Civil society condemns the campaign of hate against Gayane Hakobyan, demands to end it and calls to support her
On May 17, allegations were made that Gayane Hakobyan, co-founder of “Sons’ Call” NGO and mother of 44-Day War martyr Zhora Martirosyan, had kidnapped citizen Ashot Pashinyan.
Those rumors were quickly debunked by the release of a respective video.
Despite this, Gayane Hakobyan has been under arrest for three days already and has begun a hunger strike.
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At the same time, the propaganda machine of those in power has launched a campaign of hate against Gayane Hakobyan and all parents of martyrs actively criticizing authorities.
Some relatively well-known people, as well as anonymous users hiding behind fake social media accounts have taken part in this campaign of hate. This is a common tool of “digital dictatorships.”
The civil society of Armenia urges the media to refrain from spreading hate speech against parents of martyrs and to delete curse words or hate speech from their accounts’ comments section.
This is what the democratic principles of human rights protection, press freedom and journalistic professionalism demand.
We call on the police to find and bring to justice those who have organized and carried out this campaign of hate.
We urge the judge assigned to the case, Zhora Chichoyan, to release Gayane Hakobyan immediately and stop her politically motivated persecution.
We call on the society to unite around Gayane Hakobyan.
The campaign of hate against parents of martyrs is the result of five years of dictatorship in Armenia full of numerous gross violations of human rights, and the civil society of Armenia seeks to put an end to these abuses of the legal system.
Helsinki Committee of Armenia
Eye for an Eye documentary community
Political Armenian club
Security and Democracy NGO
Jaragayt Left Collective
Diplomatic Foundation of Armenia
Kamq public initiative for protection of Armenian values
Truth for the generations initiative
Alternative Projects Group
Sons’ Call NGO
