020, an hour following his interrogation.

According to official data, as of June 6, 2022, more than 2,100 participants had been detained. Police treated both protesters and the media covering the events with such force that activists described it as “brutal.” During rallies on Proshyan Street, the police fired expired stun grenades against the protesters, injuring dozens of people.

Rally. Brutality During the Rally

From May 1, 2022, thousands of demonstrators, demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, took to the streets of Yerevan, staging acts of civil disobedience, marching, holding sit-ins, and attempting to block major thoroughfares in the capital’s downtown. On May 2, police in Yerevan detained at least 244 demonstrators, many on charges of refusing to obey official orders. By May 3, at least 70 demonstrators were detained, according to a police spokesman.

The police kidnapped Tadevos Avetisyan, a deputy from the “Armenia” faction, during an act of disobedience in Yerevan, Armenia.

Political Persecution and Arrests

The report also informed about politically motivated persecution against 30 people, including former presidents in Armenia from 2018-2023. While Caliber.Az republished this report, Armenian media circulated a new report that the deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (Chairman Serzh Sargsyan) Armen Ashotyan has been arrested for two months.

"He will be transferred to Nubarashen penitentiary, although he is a former minister and a lieutenant colonel of the medical service, he will be kept with the criminals. This is a kind of revenge," Ashotyan's lawyer Tigran Atanesyan stated immediately after the court hearing on June 16.

Serzh Sargsyan’s property remains impounded. The former president resigned in 2018 under the pressure of mass protests and was accused of organising embezzlement of about 500 million drams ($1.3 million). Back in 2019, he was charged on grounds of claim 1, part 3, art. 38-179 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, as an act dangerous to society. Serzh Sargsyan’s lawyers continue to insist that this case is a political order. Sargsyan himself called the case “absurd” and “fabricated.

In January 2020, former head of Armenia’s National Security Service, Georgi Kutoyan’s body was found in his Yerevan flat. Local media reported that they were close friends with Hrayr Tovmasyan, the former President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia. Forrights. am stated that Kutoyan, who was Serzh Sargsyan’s third advisor, was assassinated. This follows 49-year-old Gagik Poghosyan, head of Serzh Sargsyan’s control service and adviser, who was killed in 2001. The second was Gevork Mheryan, a 33-year-old deputy police chief, who was killed in 2009.

On July 26, 2018, shortly after Nikol Pashinyan ascended to power in Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, the second President of Armenia, was charged in connection with the events that took place on March 1–2, 2008 in Yerevan. This charge was brought regarding the overthrow of the constitutional order by alleged collaboration with other persons.

The ex-president spent more than 500 days under arrest. In June 2020, he was released on bail and, in March 2021, the Constitutional Court of Armenia found Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia unconstitutional, under which Kocharyan had been accused of overthrowing the state system. However, the criminal prosecutions on bribery charges continued.

Seyran Ohanyan, the former Minister of Defence of Armenia and Head of the “Hayastan” faction was declared a defendant in several criminal cases. On February 8 the National Assembly granted three requests from the Prosecutor-General to initiate criminal cases against him, thereby depriving him of parliamentary immunity. Seyran Ohanyan is accused of abuse of power and waste of national resources and manpower during his tenure as Defence Minister. The National Assembly voted through a secret ballot to allow the initiation of criminal prosecution against Seyran Ohanyan.

Diaspora Armenians Who Were No Allowed to Enter Armenia

On July 13, 2022, Mourad Papazian, the Co-president of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organisations of France (CCAF), landed in Yerevan on an Air France plane to attend a quarterly meeting of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), of which he is a leader in France. Upon arriving in Armenia, Papazian was arrested by the police and returned on an Air France plane to Paris on July 14 (the French national holiday).

According to the Armenian government: “He was one of the persons who organised an attack against the convoy of a government delegation led by the Prime Minister near the Armenian Embassy in France on June 1, 2021.” Papazian claims on his Facebook post he didn’t participate in the protest rally in Paris on June 1 and that he’s visited Armenia at least four times since then. “The Prime Minister’s office obviously can’t provide proof of their claim as I didn’t attend this rally. They are lying. I will take all legal actions to defend myself to have my right to return to Armenia restored,” Papazian writes.

On August 1, 2022, the National Security Service banned Masis Abrahamyan, Chairman of the Hay Dat (Armenian Question) Committee of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party in the Netherlands, together with his daughter Syune, from entering Armenia, with no explanation being provided by the border guards. The Abrahamyans believe they were not allowed to enter the country for political reasons, on direct orders of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In May 2022, during an official visit by the Prime Minister of Armenia to the Netherlands, representatives of the Dashnaktsutyun party organised a protest, during which participants shouted insults at Pashinyan.

Freedom of Speech. Pressure and Attacks

The Hraparak newspaper reporter Anush Dashtents was attacked in the centre of Yerevan. The journalist noticed Hayk Sargsyan, National Assembly deputy, standing by the campaign headquarters of the ruling Civil Contract Party, so she approached him to ask a question. The MP snatched Dashtents’s phone and drove off, stating that he would not return the device until she “came to her senses”. Sargsyan soon returned the phone to her, via his associates. However, it had been unlocked and the video materials had been deleted. The Special Investigation Service refused to open a criminal case “due to the lack of evidence.”

