Police have illegally apprehended me and taken me to the police station a few times, they illegally detained me once, and the court stated that the detention was unlawful since there was no ground for the detention…
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan must resign as soon as possible so that Armenia has a chance to think about the future and the remnants that remained in Artsakh thanks to the Russian Federation because if it wasn’t for the Russian Federation with its peacekeepers, Nikol Pashinyan was going to do away with those remnants as well. This is what founder of Qaryak (Quartet) Media, public-political figure Mihran Hakobyan said during a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am.
Mihran Hakobyan recapped the toolkits that have been used to ‘silence’ several public-political figures during martial law declared over two months ago.
“Right after this ill-fated document was signed, we expressed our position on social networks and in the media, stating that Nikol Pashinyan is a traitor who handed over Artsakh, who became the reason for the deaths of over 5,000 people, capitulated Armenia and crushed the honor of Armenians. In response to this, Nikol Pashinyan began to use simply ridiculous, terrorizing and repressive mechanisms against me and other public and political figures, but I, as well as many others, will continue to speak out and express our opinions and call things by their names,” Hakobyan said.
Asked what steps were taken to ‘silence’ him during martial law, Hakobyan said he was illegally apprehended and taken to the police station a few times, was detained once, and the court stated that the detention was unlawful. “Two days ago, they illegally conducted a search in my house and were looking for absolutely ridiculous items, including a loudspeaker, signs of demonstrators and similar things that are used to organize rallies. Today I was charged with organizing assembles during martial law. This is simply ridiculous, and I will dispute this in court. I am certain that Nikol Pashinyan can’t succeed through court because this is a groundless charge,” he said.
Hakobyan stressed that one of the ways of depriving opponents of the right to freedom of expression were the attacks of the ‘army of fakes’ against them (the fakes that have been serving Nikol Pashinyan for over two-and-a-half years, the fakes funded by various oligarchs, etc.) “I have never been afraid of those fakes, and if Nikol Pashinyan thinks this can go on for a long time, he is dead wrong. We will force Nikol Pashinyan and his inglorious group to be held liable as soon as possible,” he said.
During the conversation, Hakobyan also touched upon the work of the mass media during martial law and the fines for publishing non-official articles. “The martial law declared by Nikol Pashinyan was about having the mass media disseminate the lies of Anna Hakobyan and Artsrun Hovhannisyan. For 44 consecutive days, they lied to the people so that the people wouldn’t find out the truth. Martial law was declared to restrict the work of the media and not let people know the reality and so that Nikol Pashinyan could easily transfer Artsakh to Azerbaijan,” he said.
According to Mihran Hakobyan, during martial law, there have to be certain restrictions on the mass media and there has to be only official news, but not all official news needs to be based on lies. “After all, we are living in the 21st century, and the Internet is filled with various kinds of information. Nikol Pashinyan’s government fed the people with lies, but the people were reading the news in Russian, European and American presses and also Azerbaijani presses. If you remember, the restrictions on Azerbaijani websites came late, but those restrictions were useless because people can find a way to read the news. The only solution is the following: the government needs to be honest with the people so that the public trusts the government and so that the news provided to the public corresponds to reality. If not, you will see the perversion that people saw in Armenia. I don’t know how much effort the public needs to make to restore the public’s trust in the news provided by the army and the government because Nikol Pashinyan’s government has perverted everything so much that years and perhaps decades might be needed to bring the people back to their senses and restore trust in the state.”
Summing up, the political figure stated that there is a need for an agreement that nobody in Armenia should ever think that he or she can govern a state with ‘fakes’. “This is the result of the gang that Nikol Pashinyan formed two-and-a-half years ago. There are many cases when Nikol Pasinyan and his circle would scold the media and then organize attacks of fakes with the use of swear words. This was done to intimidate people. There were people who got afraid, and there were people who didn’t get afraid and won’t get afraid. The sad page that Nikol Pashinyan turned two-and-a-half years ago by promising people that they would live happily in Armenia and then handed over Artsakh, is the biggest tragedy in the history of the Armenian people in the last 100 years and the biggest shame that we all feel. The Armenian people are eternal. Now it is necessary to convince the Armenian people, tell them to stand up and lead them towards the future,” Hakobyan said.
