The Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes as follows, in particular: NA [i.e. National Assembly] Dashnaktsutyun [Party] MP Artur Khachatryan confirms the publication of the Zhoghovurd daily that, yes, NA President Alen Simonyan made a speech with rather harsh assessments and criticized Russia during a closed-door meeting with parliamentarians from the Baltic countries.

Let us remind: the Zhoghovurd daily had written that on January 24, during a closed-door meeting with parliamentarians from the Baltic countries, the president of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan had expressed harsh criticism regarding the Russian Federation, which had caused bewilderment even among the representatives of the Baltic countries. He had stated that Russia must be defeated, disappear, so that it would be “good” for us and the Baltic countries. Simonyan also had added that the destruction of Russia could open up “good prospects” for Armenia and the Baltic countries.

After this publication of ours, NA president Alen Simonyan publicly denied that he had said such a thing. Moreover, he filed a lawsuit against the Zhoghovurd daily, after which we proposed to publicize the recording of that meeting to prove that he did not say such a thing. Alen Simonyan, however, does not publicize either the audio recording or the video.

The Zhoghovurd daily learned that only Artur Khachatryan, an MP from the “Armenia” Faction, participated in that meeting from the parliamentary opposition. We talked to him to find out what really happened that day.

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“In any case, what did the NA speaker say in his speech that he is now backing down?” MP Khachatryan responded to this question from the Zhoghovurd daily journalist.

“I don’t even remember what was said verbatim, but quite harsh assessments were made,” described Artur Khachatryan.

Thus, in addition to the publication of the Zhoghovurd daily, which was made with reference to information received from the parliamentarians of the Baltic countries, RA National Assembly MP Artur Khachatryan also stated that Alen Simonyan had given quite harsh assessments to the Russian Federation.

It is not difficult to predict the reason for the refusal—after the sharp geopolitical turns that took place after the election of US President Donald Trump. But the facts are more telling, and the issue will not be resolved by going to court.