“We decided to file a lawsuit in court, in order that officials don’t feel free and know that they are responsible before the law and the Constitution,” Tsovinar Nazaryan, a reporter of the New York Institute of Photography, explained the lawsuit filed by her representatives, Tigran Yegoryan and Lusine Hakobyan, against Tigran Virabyan, the head of the department of agriculture and environment protection, town hall of Ararat, a representative of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the chairman of the commission at no. 17/4 polling place, in the trial court of the regions of Ararat and Vayots Dzor. T. Nazaryan said during a conversation with us that T. Virabyan had addressed her with “I will kill her,” “She is hysterical” phrases on the presidential election day, which had been filmed and uploaded to YouTube. Talking about Mr. Virabyan’s activities, T. Nazaryan stated: “He controls Khosrov Reserve, great riches. He has been dealing with electoral processes for 20 years and has been the head of a department for 10 years. In Ararat, he is an active organizer of elections, certainly, always representing the government. His nephew was also a member of the commission representing the Heritage Party, but from the RPA, his son and friends were S. Sargsyan’s poll-watchers; they would accompany people to and from the polling place. He has a rich experience with rigging elections, which he did on the election day.” Coming back to what had happened in the polling place on February 18, the journalist recollected: “They would continuously pressure observers and me, and wouldn’t allow filming. He twice called the chairman of the polling place commission who took action against us. He ordered S. Sargsyan’s poll-watchers to film us all day long, then when I tried to interview him, he started to make a speech for the whole commission; what’s more, they made a decision that
we had impeded the electoral process. He gave an order against us, and it was sacredly carried out. The commission reminded of the Republican Party’s office; there was no oppositionist whatsoever.” T. Nazaryan informed us that they had filed a civil lawsuit in the court, since the police did not see corpus delicti. The journalist has already received a letter that the case was accepted and the trial date would be set soon. T. Nazaryan said the following about the demand: “We demand that Tigran Virabyan apologize to me and the observer, film it and upload it to YouTube, as compensation for moral damages and pay a million drams.” Assessing the incident, our interlocutor expressed an opinion: “It is caused by the atmosphere created by the Republican Party when members of that party are allowed to do what is in the interests of the RPA, as a result of which they are rewarded with lucrative offices. They continuously play the role of an attendant in electoral processes when they bring people on the election day and collect votes for the Republican Party.” www.aravot.am tried to get clarification from Tigran Virabyan too. However, his office manager would tell us during the whole day that Virabyan was at a consultation. However, we managed to somehow talk with Virabyan himself in the afternoon. However, when he heard that the call was from Aravot Daily and found out about the issue, he hung up, not even hearing us out.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
