YEREVAN. – Gegham Manukyan, who is in charge of the social and political programs at Yerkir Media TV of Armenia, wrote on his Facebook account that National Assembly (NA) member Bazmaser Arakelyan had beaten a man. 

“MP Bazmaser Arakelyan, who ran away from the PAP [i.e. the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party] and is running in the NA elections to be held in April 2017 from Aragatsotn Province and with the rating [i.e. regional election] list of the [ruling] Republican Party of Armenia, today instigated beatings in his native village of Parpi.

“Several dozen supporters of the [MP] candidate invited one of the fellow villagers to Bazmaser Arakelyan’s house. And learning that he, unlike Bazmaser who regularly has changed [political] parties, will vote in favor of [the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)] Dashnaktsutyun [Party], severely beat him, who already has been taken to hospital.

“Not being satisfied with this, the athlete MP (…) and supporters also attacked the victim’s brother. But this time, the dishonest variant of several dozen against one did not work, and they got an answer back,” Manukyan wrote, in particular.