Female Deputy Mayor Arrested: I Don’t Hear the Voices of NGOs Receiving Grants for Women’s Rights

Former MP from the Prosperous Armenia Party, Naira Zohrabyan, made a Facebook post titled "Where are you, powerful revolutionaries and just as powerful counter-revolutionaries," addressing the arrest of the deputy mayors of Goris.

“When, as the chair of the National Assembly’s permanent commission on human rights protection, I expelled transgender Lilit Martirosyan from the hall, while allowing her to finish her speech and merely polite inform that our hearing agenda was about children’s judicial protection issues, the entire ‘civil society’ attacked me and demanded that I burn and dismember because, 'you see', I am a sexist and did not allow a transgender person to talk about the importance of gender transformation and the public’s tolerance towards this phenomenon during parliamentary hearings on children’s judicial protection rights. Furthermore, European representatives in Armenia also joined the permanently ‘raped’ segment that was funded through grants, who were outraged that after the regulation had finished, I had invited transgender Lilit out of the hall. I turned out to be a sexist and anti-feminist, infringing upon a woman’s rights.

And just a few hours ago, the Goris Municipality arrested the female deputy mayor Irina Yolyan and, as I learned, two other female employees. By the way, Goris Deputy Mayor Menua Hovsepyan was also arrested. And I don’t hear any voice from the NGOs receiving grants for women's rights, who transform that grant into beer in various pubs. At least it’s a noise that the female deputy mayor has been arrested. I also do not hear the powerful voice of the parliamentary opposition, who turned upside down the Levitan expansion and expression, while dividing the posts in the National Assembly. Where are you all, dear revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries? Yes, just don’t forget to say 'Nikol the capitulator' 34 times at today’s session to stay afloat,” she wrote.