Having recorded numerous violations by Armenia’s ruling political force throughout the parliamentary election campaign and on the actual voting day on June 7, Armenian News-NEWS.am journalist Narek Khachatryan received a notice, the very next day of the election, to participate in military training camps.

Whether this is a coincidence or not is not hard to guess by comparing just a few facts.

Narek Khachatryan actively covered the course of the ruling Civil Contract party’s parliamentary election campaign, recording numerous violations. The last such revelation was on voting day in Sot village, where he filmed the accumulation of hundreds of soldiers at the polling station minutes before the end of voting, as well as people in civilian clothes who entered the polling station together with these soldiers and did not leave them in any way, although they did not have any status that would allow them to be at the polling station at that moment. When asked by the journalist who these people were and why they were not invited out of the polling station during the voting of servicemen, the polling station’s commission chairperson claimed that he did not know them, although he had greeted one of them with a kiss, and then explained that the corridor was not a territory of the polling station, although they had only left the polling station after the journalist remark, but continued to remain in the polling station area, standing in a row next to the soldiers who were yet to vote.

Shortly after the posting of this video, when the journalist was broadcasting the vote counting process live from another polling station in Gegharkunik Province, Armenian News-NEWS.am received a phone call from the Ministry of Defense, saying that an officer had called them from the Sotk polling station and complained that the Armenian News-NEWS.am journalist was “obstructing the work of the commission chairperson.” How the journalist’s well-founded questions addressed to the commission chairperson “obstructed his work” is puzzling. Moreover, it is strange that the issue of the commission chairperson is being addressed not to the Central Electoral Commission or the police, but to the Ministry of Defense.

It is noteworthy that on the day of the election, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense approached another Armenian News-NEWS.am journalist working at the ruling party’s headquarters, inquired, and found out which journalist was the creator of the video about the soldiers voting.

Is it a coincidence? A few hours after this call, Narek Khachatryan received a call and was summoned to the military commissariat. After showing up there, the journalist received a summons to participate in the upcoming 25-day military training camps.

Narek Khachatryan was the first journalist to reveal the widespread involvement of Armenia’s educational institutions in the parliamentary election campaign by the ruling power in violation of the law. During the ruling party’s campaign in Aragatsotn Province, he filmed how schools in several communities in the province suspended classes and attended—in an organized manner, with teachers, employees, and students—the ruling party’s election campaign rally. It was the startling footage of teachers telling about all this while looking at Narek’s video camera that forced the authorities to announce that the principals of four schools had written resignation letters. This decision alone shows how weighty the facts presented by the journalist regarding the use of administrative resources were.

In fact, from this moment on, the journalist appeared in the sights of the authorities.

Narek Khachatryan, who duly completed his military service and is always ready to fulfill his duty to the homeland, will of course participate in the aforesaid military training camp, as notified.

Moreover, another Armenian News-NEWS.am employee is also participating in the military training camp right now.

Anyone who has visited our editorial office has seen the corner of memory and glory dedicated to the memory of our young cameraman Vahe Karapetyan, who heroically fought in the 44-day war in 2020 and died in Shushi, Nagorno-Karabakh. He had just completed his mandatory military service when the war began, but he refused to take advantage of the opportunity not to go to the frontline as a news worker and went to fulfill his duty.

We sent Vahe off to war with pride, because the army and the soldier are the highest value in our editorial office.

But even a thousand such editorial offices are not enough to have a combat-ready army with a high moral and psychological atmosphere. This is the task of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, which should make service in the army, including participation in the military training camps, a source of pride, not a means of punishing those who reveal their violations. The problem is not a specific person, but much larger and more worrying. What kind of army are the incumbent Armenian authorities building today, using military service as a truncheon?