The apartment of the editor of Syuniac Yerkir newspaper, Samvel Aleksanyan, was searched today at around 9am in Goris, Armenia. According to preliminary information, the search is related to the editor’s son Karen Lazaryan’s connections with the opposition Wings of Unity party.

Karen Lazaryan was a candidate for MP from that party. Syuniac Yerkir reports that after a search that lasted about an hour, the searchers left Samvel Aleksanyan’s apartment. A list of debts of Karen Lazaryan’s wife was “found”: a list of debts to one or two stores in Goris, from which she had purchased some items for the children, but had not managed to pay and remained in debt. Karen Lazaryan’s certificate of being an MP candidate, as well as an advertising booklet of the Wings of Unity party, was also “found.”

“The intensification of the persecution of Karen Lazaryan, which began a year and a half ago, was, one might say, expected. The main reason was the failure of the CC [i.e. the ruling Civil Contract] party in Goris as a result of the June 7 [parliamentary] elections. Representatives of that party had promised a vote of confidence of 65-70 percent, which, however, did not come true. Now they are looking for the guilty... And a few days ago, the Goris police chief was instructed to invent some cases against Karen Lazaryan.

And the latter [i.e. the Goris police chief], together with the fake director of the Goris Multifunctional State College SNCO, Armine Kolyan, had prepared a ‘report’ about the alleged illegalities committed at the now-dissolved Goris State College, which they had forced a community police officer named Hro to sign in exchange for some promises. The ‘report’ was preceded by a major blackmail attack aimed at extracting testimony against Karen Lazaryan, which was unsuccessful.

Therefore, the fabricated ‘report’ did not contain even a single fact about Karen Lazaryan's illegal activities. On the contrary, numerous facts of embezzlement of state funds by the current director of the college had emerged, which were covered up by the Goris police chief and have not received legal proceedings," the source writes.