Today, while fulfilling our duties as journalists, we came across the bad behavior of 2 MPs at once. We are talking about Hayk Babukhanyan, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, and Aram Manukyan, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) MP. Hayk Babukhanyan, hearing Aravot’s name for a few times, said that he wouldn’t give an interview to us, didn’t want to answer our questions, didn’t want to comment etc. Today www.aravot.am tried to get the answers to its questions at least during a press conference, but even during the press conference, Babukhanyan stressed before answering questions that Aravot had a bad habit to ask the same questions for a few times etc.
However, after Hayk Babukhanyan’s anti-Aravot speech, Aram Manukyan exceeded him.
These days, after the statements of Suren Sirunyan, the former chief of Vano Siradeghyan’s security, in particular, many questions regarding Aram Manukyan have arisen. In particular, how did he vote on the issue of Vano Siradeghyan’s arrest, nonetheless, was he against Vano Siradeghyan’s becoming the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) leader for the first time, why do different members of the PANM executive committee tell very controversial stories about him etc.?
Read also
After the protest held outside the prosecutor’s office for freeing the ANC activists, we approached Aram Manukyan to get the answers to these questions. He waved to us at a distance, asking us to leave. We explained that we were fulfilling our duties of journalists that we just wanted clarification, in order that there was his clarification in the article too, we didn’t want the article to be one-sided; we tried to ensure plurality etc. However, Aram Manukyan started to walk up and down, saying that he hated our political line, us, what we write, our headings and our articles, “How can I explain to you to leave me alone, don’t approach me, don’t ask me questions, I don’t give any interviews, what headings did your leaders, you write?”
The participants in the protest, forgetting about the protest, were watching the MP walk up and down, the journalist literally run after him and ask to express his opinion, in order that our readers were not under an impression that we published only criticism of Aram Manukyan without listening to him. “For you, Sirunyan is the first side, the second side and the third side. I am not a side for you, leave me alone,” Aram Manukyan said and turned his back on us.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
