Customary provocations and insults of all kinds targeting the supporters of the opposition or the simple detractors of power, the president of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonian is of unfailing loyalty to Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian, of which he is one of the closest political allies. As intolerant with regard to the smallest differences attributed to his opponents that he is indulgent for the abuses attributed to those of his camp, Simonian himself regularly hit the headlines for his verbal outrage and his behavior, to say the least, erratic. Suffice to say that if he called on Thursday, May 8, to the resignation of the chief of the municipal administration of the district of Nor-Nork, who had been filmed last week when with his supposed henchmen, he passed tobacco a video blogger whose only wrong was to criticize the management of this district of the Faubourgs of Erevan, is that the file, which had seemed to benefit from the indulgence of the authorities.
The councilor, Tigrane Ter-Margarian, was accused of violent assault perpetrated with three of his subordinates, but the investigators have not arrested Ter-Margarian, who was not revoked by the mayor of Erevan Tigrane Avinian either. While condemning the passage to the tobacco of blogger Artur Chakhoyan, Avinian had clearly made it clear on Monday that he “would not assume the role of a judge”. Ter-Margarian is a figurehead of the pro-Western Party Hanrapetyun (Republic) who had helped Avinian to occupy the mayor’s armchair in the aftermath of the 2023 municipal elections which had inflicted a camouflet on his civil contract party, forced to find allies within the new municipal council to be able to direct Erevan.
The leader of Hanrapetyun, Aram Sarkisian, justified the behavior of the chief of the district of Nork, which he put in account of a legitimate response to a “provocation” supported by Russia. The argument does not seem to have convinced Simonian, who is on the front line when it comes to criticizing Russia, which he accused, recently, of carrying out a “hybrid war against Armenia”, shortly before Pachinian went to Moscow for the celebrations of 80e Anniversary of victory over Nazism, as part of its efforts to repair the very degraded Armeno-Russian relationship since 2022 and the “strategic reorientation” of Armenia to the West.
The President of the Parliament, who is one of the senior officials of the civil contract, warned Hanrapetyun against the damage to him by Ter-Margarian in the ballot boxes in the next elections if he remained in his post. “It takes courage to assume political responsibility,” said Simonian before journalists by adding: “If they, Tigrane Ter-Margarian, Mr. Sarkisian show this courage, I am sure that this will only bring positive for this pro-European force, to free thought and in love with freedom in the next elections”. Simonian did not, however, specify why Avinian, who is a member of his party, did not believe good to send this too brutal mayor. He challenged speculations according to which the mayor of Erevan and the civil contract had not made him fear of losing control of the capital. He preferred to mention the insurance provided by the leader of Hanrapetyun according to which his party would not turn against the mayor of Yerevan even if Ter-Margarian was dismissed.
Investigators also retained charges of hooliganism against Chakhoyan. The blogger, which has been hospitalized for several days due to injuries suffered during the attack, is prosecuted in connection with another, non -violent incident, which occurred in the headquarters of the administration of Nork on the eve of the attack. Chakhoyan denounced the fact that Ter-Margarian continues to lead the district on Thursday. He considered that the chief of Nork Nork would have already been in prison if he had been a member of an opposition party. Armenian opposition leaders have in the same way condemned the authorities for the impunity they have to date to Ter-Margarian despite the violence he has shown.
