The Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Tigran Avinyan, avoided of giving a clear-cut response to Aravot.am’s question on the violence to which LGBT community representatives were subjected in Shurnukh in days. Moreover, this is not the sole case. We had asked him in particular, if it was not time for the authorities to express their political position on the defense of the rights of LGBT community, equality before law and discrimination, taken the fact that the revolution bore the ideologies of love and reconciliation and the new Armenia has taken the path of democracy. Avinyan responded: “Honestly speaking, this is very important for the society overall… for example, I would not like to separate any group, inasmuch as if you separately speak about any group, it means their interests are given more importance to than the rest of the groups. This is very important in the framework of the logic of human rights. Violence is unacceptable, any manifestation of violence is unacceptable, towards minorities, priests or foreigners, that is, in totality. And consequently, the law enforcement bodies should pursue this very incident and that case is within the framework of the liabilities of the law enforcement bodies.”
The Deputy Prime Minister did not answer our question directly. That is, he did not say –yes, it is time to express a political position, or – no, it is not time, we are not ready yet, etc. Perhaps the topic is very sensitive and it is the reason why the young official having studied in Europe (he has graduated from Queen Mary University London with excellence in 2014, receiving his Master’s Degree in Finances) avoided and gave a general answer, saying that violence is unacceptable.
In the same press conference, answering to another user’s question, Avinyan said: “The propaganda of hatred is also unacceptable, it brings to violence.”
On why the officials having carried out a revolution by love and reconciliation, who the large part of our public admires and consequently, their words are acceptable to a lot of people, do not still express a position on this oversensitive issue, perhaps they will respond.
However, most likely, the issue is the upcoming elections, eventually, both positive and negative announcement by the authorities on that issue will open doors for speculations. Let us wait for the society to adapt and grow with love and reconciliation.
Nelly BABAYAN