As of April 2022. at least 802 cases related to Article 137 of the Criminal Code concerning ‘severe insults” had been opened, 48 of which were criminal cases, with six people being found guilty. By the end of 2021, eight criminal cases were taken to court under this provision. All of the eight cases sent to the court concerned Facebook posts allegedly insulting Prime Minister Pashinyan.

Edgar Ghazaryan, who is highly critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s administration as well as the opposition, was assaulted by two unknown men near his home. Ghazaryan is known as the founder and leader of the “Independence Movement,” which from late April–June 15, 2022, held mass protests in Yerevan, demanding the resignation of Pashinyan.

The second quarter of 2022 was marked by a dramatic increase in physical violence against members of the media. The Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Expression registered 11 new occurrences during coverage of the disobedience actions organised by opposition forces, one of which occurred in the Armenian Parliament.

Death and Assassination

Mher Yeghiazaryan, director of the Haynews.am news website, died in a Nubarashen penitentiary institution after 44 days of hunger strike. Yeghiazaryan was also Vice-Chairman of the Hayots Artsivner (United Armenia) party.

Garnik Petrosian, one of the protesters who crashed into the Parliament building in Yerevan during a riot on November 10, demanding Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation, was found dead under a bridge.

In September 2019, Hayk Harutyunyan, former Police Chief of Armenia and Robert Kocharyan’s Interior Minister, was found dead in his house in Bijni, Kotayk Province. According to the preliminary version, he committed suicide. People who knew him well do not believe in the version of suicide. Hayk Harutyunyan was a key witness in the March 1, 2008 case. There is no doubt that Harutyunyan could play an important role in the final disclosure of the bloody crime. Harutyunyan’s involvement in the March 1 case interfered with the main organizers of the state crime.

National Minorities

Armenian authorities persisted with spurious criminal incitement charges against a human rights activist, Sashik Sultanyan. The charges were in retaliation for an online interview in which Sultanyan spoke about a variety of problems he believes the local Yezidi community faces in Armenia. On October 3. 2020. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) initiated a criminal investigation against Sultanyan, stemming from an interview he gave to the website Yezidinews.am, published in June 2020.

On May 20, 2021, the NSS confiscated three computers from Sultanyan, one of which belonged to a family member, two mobile phones and several USB sticks. Although the UN and several human rights organisations called on Armenia to stop the prosecution of Sashik Sultanyan, he currently remains under investigation.

Pressure on the Media and Journalists

On March 18, in a cafe in Yerevan, Hakob Arshakyan, Minister of High-Tech Industry, used physical violence towards Paylak Fahradyan, Editor, “Irakanum.am”. The journalist, having noticed the high-ranking official, approached him and asked what he was doing in the café during working hours. According to media publications, the conversation became heated, and the minister hit the journalist several times, damaging his computer and phone. The Prosecutor’s Office referred the case to the Special Investigation Service to clarify the details of the incident. However, the Special Investigation Service closed the case due to a “lack of evidence.

In October 2019, the Office of the “Hayeli” (Mirror) publication was attacked by a group of young people in Yerevan to protest against the headline of an article published by the news website. Attackers demanded an immediate stop of “Hayeli.am”, because of the fact that the news website’s editor, Anzhela Tovmasian, is the sister of Hrayr Tovmasian.

The chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional Court faced growing government pressure to resign. In addition, the Investigative Committee said it had indicted four government supporters who reportedly attacked the offices of an online publication critical of the Armenian authorities.

On January 28, four Armenian opposition leaders – the Founders of the Adekvad (Adequate] party Artur Danielyan and Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan, together with Grigor Minasyan and Azat Adamyan, were detained by police. According to Armenian bloggers, the police aimed to gain access to the personal correspondence of the detainees on their smartphones and seized their mobile devices. In addition, all these actions were allegedly carried out on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s personal order.

On the same day, the Armenian police detained another opposition blogger and founder of the VETO Movement, Narek Malyan, on suspicion of the illegal possession of weapons. Narek Malyan is one of those who oppose the activities of the Soros Foundation in Armenia. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Adekvad (Adequate) party opposing the Armenian government.

On June 21, 2019, NA deputy Hayk Sargsyan filed a second lawsuit in the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction against Andradardz Press Club NGO, seeking compensation for the damage caused to his honour and dignity through defamation and insult. The cause of the lawsuit was an article, titled “Another precious gift: a cell- the phone number that costs 20 million AMD for Hayk Sargsyan” published on Newspress.am website. On

On June 28, the lawsuit was accepted for proceedings. Hayk Sargsyan filed three more lawsuits with the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction against Hraparak Daily LLC, seeking compensation for damage caused to honour, dignity, and good reputation through defamation and insult. The reason for the MP’s lawsuit against the founder of the Hraparak newspaper, he said, was the 22 publications against him in the newspaper and their dissemination via satellite websites. According to the website, “Hayk Sargsyan is the most odious MP in the parliament”, and there are suspicions that he played a role in a scandalous criminal case.

According to another article published on the website, Hayk Sargsyan “made a row” on the Yerevan-Moscow plane. In all 3 lawsuits, the MP demands that the defendant make a public apology and publish the court judgment in the same newspaper and on the website, as well as to pay compensation. On October 9, all three cases were accepted into proceedings.